Mar-a-Lago raided
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@Renauda said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Yes, but the discussion is about the Chief Executive not others in or below his office.
Perhaps you do not understand the question.
Let me put to you more simply: Show us where it explicitly states the POTUS can declassify T.S. documents without telling anyone or leaving any sort of paper trail. I suggest you cannot.
Show us explicitly where he cannot.
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@jon-nyc said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Trump’s current argument seems untenable. If no documentation were required that would give any former POTUS the ability to declassify things for the rest of his life.
Obama could publish the detailed schematics of the Virginia class nuclear fast attack submarines and say “oh, I declassified these in 2007”
Nope, it only gives POTUS the ability to declassify things while he is in office.
As an example...President John Doe is sitting at the Resolute Desk and a widget-expert professor without a TS clearance is brought in to brief the President. The President reaches onto the desk and hands the prof a TS document on a heretofore unknown widget created by DARPA, and asks him to comment.
By his actions, the President has just declassified that document.
I think a lot of this boils down as to when Trump did or did not declassify the documents. I also think it makes a difference what documents they are.
And just as an aside, Trump now says he thinks they took his passport. If so, that's just chickenshit, and speaks volumes.
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@Jolly said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Let me put to you more simply: Show us where it explicitly states the POTUS can declassify T.S. documents without telling anyone or leaving any sort of paper trail. I suggest you cannot.
Show us explicitly where he cannot.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/aug/11/could-trump-argue-declassified-documents/
"Merely proclaiming a document or group of documents declassified and doing nothing more would not suffice," Bradley Moss, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who works on national security cases, told PolitiFact.Follow-through is required.
"He had to identify the specific documents he was declassifying, he needed to memorialize the order in writing for bureaucratic and historical purposes, and he needed to have staff physically modify the classification markings on the documents themselves," Moss said. "Until that was done, the documents, per the security classification procedures, still have to be handled, transmitted and stored as if they were classified."
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@Catseye3 said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
@Jolly said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Let me put to you more simply: Show us where it explicitly states the POTUS can declassify T.S. documents without telling anyone or leaving any sort of paper trail. I suggest you cannot.
Show us explicitly where he cannot.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/aug/11/could-trump-argue-declassified-documents/
"Merely proclaiming a document or group of documents declassified and doing nothing more would not suffice," Bradley Moss, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who works on national security cases, told PolitiFact.Follow-through is required.
"He had to identify the specific documents he was declassifying, he needed to memorialize the order in writing for bureaucratic and historical purposes, and he needed to have staff physically modify the classification markings on the documents themselves," Moss said. "Until that was done, the documents, per the security classification procedures, still have to be handled, transmitted and stored as if they were classified."
That's an opinion piece.
You know what they say about opinions...
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@Renauda said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Show us explicitly where he cannot.
No, the onus is on you to show us that he can.
But at least you now understand the question. That is step forward.
I've already showed where he can. I've even offered a simple example.
If you think POTUS spends his day signing releases for documents and carefully hiding stuff in his desk, you have a different view of a working Oval Office than I do.
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@jon-nyc said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Trump’s current argument seems untenable. If no documentation were required that would give any former POTUS the ability to declassify things for the rest of his life.
Obama could publish the detailed schematics of the Virginia class nuclear fast attack submarines and say “oh, I declassified these in 2007”
Exactly. Show us the paper and policy. Not just your say-so.
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@Jolly said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
@Renauda said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Show us explicitly where he cannot.
No, the onus is on you to show us that he can.
But at least you now understand the question. That is step forward.
I've already showed where he can. I've even offered a simple example.
Actually you have not. Sorry.
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@Renauda said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
@Jolly said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
@Renauda said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Show us explicitly where he cannot.
No, the onus is on you to show us that he can.
But at least you now understand the question. That is step forward.
I've already showed where he can. I've even offered a simple example.
Actually you have not. Sorry.
I think I have. Sorry.
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@Renauda said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Well, think harder. You made up a story.
Wish I could say, sorry because I’m not in the least bit, sorry.
No, I doubt you are.
Now, is this the part of the thread where I say that you're an obtuse SOB, or would you like to start the festivities?
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@Jolly said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
@jon-nyc said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
Trump’s current argument seems untenable. If no documentation were required that would give any former POTUS the ability to declassify things for the rest of his life.
Obama could publish the detailed schematics of the Virginia class nuclear fast attack submarines and say “oh, I declassified these in 2007”
Nope, it only gives POTUS the ability to declassify things while he is in office.
The point is if the decision doesn’t need to be documented there’s be nothing stopping them from doing an ex-post claim. Like Trump is probably doing.
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@jon-nyc said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
The point is if the decision doesn’t need to be documented there’s be nothing stopping them from doing an ex-post claim. Like Trump is probably doing.
If you didn't document it, it didn't happen. You'd think Trump would have learned that after 4 years.
And, in the same vein, you'd think that his legal team would have told him that.
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@George-K said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
If you didn't document it, it didn't happen. You'd think Trump would have learned that after 4 years.
To be fair, he probably did learn it very well in the last 50-odd years, but being POTUS isn't the same as being whatever the polite term is for somebody like Trump in the real estate business.
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@George-K said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
And, in the same vein, you'd think that his legal team would have told him that.
His crack legal team?
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
His crack legal team?
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Has he joined Trump's team, now?
That's a real step up (for both groups)!
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
@George-K said in Mar-a-Lago raided:
If you didn't document it, it didn't happen. You'd think Trump would have learned that after 4 years.
To be fair, he probably did learn it very well in the last 50-odd years, but being POTUS isn't the same as being whatever the polite term is for somebody like Trump in the real estate business.
I think the word is, tycoon. It has a somewhat more cache and chic connotation than sales weasel and not nearly as vulgar as shyster.