Quote:
Originally Posted by tommy156
The POTUS is to go through a process of declassifying materials, not just wave his magic wand and say they were declassified before he stole them
|
There are some conservative talking heads who claim that if a POTUS even thinks that something should be de-classified, it is. Or that if he verbalizes that it's declassified, it is. I would offer this- that's likely somewhat correct AS LONG as there is someone in the administration who follows up with that request and ensures that the process is followed up; Otherwise you have the same shit that happened prior.
In the recent Trump Mar-a-lagoon raid- Trumpy's failure was his admission to someone on audio- that he "could get in trouble for sharing this, "This is highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information." "As president I could have declassified it, but now I can't" .
Mens Rea- the knowledge that what you are doing and intent despite knowing it's wrong.
Sadly the orange asshole just is too narcissistically stupid and a braggadocious asshat- so much so that he can't help himself. Even when he knows' it's wrong, he still has to break laws.
I am sure other presidents have documents- likely even classified and secret; BUT- when requested to return those document, they probably did indeed return them. Not snubb their noses at the archives and tell them a lie- like, "the dog ate the secret documents"
- Sir- you don't have a dog.
