@CarlosGimenezFL
· 2h
Tee Time With Trump!
Maggie Haberman
@maggieNYT
· 4h
Trump is golfing with Represenative Carlos Gimenez this morning, per person at Bedminster club
Mark R. Levin
@marklevinshow
I see nothing that suggests the Espionage Act of 1917 (since amended several times) was ever intended to apply to a president (which raises very serious constitutional issues) or a former president (the first time the Act has been used against an ex-president is Trump). Indeed, if the intention was to apply it against even an ex-president, and there is no legislative history to suggest such a thing, then wouldn’t all the post-presidential activities of a former president require oversight by the DOJ to ensure that the former president did not violate any aspect of the Act?
After all, a former president has an institutional memory about all kinds of top secret and national security information that could be passed, even accidentally, in the form of a private discussion, etc. How would this even be managed? It is true that a former president is not explicitly exempted from the statute, but the history and practice over the last more than 100 years suggests its inapplicable. This is the ONLY instance in which it was even considered.
Moreover, re the Presidential Records Act, a federal judge in 2012 held in a case involving Bill Clinton, the court has no power to retrieve documents from the former president and the former president has extremely broad authority to retain documents.
5:06 PM · Jun 9, 2023
@CarlosGimenezFL
· 2h
Tee Time With Trump!
Maggie Haberman
@maggieNYT
· 4h
Trump is golfing with Represenative Carlos Gimenez this morning, per person at Bedminster club