Posted on 09/22/2022 6:39:50 PM PDT by GulliverSwift
Presidents can declassify documents on a whim, even just by "thinking about it," former President Donald Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
Trump appeared on Hannity's show to discuss the ongoing federal investigation into classified documents found in Trump's Mar-a-Lago home during an FBI raid.
"Is there a process? What was your process to declassify?" Hannity asked.
"There doesn't have to be a process, as I understand it," Trump responded. "You know, different people say different things, but as I understand it 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," he added. "There doesn't have to be a process. There can be a process, but there doesn't have to be. You're the president, you make that decision…I declassified everything."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
As soon as Trump decided to take the documents home they were ‘declassified’. That act alone defined the process.
It’s the same as if Trump had used a ‘classified’ statistic in a speech. The act of speaking the statistic by a President means it’s declassified.
Senator Patrick Leaky Leahy excrement-canned a multi-billion-dollar top secret satellite program by disclosing its existence in a public forum, with zero consequences.
If he reveals them...they are declassified. I believe Bob Woodward taped the 24 letters that Kim sent to Trump as Trump read them.
Did you ever think that maybe President Trump said this to drive the liberals berserk? Besides, the FBI, DOJ, Democrats, and Rinos have been busy these past 7 years thinking of ways to f*ck Trump.
That’s the truth which the Trump Destruction Machine out there isn’t interested in.
Exactly! This stuff has never come up before…because no POTUS has ever been questioned and hounded as much as Trump!
Forget it. It's over their heads.
This is true as confirmed by Mark Levin:
2. The former president has the legal right to access any and all of the documents created during his presidency, classified or otherwise. Moreover, the second before he left office, by his very actions alone in taking the documents, it can be said that he declassified them.— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) August 26, 2022
3. This was discussed at length in 2017 when he handed classified information to the Russian foreign minister. The former president cannot be charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for this reason and more, including Article II Sec 1 of the Constitution.— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) August 26, 2022
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Judge Amy Berman Jackson saying that a former President has complete and sole authority, posited this:
“THE COURT: How can I make that decision without the information that would really only be in the [P]resident’s head, what they were created and utilized for?”
She was saying he was the authority, and said it would be improper to even ask a former President to return them.
The National Achives did not disagree, when it was Bill Clinton.
The National Archives lost 4 years of material for the Secretary of State’s office ( Hillary) and again, they said they needed to treat that situation diplomaticly. Why is that? Why no raids?
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If Obama isn't prosecuted, then they can't prosecute Trump.
“A POTUS is the ultimate classification authority. Whatever he deems classified, is classified. Whatever he deems to the contrary, is so. He is the plenary originator of the classification system.
No authority is above POTUS on this matter.”
I know quite a few DoD types (and other agencies, but mostly DoD) who cannot wrap their heads around this no matter what. Usually Enlisted. They are convinced that there is someone or some board ABOVE him that he would answer to on these matters. Who would that be, how would that work and who has ever seen it? Hint: It does NOT exist. I don’t know how they deduce this from their training but Trump is absolutely correct. As POTUS, regarding classification and declassification issues, he answers to NO ONE.
Trump is right. Again. As usual.
Please provide a relevant controlling citation which supports this contention. Actually, as an attorney since 1991, I can help you. There is no legal authority.
Your #18 was right on.
By making this statement on Fox News we will probably soon hear what their opinions about it are.
Trump is undoubtedly quite aware that by making the statement every pundit from Katy Perry to the two you mentioned will be discussing it.
I remember Trump telling people to declassify the russiagate stuff. And the DOJ and FBI dragged their feet. I bet they said some of those docs are still classified even though Trump told them to declassify it. So is it Trump’s job to do the process or the gov’t workers? If so the gov’t workers should be tried for not doing their job. It’s also illegal to use security classifications as a cover up to crimes.
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In fact the ruling by Berman Jackson, the precedent - states that Trump (a President) only had to deem the records personal records, and the Courts, the archives, no one can question it. It is in his complete and sole discretion.
The ruling reads like it’s preposterous to question a President’s classification of records.
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You do not have a clue as to what you are talking about., Gulliver none to swift.
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