Schiff: Trump Thinking He Can Declassify Without a Process Shows How Dangerous He Is

Breitbart ^ | 09/25/2022 | Pam Key

[ChicagoConservative27]

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump claiming a president can declassify information by thinking about it showed how dangerous he is to the national security of the United States.

Last week on Fox News, Trump said, “There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it. You know, there’s different people who say different things. As I understand, there doesn’t have to be. If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified.’ Even by thinking about it.

[Sarah Barracuda]

Schiff needs to explain why he went to Ed Bucks apartment so many times

[Carriage Hill]

LOL.

[Carriage Hill]

LOL.

[Paal Gulli]

Citing the President’s constitutional role as Commander-in-Chief, the Supreme Court has repeatedly stated in dicta that “[the President’s] authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security ... flows primarily from this Constitutional investment of power in the President and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/rs/rs21900/17

In other words, the power of POTUS to classify or declassify information is absolute, limitless and inviolable.

[Paal Gulli]

It also bears mention that James Earl “Peanuthead” Carter unilaterally and over the objections of the Joint Chiefs and heads of the Intelligence services declassified the existence of a US spy satellite program (specifically “satellite photoreconnaissance”) and used that information for his own personal aggrandizement in a re-election speech when campaigning against Ronaldus Magnus on October 1, 1978.

And no one at the time questioned his authority to do so.

[Captain Jack Aubrey]

Process? What process? This is made up. The president can declassify any document and no government official can stop him. Schiff is such a liar. Everything he says. And the democrat media eat it up.

[deport]

A LITTLE DAB WILL HELP

[logi_cal869]

https://twitter.com/jacob_patricia/status/1475183560306962455

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/20-5270/20-5270-2021-06-04.html

https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/30745/can-members-of-the-us-congress-lie-during-debate-without-penalty

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-6/clause-1/speech-and-debate-privilege

[Louis Foxwell]

Obama said his library will contain no documents. All of his papers are in a private storage locker somewhere, unavailable forever.

[Steve_Seattle]

There is ZERO evidence that these boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago damaged national security in any way or were even likely to in the future, whereas Biden’s policies actually damage national security in many ways: facilitating the flow of dangerous drugs into the USA; aiding and abetting human trafficking; facilitating the arrival of terrorists into the USA; and aiding China on many fronts, from allowing purchases of land and businesses to educating tens of thousands of Chinese in our technology.

[InterceptPoint]

If there is a process dictated by a law passed by Congress, can Schiff cite it for us.
+++++
Be careful with that one.

While I can’t cite the law it is certain there is one. And for absolute certainty there is a standard process for declassifying documents. Trump wasn’t required to finish that process but it seems to me that he did need to initiate it beyond just thinking about it or talking to himself in the shower.

A paper trail would be best. Witnesses would be second best. If he did neither they can give him a lot of trouble. They could do so for Hillary and Obama as well but we know they won’t. This was all so unnecessary. Trump should have seen this coming.

[hanamizu]

And for absolute certainty there is a standard process for declassifying documents.... They could do so for Hillary and Obama as well ...Trump should have seen this coming.

---

Not having ever had access to classified materials, I would assume that the process of declassifying involves a decision by someone superior to the one seeking declassification. Who would that be in the case of the President? Remember, Trump did not attend FJB’s inauguration, but left D.C. the day before. He was still President when he arrived at Mar A Lago.

Hillary, while top dog (or would that be bitch?) at the State Department still did not have the power to unilaterally declassify anything, especially after she left office.

As for seeing it coming, President Trump was impeached the first time for what he allegedly said in a phone call as reported by an underling, and the second time for, what exactly? Not stopping people who were let into the Capitol by security holding the doors open for them? Trump was unprecedented since at least the time of Jackson, but Jackson made sure that everyone employed by him was loyal to him, “to the victor belongs the spoils”. The opposition to Trump from within his own government and party was unprecedented and is still going on as I type this.

[dljordan]

Is this the same Schiff whose ancestor funded the Bolshevik Revolution?

[StAnDeliver]

Schiff attempted to organize an internal coup to become Minority Leader in the 118th GOP Congress earlier this year. Nancy was not pleased, so much so she had the Washington Post deliver the smackdown.

[OldMissileer]

Yeah! Nothing should be declassified! Schiff should leak it instead!!!

When the Dems had those closed-door classified meetings in the Capitol basement Shiff-for-brains would walk out the door and right to a podium with a bunch of the Leftist Media already waiting. He would then disclose classified information directly from the meeting without any repercussions.

The real problem is he is a Felon for doing that as only the President of the United States has the constitutional authority to do what Shiff did.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

One of these days Schiff's bug eyes will pop right out of his apoplectic face and the dogs will eat them before they can be retrieved.

In which case maybe Lori Lightfoot can lend him one of hers.

[lurk]

We need to see proof that the Carters, Reagan’s, Bushes and Clintons declassed their docs.

[mikey_hates_everything]

Clinton also declassified the NRO’s existence, which was a huge relief. What a PITA trying to maintain the security and a cover story for that place when everyone already knew about it.

[Steven W.]

Hillary was never president - she had no ability to declassify the TOP SECRET + SAP (Special Access Program) docs she put up for sale on her server.

[InterceptPoint]

I agree with almost everything you posted.

But I have a lot of personal experience with handling classified material. In simple terms the declassification starts with the President. So far so good. The request to document that decision is forwarded to the agency (CIA, FBI, NSA, DOD …) who issued the original classification. Typically the issuing agency replies with a list of recommended redactions. If the President approves of the redaction the declassification process is complete, all paper copies are stamped with an UNCLASSIFIED or a DECLASSIFIED stamp, classification markings are struck out and then signed by someone with the authority and dated.

If the President does not agree with the redactions he submits a redacted version that would be acceptable. So it is a negotiation. But, in the end, the President can dictate the final version - AS LONG AS HE IS STILL PRESIDENT.

Trump’s problems: He is no longer President and it is not clear as to whether there is any actual proof that this process was initiated in all cases. We do have proof, I believe, that it was initiated in at least some cases.

And the overriding question that the lawyers should be able to answer: At what point in this cycle is the document actually declassified, at the wave of the hand stage (we hope) or at the completion of the process.