Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

"National security being what it is, we may never know the exact contents of the documents that FBI agents carried out of Mar-a-Lago this week. But we can already see what Donald Trump’s defense will be.

These documents can’t be classified, Trump and his allies are saying, because he unilaterally declassified them at some point, even if the feds still say they’re classified. It’s like he carries around a magic declassification wand. He’s Harry Potter in the House of Treason.

Let’s get a few things straight. If you’re president, as I understand it, you do have the right to declassify wh**ever documents you want. But there’s a process for doing so. You’re supposed to submit those documents to the appropriate agencies for review, and then they must be formally categorized as declassified.
This should go without saying, but since we’re not exactly k*****g it on basic civics these days, let me add that former presidents can’t declassify anything. That would be like Bill Clinton trying to retroactively issue a pardon.

By the way, if you were wondering just how desperate the once intellectually vibrant conservative movement has become, consider one Charles Stimson of the Heritage Foundation, who told NBC News that “there’s a rich debate about whether or not a document is declassified if a president has decided but not communicated it outside of his own head.

Really. And where’s this rich debate on p**********l telepathy taking place, exactly? The “Stranger Things” fan site?
But let’s leave aside this whole arcane question of what’s properly classified and what isn’t. We’ll find out more in the days ahead about why the FBI suspects Trump may have broken several national security laws, including the Espionage Act.

The larger point here is that the whole fiasco underscores the most disturbing thing about Trump’s term in the White House. Trump functioned as a president, more or less, but the underlying concept of the presidency somehow always eluded him.

Everyone who preceded Trump accepted the idea that the office is held in a sacred and temporary trust. The White House and everything that comes with it — the salutes and the planes, the couches and carpets, the weird things people gift you in foreign countries — belong to the country and its history, not to you. You’re just hired to manage the place for a while.

Even Richard M. Nixon, inventor of the so-called imperial presidency, was made to understand this in the end. He left Washington for the last time on something called Air Force One and landed in California on a flight re-designated as SAM 27000 (SAM standing for “special air mission”).

Somewhere in the skies, he lost the office and all the swag that accompanied it, including the plane’s special status.
Any American kid who’s seen “Hamilton” understands this concept of t***sient leadership, but Trump simply did not. Having come into office on the power of a popular uprising, Trump imagined he had been sent to Washington not to restore the institutions of government, but to replace them.

In Trump’s worldview, he acquired the office and the generals and the state secrets, just as he’d once acquired the Eastern Air Lines’ shuttle, and this whole idea that he was privileged to serve was a bunch of deep-state nonsense. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that he saw himself as an American Putin — elected, perhaps, but governing at the will of some stronger current than the public’s fleeting favor.

Other presidents, Joe Biden among them, have spoken often about the immense honor of holding the office, mindful of the predecessors they admired and the unfinished business they would leave their successors. You may correct me here, but can anyone remember any instance of Trump musing on his obligations to history?
No, Trump seemed oddly uninterested in all of that, dismissing even Abraham Lincoln’s impact as “questionable.” If Trump ever considered a future with a president other than himself, he gave no indication.

So, of course, Trump refused to leave the job until forced, and of course he held on to material that clearly belonged in public hands. When the presidency is an acquisition rather than an opportunity to serve, then everything that comes with it is rightfully yours to do with as you please.
Until this week, I wasn’t sure Trump would really run again and risk losing a primary, much less a general e******n. But now I presume he will, if only because he’ll want to regain control of the government forces that are fast arraying against him. When the feds broke into Trump’s chamber of secrets, they unleashed something dark and rapacious within.

It’s Trump or the democracy now. I have a hard time imagining how we’d end up with both."

Matt Bai

WNYShooter Loc: WNY

Per the SCOTUS, the President isn't required to follow any process to classify or declassify gov. info.

Also, everything Trump has at his residence was boxed up while he was still Pres. and he could have very legally declared all of the contents he was taking from the Office as declassified and it would be, so the argument that he even need to declassify something after the fact is just purely void of any commonsense.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Whether the documents were declassified or not is void of any consequence. Taking government documents without authorization, and the mishandling of those documents is a possible violation of the Espionage Act.
So, answer the question—-what in Trump’s head to secrete and try to stonewall the retrieval of the documents.
There are many smart guys and gals here—tell me something I don’t know. What was in Trump’s head, his plan for the documents?

WNYShooter Loc: WNY

I don't know that he did stonewall them. By all accounts, he has allowed the Feds full access to the material on prior occasions and allowed them to take all that they desired. But, of course, I'm sure you know much more about whats happening there considering your sources are the same ones who completely sold you, along with millions of other Dem Useful I***ts on the Trump Russia Collusion h**x.

SuneBonobo Loc: Maryland

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Then Hillary should be charged with espionage right? She had classified information on her private email server and she had NO authority to have them or no authority to declassify those classified information as did Trump.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

“Lock her up”

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Let me ask you a question. Do you think Trump packed his own boxes?

Why don't you wait to see what the documents are and the predicate for this raid almost two years after he left the WH?

Incidentally there was footage of Trump leaving the WH on his last day and I didn't see him carrying any boxes of docs.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

This is what you are putting out there now? This is all you've got against Trump this time? "It’s like he carries around a magic declassification wand. He’s Harry Potter in the House of Treason." This is the crime? This pure opinion based on fantasy. What do you take us for?

At least list some of the facts and new information. The FBI put out a list of what they had taken from Mar-a-Lago and first on the list was a draft of Roger Stone's Clemency grant. It was First on the list but it's also available online if you want to see it. Last were three confiscated passports of Donald Trump.

AND THAT'S ALL YOU GOT?

Penny MG Loc: Fresno, Texas

Well stated WNYShooter!