rightwinger
Award Winning USMB Paid Messageboard Poster
- Aug 4, 2009
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It does make a difference in whether a former President would be prosecuted …..that is the realityThere would not:
‘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.
Typically, the leadership of the agency or agencies with equities in the document would be consulted and given an opportunity to provide their views on the declassification decision. As the ultimate declassification authority, however, the president can decide to override any objections they raise.
Once 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.’ ibid
And yet again – it doesn’t make any difference whether the documents were de-classified or not with regard to Trump being in legal jeopardy.
However, if Trump is claiming those documents were declassified, he had better be able to provide the paperwork