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"DOJ has one big problem with its Trump criminal case, legal expert says"
28 Jun 2023 8:33 pm
Judge Jackson says you're wrong.jerrab » 28 Jun 2023, 5:25 pm » wrote: ↑ ------------------------------------------------------------------
https://apnews.com/article/trump-indict ... 52638daebf
Here are the facts.CLAIM: The Presidential Records Act gives a president the right to take any record when leaving office and declare them personal.THE FACTS: That’s a flagrant misreading of the law, legal experts say.The law, which took effect in 1981, requires the preservation of White House documents as property of the U.S. government.Jason R. Baron, a former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, said that the notion that a president could declare any record as personal goes against the “very reason” the law was created. NARA is the federal record-keeper and the agency that repeatedly sought the documents kept by Trump.Congress passed the act in 1978 in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, when a collection of secret tapes that President Richard Nixon had considered destroying played a defining role.
“Since the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of Presidential records during his time in office, it would be difficult for this Court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal records”
This was also the position of the Obama Justice Department.
It only changed now, for Trump.