(08-12-2022 06:55 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(08-11-2022 04:13 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(08-11-2022 03:43 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(08-11-2022 03:33 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(08-11-2022 02:11 PM)JMUDunk Wrote:  Lol
“Moderate*” Merrick just mailed it in.

They got nothin.
Whataputtz.

(08-11-2022 03:19 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  Not really what I was saying...yes, presidents can declassify anything they want. I was referring to several folks I've heard that have said that he can't have anything that is classified because he already declassified it. He has to, as president, actually declassify it...he can't just say now, after the fact...well, I declassified that back on August 3rd, 2020.

https://www.grid.news/story/politics/202...sensitive/

Dear idiots, I'm gonna say this once.

A president is the top of the classifier/declassifiers. Noone overrides him.

A president can declassify something in several ways:

1. He can wave that magic wand he shoved up Obamas ass and declareth the documents are declassified.

2. He can do the same step as number 1, without the wand that was shoved up Obamas ass.

3. He can write a letter stating so.

4. He can imagine it in his head.

5. He can take documents with him to a non secure place, where they are auto-declassified by his actions.

Get the point yet, skippy?

Get this point yet, troll?

Quote:Just to clarify, because there seems to be some confusion about this: Can a former president declassify records after leaving office?

Quite frankly, there’s a little bit of confusion even as to what authority an incumbent president has. I’ve seen it referenced in some quarters that presidents have unilateral authority to declassify information at will or even at whim. That’s not even accurate.

There is some classified information that is classified not necessarily pursuant to the President’s Article Two constitutional authority as commander in chief and chief official responsible for foreign relations. And the most notable example of that would be information relating to nuclear weapons, atomic energy — that information is protected by virtue of statute. There is other information that’s protected by virtue of statute, for example, the identity of covert U.S. intelligence operatives. That sort of information and other sensitive intelligence sources and methods are protected pursuant to law, not necessarily protected pursuant to the president’s unilateral classification authority. And likewise, there’s some information that we receive from foreign governments that is protected pursuant to international treaty or bilateral treaties, that likewise carry the force of law.

So even an incumbent president does not have total, unfettered authority to declare information unclassified at will. Certainly, a former president has no authority to declassify any sort of information.

What the government’s former top classified records overseer sees in the Mar-a-Lago search

I believe there's also procedures for marking documents as such, etc. I guess we'll see how many laws the don followed here...I'm guessing very few.

All of the documents were taken by Trump while he was president. He didnt hang around the whitehouse after crappy pants became president and then decided to throw another 17 boxes into his uhaul.

So? He still had to actually declassify them while he was president. And fairly certain most all of them would then need the proper markings to indicate them as now declassified. Otherwise, how would anyone ever know what is now declassified and what is still classified...not like you can just go ask trump every time you have a question. Not to mention, these docs belong to the government, not trump. And depending on what they were, some stuff would require notifications to the DOD. Especially if he "declassified" docs related to other countries, nuclear weapons issues, etc. Those are subject to a whole other set of guidelines on how they're handled. None of which would be just to store them in something like a moving box in a house where people from all over the world frequent!