> Trump tells Hannity he can declassify documents by just "thinking about it"

Phillip_McCavity wrote:

What are the requirements Phildo? You will need to provide adequate sources for any claims btw.

He could when he was the sitting POTUS. 

Any POTUS can.

wrote:

He could when he was the sitting POTUS. 

Any POTUS can.

If they follow the proper procedure, yes.

Phillip_McCavity wrote:

If they follow the proper procedure, yes.

The POTUS sets the procedure.

So what ever he wants goes.

wrote:

The US Constitution.

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Quote it...   

wrote:

The POTUS sets the procedure.

So what ever he wants goes.

There would be a paper trail -- signatures saying the document was declassified, under what law / order, etc. Also, the classification markings would be removed.

But we don't even need to go that far. John Bolton said no such declassification took place. If the national security advisor says it, that is good enough.

AusCarFancier wrote:

You are so full of shyt. Worse than Trump even.

Why are you drinking the koolaid on this one?

Trump is simply incorrect, and he was caught red handed with classified materials, which are the property of the US government.

We can argue about whether he should be charged, or if what he did was somehow unintentional, or someone else packed the docs thinking they were okay, etc.

But you cannot deny the fact that these materials were found in his house under his watch.


Sandy Berger was put in prison for taking just one classified document and concealing it, as was David Patreus.

JPP.1 wrote:

Quote it...   

"The President shall be Commander in Chief"

He doesn't report to anyone but himself.

wrote:

"The President shall be Commander in Chief"

He doesn't report to anyone but himself.

His oath of office says otherwise.

  Trump's defense here is totally irrelevant...  he's offering a defense for a potential crime that wasn't included on the search warrant:

"The DOJ listed three federal criminal statutes on the search warrant. These statutes include the Espionage Act and prohibitions against the obstruction of justice and the unlawful taking or destroying of government documents.

Imagine that Trump did properly declassify all the documents the FBI found and took from Mar-a-Lago. The legal response would be — so what?  Conviction under any of the three crimes listed in the search warrant does not depend on whether the evidence found is classified."

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His oath of office says otherwise.

No it doesn't.

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And the SCOTUS agrees:

The majority ruling in the 1988 Supreme Court case Department of Navy vs. Egan 

"The President, after all, is the 'Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States'" according to Article II of the Constitution, the court's majority wrote. "His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security  flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant."

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In other words:  The President makes the rules.  Period.

whoop-dee-do!   

the security classification of the documents is still completely irrelevant to the criminal statutes listed on the search warrant.