Classification is to suit the purposes of the President. He certainly can yield to himself the power to do what he sees fit. The difference is that Hillary Clinton wasn’t ever president. He shows the others that the document exists. He does not show them the contents, and cites the classified status. This is enough to demonstrate that he has decided their existence is declassified, but the contents are not. It doesn’t even matter whether this status corresponds to any status about how OTHER people should handle the documents. The fact that every other president has handled classified documents similarly (Remember Pres. Obama revealing classified information about the raid on bin Laden?) proves that these unenunciated classification statuses exist. In this one instance the law serves the President; the fact he thinks these actions are legal makes them legal. His treading some strange lines about NOT having declassified the documents completely demonstrates that he’s not making this up as he goes, after being president.
This does, however, go to the foolishness of Pres. Trump. His behavior here is at least confusing. That he didn’t use this power to exonerate himself demonstrates he did his job poorly.
Thanks for a reasoned explanation, rather than a personal attack (as is most common in these parts when you go against the grain).
How does Trump defend this?
“TRUMP showed and described a “plan of attack” that
TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a
senior military official. TRUMP told the individuals that the plan was
“highly confidential” and “secret.” TRUMP also said, “as president I could
have declassified it,” and, “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
Or this?
“On May 23, 2022, TRUMP met with Trump Attorney 1 and Trump Attorney 2 at
The Mar-a-Lago Club to discuss the response to the May 11 Subpoena. Trump Attorney 1 and
Trump Attorney 2 told TRUMP that they needed to search for documents that would be responsive
to the subpoena and provide a certification that there had been compliance with the subpoena.
TRUMP, in sum and substance, made the following statements, among others, as memorialized
by Trump Attorney 1:
a. I don’t want anybody looking, I don’t want anybody looking through my
boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes.
b. Well what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play
ball with them?
c. Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?
d. Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?”
He knew the drive-by media, the DOJ, the FBI and Democrats and their sycophants have been searching for any jot or tittle of wrongdoing for more than 6 years and he handed it to them on a silver platter with all the fixings.
“Everybody else does this and got off Scot free” is not a legal defense. Neither is “everybody is out to get me”. “I haven’t done anything wrong” is delusional.