Posted on 08/15/2022 12:34:28 PM PDT by knighthawk
I wouldn't think so. Any document seized by the government and which had been declassified by Trump should be available to anyone with a Freedom of Information Act application.
Trump should have chosen 10 of the most informed Freepers to be on his staff, or at least to have advised him on his appointments. We could have told him about Bolton and, espcially, Deputy AG Rosenstein, if Trump had only asked.
It is likely a tradition that the order is in writing, but from the purely legal aspect I would think that the President's authority is such that he can just say the order.
That is similar conceptually to an order made by a judge. While normally orders are written, and filed by clerks, a judge's verbal order from the bench has exactly the same legal weight as the same order in writing.
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