Quote (theCrossbones @ Aug 15 2022 12:36am)
First, a U.S. president does have uniquely sweeping declassification abilities, though there is a process that involves written documentation and several other steps.
It's not the case that a president can declassify documents with just verbal instructions. His instruction to declassify a given document would first be memorialized in a written memo, usually drafted by White House counsel, which he would then sign.
Again, what we're talking about is a plenary power. An absolute. The president is not restricted by formality or process. The president
sets the process. The entire executive branch bureaucracy only exists to formalize the powers held by the president, it cannot restrict the president's powers. The constitution doesn't grant supreme executive power to the bureaucrats appointed by a president, it grants them to the president, and the president may delegate those powers and set their formal policy through those agencies. There is no restriction in the constitution on how such powers are executed, there's nothing about "You didn't say the magic word so it didn't count".
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Though classified information can be taken off the premises in the course of official duties, taking classified documents home is prohibited by executive order.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-classified-national-security-informationOnce a final decision is made, and the relevant agency receives the president's signed memo, the physical document in question would be marked — the old classification level would be crossed out — and the document would then be stamped, "Declassified on X date" by the agency in question.
Former Trump administration officials have claimed that Trump previously declassified the documents taken with him to Mar-a-Lago, but that the classification markings had not been updated.
"The White House counsel failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings, but that doesn't mean the information wasn't declassified," former Trump defense official Kash Patel told Breitbart in May, regarding other material that had earlier been removed from Mar-a-Lago. "I was there with President Trump when he said 'We are declassifying this information.'"
Courts may ultimately have to decide how sweeping a sitting president's declassification powers can be. But U.S. officials familiar with the classification process to date point out that, unless and until the documents are stamped "Declassified" by the requisite agency, and following the submission of a written memo signed by the president, they have historically not been considered declassified.
It is also unclear how central a legal question the classification process and the president's role in it could be. As the New York Times points out, none of the statutes cited in the warrant rely on whether the records were classified or not. The search warrant signed by the Florida magistrate judge entails items "illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. § § 793, 2071, or 1519."
That first code, Section 793, and more commonly known as the Espionage Act, applies to defense information. It applies, for instance, to material illegally removed "from its proper place of custody" or that is lost, stolen or destroyed.
The next statute, Section 2071, bans concealing, removing, mutilating or destroying records filed with U.S. courts. And the final one, Section 1519, prohibits concealing, destroying or mutilating records to obstruct or influence an investigation.
all examples of how this process just doesn't happen magically in a presidents head. nobody know that date/time or document in your theory.,.
They just say it was so.. not according to normal procedure
Lets say this wound up at the supreme court because Merrick Garland is that demented
It would be their easiest case ever
They would be asking whether the judicial branch has jurisdiction to restrict and curtail the constitutional authorities of the executive branch by inserting their own interpretation of what formality and markings and procedure are necessary for executive powers to exist. To which the answer is obvious, no, the courts have no jurisdiction over the internal process of the executive and it would be a clear violation of the separation of powers in the constitution. The court can't say executive orders only count if they're chiseled into a block of marble and erected in the town square, the court can't say the president's plenary powers can't be exercised if there weren't three adult male witnesses to attest he said what he claims he said.
The process of classification is set by the president as a way to exercise his authority, and someone who violates that process has violated the president's authority. If you leak classified documents, its a crime because you're not
authorized. To become authorized, you need to receive permission up the chain of command from people who have power delegated to them by the president, because the president is the ultimate authority from which the rest are derived. So we're still stuck discussing whether a president can be charged with violating his own authority, which is nonsensical.
This post was edited by Goomshill on Aug 14 2022 11:51pm