The word “presidential” right there in the act’s title is sort of a big clue.
Andrew McCarthy is a never-Trumper so we should expect nothing less from him.
President Johnson turned to the young man and said, “Son, they're all my helicopters.”
McCarthy hates Trump, and always has. And he ALWAYS sides with his precious DOJ.
If they really find Trump guilty, and attempt to imprison him, Very Bad things will happen.
Interesting perspective. Of course, the counter argument will be that since the president is responsible for all of the executive branch, ALL records produced by the Executive branch are presidential records. However, I think the PRA does specify what are considered presidential records.
Has anyone proven actual harm committed by President Trump as regards his alleged violations of the Presidential Records Act or the Espionage Act ?? Does the Espionage Act even apply to a ex President of the United States ?
Are classified documents defacto declassified by a President or ex President when he has possession of them ? I would argue that they must be since a President does not have a Security Clearance and therefore the documents must be considered declassified when he has possession of them. Ex Presidents can also view classified materials without a Security Clearance if they have a need to know. Was Trump ever notified that he no longer had a need to know regarding the materials in his possession ?
Trump was the Chief Executive Officer of every Executive agency.
Trump retained printed documents.
Every document Trump retained has a permanent electronic copy, under the permanent supervision of the Executive Branch of government.
EVERY classified document in the Executive Branch of government involves the duties of the President.
National Review= Lincoln Project NEVER Trumpers
Tragically, on the issue of Trump, Andrew McCarthy has become a center-left RINO.
Ahhh....the Whiner Review strikes, again.
LOL.
“national defense — mainly, classified intelligence reporting generated by U.S. spy agencies“
I keep seeing people claim this is fact. Yet, not even Trump legal team has been allowed a synopsis of the in question documents. Therefore, until I see at least a synopsis of said documents, and evidence he was gaining financially from them, I am calling this “horse hockey”.
In fact, I suggest that since Trump has a right to such documents by the Presidential record act, and they were locked up with secret service nearby, not like a sock drawer or furniture warehouse in Chicago, without an exchange to outside entities or profit, i suspect that it’s garbage.
Unfortunately, Trump has COMPLETELY misrepresented what the Presidential Records Act says.
It makes it clear that the government retains all ownership of “Presidential Records.”
An ex-President can retain ownership of “Personal Records” but little qualifies as Personal Records.
Read it for yourself:
https://www.archives.gov/about/laws/presidential-records.html
The term “Presidential records” means documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, created or received by the President, the President’s immediate staff, or a unit or individual of the Executive Office of the President whose function is to advise or assist the President, in the course of conducting activities which relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President. Such term—
(A) includes any documentary materials relating to the political activities of the President or members of the President’s staff, but only if such activities relate to or have a direct effect upon the carrying out of constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President; but
(B) does not include any documentary materials that are (i) official records of an agency (as defined in section 552(e) of title 5, United States Code; (ii) personal records; (iii) stocks of publications and stationery; or (iv) extra copies of documents produced only for convenience of reference, when such copies are clearly so identified.
****Ownership of Presidential records****
The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records; and such records shall be administered in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
Upon the conclusion of a President’s term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term, the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President. The Archivist shall have an affirmative duty to make such records available to the public as rapidly and completely as possible consistent with the provisions of this chapter.
_______
The term “personal records” means all documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, of a purely private or nonpublic character which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President. Such term includes—
(A) diaries, journals, or other personal notes serving as the functional equivalent of a diary or journal which are not prepared or utilized for, or circulated or communicated in the course of, transacting Government business;
(B) materials relating to private political associations, and having no relation to or direct effect upon the carrying out of constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President; and
(C) materials relating exclusively to the President’s own election to the office of the Presidency; and materials directly relating to the election of a particular individual or individuals to Federal, State, or local office, which have no relation to or direct effect upon the carrying out of constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.
If a copy was given to Trump while President arent those copies part of documents/records he had as president?
Yeahhhhh..... the lawyers who don’t like Trump have shown up with their usual anti Trump stupidity.
This idiocy is just like every other Trump take down effort. In other words, a bunch of retarded monkeys playing with spaghetti & calling it “the law.”
Should be renamed the National Liberal Review.
Andrew McCarthy has been really busy lately. Him and Turley must be on Fox/Murdoch/Dominion overtime.
President Trump exposes another Swamp POS here in Andrew McCarthy.
ALL “government” records are presidential records. This is garbage from TDS sufferer McCarthey.
“Agency records are not presidential records” is beside the point.
The two types of records are not mutually exclusive regarding content, at least. A document (including a copy) in the hands of the President, sent or given to him to assist in performing presidential duties, is a presidential record under the PRA. The corresponding original, or another copy, in the hands of an agency, is (or can be) an agency record.
The PRA definition of a presidential record (in 44 USC 2201(2)(B)) states that “official records of an agency as defined in 5 USC 552(e)” [now 552(f) as McCarthy notes] are not presidential records.
But the definition in 5 USC 552(f) effectively just states that any information held by the agency, or held by a record management contractor for the agency, that is public (i.e., subject to production to the public), is an agency record.
From 5 USC 552(f): “For purposes of this section, the term— . . . ‘record’ and any other term used in this section in reference to information includes— (A) any information that would be an agency record subject to the requirements of this section when maintained by an agency in any format and (B) any information described under subparagraph (A) that is maintained for an agency by an entity under Government contract, for the purposes of records management.” (Note that “official” is not defined.)
So, saying that agency records are not presidential records is just saying that publicly producible records held by agencies are not presidential records. True. So what? A copy or compilation held by the President *is* a presidential record, if provided to the President to facilitate or assist in presidential duties. The exclusion of “agency records” in the PRA definition just allows the National Archives to avoid having to vacuum up and preserve the publicly accessible records of the entire executive branch as “presidential records.”
In legal writing courses, they teach you never to use the word “obviously” because it red-flags whatever follows as *not* obvious (or not well-supported, or even not true).
McCarthy uses “patently” — a fancier word, but it means the same.
“Patently,” he says, “intelligence reports compiled by the Defense Intelligence Agency, CIA, NSA, FBI, and other U.S. national-security agencies are agency records.”
Really? (No.)
First, if documents are compiled for the President, or even just sent to him to help him carry out his duties, those compiled or sent become presidential records under the PRA.
Second, since 5 USC 552 applies to public information held by agencies, it excludes classified materials (a category generally encompassing intelligence reports) from “agency records” as defined in 5 USC 552(f). See 5 USC 552(b), which contains a long list of exceptions to public records provisions in 5 USC 552, including “matters that are—(1)(A) specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and (B) are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive order.” Thus the term “agency records” as defined in 5 USC 552(f) does not include (classified) intelligence reports — exactly contrary to what McCarthy says is “patently” true.
McCarthy also pretends the basis of the above rules, and the significance of the controversy, is about agencies having access to “their own records” to facilitate adequate oversight by Congress.
But there is no assertion that Trump has prevented any agency having access to “its own records.” Just the National Archives having access to “presidential records” under the PRA, a civil matter.
“Why PRA does not apply - “Agency records are not presidential records.”
All agencies operate under the president...or do they? Ask the question, where does the national intelligence agencies lie in the three tier government system.