6 Jun 2023 6:56 pm
Dear Golfboy.golfboy » 06 Jun 2023, 5:01 pm » wrote: ↑ The Presidential Records Act does not lay out a process required to declassify documents.
Trump could declassify anything he wanted, in any way he wanted.
The framework for the classification and declassification of national security information is Executive Order 13526, issued by President Barack Obama in 2009. The order sets forth the criteria for classifying information, the standards for protecting classified information, and the procedures for reviewing and declassifying information.
Moreover, Trump is claiming he declassified the documents he stole 'with his mind'. That might be credible, but he made that claim AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN.
Since, declassification by thought leaves no process of memorialization, there is no way to prove that he did, in fact, declassify documents. Because of that fact, the law will continue to recognize the documents a classified, since he can't make a retrospective claim as a private citizen who is no longer president.
Moreover, several staff, including John Bolton and Bill Barr will testify that he did NOT declassify anything in the documents he stole.
Additionally, there is a new tape in which he is holding a classified document, and telling the people he was talking to that he can't tell them what it contains because it is classified, and the tape was made while he was a private citizen, which proves he did not declassify that document. Well, if he claims he classified all the documents, why is he on tape telling folks he can't tell them what the document contains if he had declassified it? If what he said was true, he could have declassified it right then and there and then released the information. But, he didn't.
However, your implication is moot because Trump will likely be charged with a violation of the Espionage Act, which does not depend on any classification regime.
Now then, is there any other thing you'd like to discuss?