According to Brett Baier on Fox, Trump cannot just “wave a wand” and declare papers declassified but there is a process that has to be followed with a paper trail.
So who is right?
NOT Bret Baier.
The process is waving the wand.
It has to be done while he still holds the title, not post-presidency.
Just use your brain. If the President wants to nuke Russia if the Russian President of Ukraine goes into Ukraine that could be classified as Top secret. If he goes to a summit with Russia, talks to The Russian President it makes no sense that he would have to ask anyone below him if he can divulge that info it’s the Presidents strategy.
De-classifying a document for regular people typically means that the original classifying authority (i.e. the people that declared it classified int he first place) have to say it's no longer classified. But the President is above all of them so normal policies doesn't apply to him. He can do as he wishes and nobody below him can constrain him with a policy that they wrote.
One thing I've noted in recent years is the propensity to overclassify things. By that I mean if you read the security classification guidance associated with a thing it will tell you what is and isn't classified but it you look at documents you will see many that clearly aren't classified (per the guidance) marked as classified anyway. I tend to think it's to keep them from being subjected to FOIA or something and it's a problem because it really hinders the ability for people to share information. But if you want to get that document properly marked as unclass you need to get the originating authority to agree to it, which is a pain in the rump and they usually won't bother anyway. Nobody wants to stick their neck out in government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Baier
“Baier then attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, graduating in 1992 with a BA degree in political science and English.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kash_Patel
“After graduating from law school, Patel worked as a public defender in Florida for eight years, first in the Miami-Dade County public defender’s office and later as a federal public defender. As a public defender he represented clients charged with felonies including international drug trafficking, murder, firearms violations, and bulk cash smuggling.
In 2014, Patel was hired as a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice National Security Division, where he simultaneously served as a legal liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command.
During this period he was embedded with a special mission unit at a “secure facility” and, in 2015, received a commendation from the Central Intelligence Agency. In 2017, Patel was appointed senior counsel on counterterrorism at the House Select Committee on Intelligence.”
So which one do you think has a better handle on the law, Brett Baier or Kash Patel?
This is TERRIBLE.
The President didn’t follow the PROCEDURE. Oh Noes!!
Drag him away in chains, we must never allow our President to engage in sloppy procedures!
Heavens to betsy, Oh Noes!!
“According to Brett Baier on Fox, Trump cannot just “wave a wand” and declare papers declassified but there is a process that has to be followed with a paper trail.”
Well then Brett, please tell us what the procedure is for a sitting President.
I think the botox is starting to rot out Brett Baier’s brain and he’s starting to resemble a lizard person with all the work he’s done to his face.
So who is right?
The short answer is Brett Baier is wrong. The whole system of classified information is wholly under the control of the President through Executive Order.
A slightly longer answer is that while Baier is correct that there is a process for declassification, the "process" for declassification is a paperwork exercise of updating classification markings and documenting the declassification decision to reflect reality. If there's a presidential decree for declassification, that is wholly the president's call. The deep state often would slow walk these decisions to frustrate Trump, and likely they'd claim that until the deep state says it's declassified, it's not declassified (which is facturally incorrect but technically more of a "we have to do the paperwork to make sure because it's better to be safe than sorry.").
However... declassified doesn't necessarily mean the material that was classified is now totally available for the public to read though because FOIA does follow a more convoluted process and is not wholly the purview of the President.
Baier is talking out his leftist ass. He suffers from TDS. He has zero credibility and proves that every time he is on TV. He needs to go by the way of Chris Wallace.
According to Brett Baier on Fox, Trump cannot just “wave a wand” and declare papers declassified but there is a process that has to be followed with a paper trail.
So who is right?
*********
Unlikely that a publicly announced declassification can be rendered void just because a lower level employee, either by negligence or malevolence, does not transmit a form or check the proper box.
I was listening to Never-Trumper Rich Lowry's National Review podcast driving home from work today and even he, and his fellow podcast hosts, concede that there are no set-in-stone procedures for how a president must declassify documents and that in doing so would make the president answerable to a higher authority in regards to declassifying documents.
The president can, quite clearly, wave a wand.
Now, if it is decided that this power needs to be restrained and allowed only after certain procedures are followed, this would require congress to pass a law.
Congress has not passed such a law.
All the hosts pretty much conceded that if President Trump said he declassified all of those documents, then he did exactly that.
And these folks ARE NOT fans of President Trump.
According to Brett Baier on Fox, Trump cannot just “wave a wand” and declare papers declassified but there is a process that has to be followed with a paper trail.
Art. 2: "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America."
Congress cannot pass a law limiting the power given to the President by the Constitution. Lower executives cannot create a process limiting the constitutional authority of the Presdent.
Who is empowered to create a process telling the President what hoops he must jump through to exercise his constitutional power? ALL executive power, including classification authority, is vested in the President. Powers exercised by lower authorities are derived from delegation of power by the President. The President is the highest authority on classifying and declassifying, not some executive committee exercising powers derived from the President.
Brett Baier is a communist POS who should have the shit kicked out of
Him.
He can say it’s declassified and it immediately is. But then a whole bunch of ppl/agencies have to sign off on it to make it “official.” The papers were pry related to the FBI shenanigans surrounding Russiagate and Jan. 6th so of course they’ll never get around to officially declassifying them. In fact, they want them destroyed so they can’t be exposed. So technically Kash is correct. And I’d believe him before I’d believe anything coming out of Bret Baier’s mouth.