He didn’t declassify these documents. They and marked classified. On January 20, 2020, he lost his power to declassify anything. If he is charged someday and wants to claim he declassified the documents, he can mitigate that. De-Classification is not like double secret probation.
. Here is a better way to understand a legal opinion. Not someone quoting dicta from an opinion, but the actual opinion. FindLaw's United States Supreme Court case and opinions. Eagan involved the statutory authority of a board to grant or refuse s security clearance despite contrary to the President’s decision. Ultimately, the language you referenced said that the president has the ultimate authority as to who gets a security clearance. Eagan did not address the authority of a president to declassify information where Congress passed a statute requiring an agency to be involved in that decision. But this is all academic. The documents were never declassified
Trump will use his “belief” that he could declassify the documents as his defense to show the lack of requisite intent.
It’s hilarious to see people like you twist yourself in knots trying to protect the lying megalomaniac. First it was a witch hunt and nothing was there. When it came out documents were in fact there then it was that the FBI planted it. When that fell apart the documents that didn’t previously exist were suddenly declassified despite Trump not having the power to do it after leaving office and didn’t do so while in office. My question is, at what level does your self respect kick in?
That you focus on declassification proves you have completely missed the point of this crisis (yet another in the reign of Trump). Thus, my earlier question. This post gives me a general idea, though.
The President has very strong declassification powers. But the process needs to be followed. And as this link explains: "Merely proclaiming a document or group of documents declassified and doing nothing more would not suffice," Bradley Moss, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who works on national security cases, told PolitiFact. Follow-through is required. "He had to identify the specific documents he was declassifying, he needed to memorialize the order in writing for bureaucratic and historical purposes, and he needed to have staff physically modify the classification markings on the documents themselves," Moss said. "Until that was done, the documents, per the security classification procedures, still have to be handled, transmitted and stored as if they were classified." If there is no declassification order on record, and the documents were still marked as classified, then the documents need to be treated as such. With no declassified mark on a document, there is no way to know it has been declassified. Trump also lost the power to declassify when Biden became President. Trump has no power to retroactively declassify. And as far as we know, there is no mass order to declassify the docs procured by the FBI. No memorialization of declassification, no declassification markings, and the docs are still classified. Last, not even the President can declassify documents about nuclear weapons. These documents are the highest level of classified, which is SCI, or Sensitive Compartmented Information. There was at least one box the FBI procured from Mar a Lago marked SCI. This box alone is likely why the Espionage Act was used as part of the warrant. And in total, the FBI secured 11 classified packets.
Sadly a lot of these MAGA rubes lack self-respect, that's why they have no problem consistently making fools of themselves going to bat for this lowlife. It's sad seeing what I'm sure were once rationally-minded people be reduced to this.
Nah, he can classify or declassify at will... is self explanatory. Here's something interesting...oops... Paul Sperry | FBI agents who raided Trump under criminal investigation by John Durham…
Who gave her permission? Never recall it being documented as secure. Last SOS that did it was Colin Powell long before digital communications were so frequent and highly compromised
This is a fishing expedition... Nothing more. By two dirty cops/ FBI agents. Who is the criminal here? Paul Sperry | FBI agents who raided Trump under criminal investigation by John Durham…
Process? Lol... under who's authority is he under to report it to? No one's authority... but his own.
There is a process whether you like it or not. There has to be some produced evidence (that's a process, isn't it?) that he declassified a document besides just his present spoken word, which everyone knows is completely worthless anyway. No ex-president, not even an orange god, can just say "I declassified it" without some evidence that he did so.