Donald Trump is above the law. Deal with it, America. Admit it. Here's how we prove it

Too true

Law enforcement agencies are warning of “an increase in threats and acts of violence” directed at FBI personnel after agents executed a search warrant of former President Donald Trump’s home.

 Bill_J wrote:

 steeler wrote:

That pot of spaghetti wasn't ready to throw against the wall yet.

If Trump had declassified these documents — or at least thought he had done so — why did neither he or his attorneys disclose that to the DOJ during the long months of “negotiating” over whether he was holding documents that needed to be returned? (I know that even if they were declassified, they still might have to be returned to Archives, but the furor over his possessing sensitive records easily could have been avoided).

Well that's one hot minute:

It's hard to keep track of but... here you go...in 60 seconds, I sum up all of the ongoing Trump criminal and civil cases and where he is in legal danger... start the clock! 😉#minuterantpic.twitter.com/a4VXX8tFuC

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 15, 2022

< async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">

 rgio wrote:

I've read that he pushed for that bill with Hillary in mind...

 R_P wrote:
Under you just can't make this shit up... Trump signed a bill in 2018 that turned mishandling of classified information into a felony (from a misdemeanor) and increased the penalties from 1 year to 5 years.  

Good luck applying for another job if found guilty.

 kcar wrote:
Regulations and decorum are for losers.

grifters gonna grift

Some excerpts for those without access to the article:

Glenn S. Gerstell, the top lawyer for the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, pronounced the idea that whatever Mr. Trump happened to take upstairs each evening automatically became declassified — without logging what it was and notifying the agencies that used that information — “preposterous.”

The claim is also irrelevant to Mr. Trump’s potential troubles over the document matter, because none of the three criminal laws cited in a search warrant as the basis of the investigation depend on whether documents contain classified information.

...

Are there formal procedures for declassifying information?

Yes. The 2009 executive order directs the head of the department or agency that originally deemed information classified to oversee declassification reviews, and it sets some standards for them.

The executive branch has regulationslaying out the process that should be followed, such as a requirement to make sure that other agencies and departments with an interest in the secret are consulted. There are also procedures for the removal of classification markings on documents.

...

Do presidents have to obey the usual procedures?

There is no Supreme Court precedent definitively answering that question.

...

Can a president secretly declassify information without leaving a written record or telling anyone?

That question, according to specialists in the law of government secrecy, is borderline incoherent.

If there is no directive memorializing a decision to declassify information and conveying it to the rest of the government, the action would essentially have no consequence, as departments and agencies would continue to consider that information classified and so would continue to restrict access to documents containing it.

“Hypothetical questions like ‘What if a president thinks to himself that something is declassified? Does that change its status?’ are so speculative that their practical meaning is negligible,” said Steven Aftergood, a secrecy specialist with the Federation of American Scientists.

He added: “It’s a logical mess. The system is not meant to be deployed in such an arbitrary fashion.”

The Gray Lady does a deep dive into the federal government's security classification system.


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/0...

Presidential Power to Declassify Information, Explained

While it is legally irrelevant, former President Donald J. Trump claims he had declassified the top secret files the F.B.I. seized at his Florida residence.

 VV wrote:
He had been given a shopping list, not a syllabus.  

Armed Trump supporters protest outside of FBI office in Phoenix

What’s funny is that for a guy that doesn’t read… he certainly made off with a lot of reading material. 

 kurtster wrote:
Facts remain to be seen/revealed.

So I guess we're in the end game now.

 steeler wrote:
In a news bit this morning I heard that the remaining documents were supposed to have been declassified by him, but there was no paperwork to back up that claim.

NY Times is reporting that a Trump lawyer sent a letter to DOJ in June stating that there were no more classified documents at MAL. That may explain why Trump yesterday stated that all of the documents had been declassified by him — to be consistent with that documented statement, Whether Trump actually did declassify the documents seized at MAL pursuant to the warrant before leaving the White House remains to be seen. The seized documents were marked as classified. 

Apropos: Don’t believe what you see and hear. 

And so it continues to go . . .

Trump lawyer claimed no classified material was at Mar-a-Lago in signed letter to Justice Department