Posted on 03/07/2024 6:00:04 PM PST by bitt
A flurry of court filings sets the stage for next week’s legal arguments
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered a hearing next week for legal arguments in the looming trial of Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents — while both sides await her decision on when the trial will be.
Cannon, who held a hearing last week in which lawyers sparred over when to start the trial, told Trump’s lawyers and special counsel Jack Smith’s team to be prepared to spend the whole day in court.
Cannon said she wants to hear arguments on Thursday about Trump’s claims that he is protected from prosecution by the Presidential Records Act and that criminal law involving the mishandling of national security secrets can’t be applied to him as a former president.
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The 1978 Presidential Records Act specifies that presidential records belong to the public and are to be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of a presidency.
Trump has argued the case should be dismissed because he designated the materials he took to Mar-a-Lago while he was still president as personal — and thus was allowed to keep them.
Prosecutors said the materials that he took from the White House are “indisputably presidential, not personal” and even if Trump did designate them as personal, prosecutors said, the PRA would still not apply to classified information.
“Nothing in the PRA leaves it to a President to make unilateral, unreviewable, and perpetually binding decisions to remove presidential records from the White House in a manner that thwarts the operation of the PRA — a statute designed to ensure that presidential records are the property of the United States and that they
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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Must the president follow any specific declassification procedures?
The answer is a resounding no for two reasons. First, Executive Order 13526 on its face contains no such declassification procedures.
The Order sets forth (1) who may declassify information and (2) what standards they should apply, but beyond that, there is no additional process required.
While both individual agencies and the Information and Security Oversight Office have developed additional rules about how declassification should be carried out, none of these procedures apply to the president.
Second, given the president’s constitutional authority over both classified information and the administration of presidential executive orders, even if Executive Order 13526 did establish constraints, they are at most self-constraints that the president has the power to ignore.
Seems clear to me!🤔
Would be great to get a couple of stunning legal victories soon. Here’s hoping.
Apparently, he did declassify, etc. the documents. That said, why would any prez want them? Better question is why did VP Joe want them especially since he doesn’t have the power (?) to declassify anything.
I have argued that I do not believe the procedures or laws they are aiming at Trump apply to the President. Not just him but any President.
The President doesn’t even have to tell anyone that he has declassified any documents.
He could set them on the sidewalk in front of his house!
He is the main classifier/de-classifier!
This is "journalism," folks!
even if Trump did designate them as personal, prosecutors said, the PRA would still not apply to classified information.
“The Act doesn’t say it doesn’t apply, and there is a clear tradition of it not applying.”
What does that mean?🤔
1. The Presidential Records Act doesn’t make any exclusion for classified documents.
2. The Supreme Court has already ruled that it is the President who gets to decide what materials are personal and which ones are not.
I KNOW!!!
How many times must this be explained??
The Justice Department is Fakakta.
A DC Court determined that Bill Clinton converted classified White House documents to Personal Presidential Records simply by the de facto method of taking them with him when he left the White House.
Correct. And Obozo has a warehouse full of documents, yet no one will ever question The One.
EC
Yup.
IIRC: There have been pics of boxes of documents dropped at Mar A Lago from the NATION ARCHIVES-—WHO REFUSED TO ACCEPT THEM FROM TRUMP.
SOOOOOOO—IF NATIONAL ARCHIVES REFUSED DOCUMENTS THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO KEEP SAFE——
NAME ME THE ALTERNATIVE.
JOE HAD DOCUMENTS HE DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO HAVE..
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