Sorry to hear about your friend. There's a lot of people in that position, unfortunately.
We are all getting an education in real time and MSM muddies the waters with rhetoric and lies. The gateway article links (toward the bottom of article) to a twitter thread by a lawyer who worked for Grassley and there is sauce in the thread about relevant sections of the law. I can't guarantee the courts won't mess this up but it reads like an open-and-shut case of DOJ overreach.
There is no document in the possession of the US and its agencies that is "classified" from the President. He can view any document at will. No one can redact or withhold it.
I would also go so far as to say that a President can declassify information at will. You will hear loony liberals say that "he needs to put in an application for declass tot he appropriate agency." if that were true, then the agency could reject applications - effectively preventing the President from exercising his powers.
Putting in an application is a formality. If the agency doesn't get around to it, does that mean it wasn't declassified? No. Long story short - any President has the authority to declass anything, at any time.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/09/trump-legal-team-puts-dagger-dojs-political-charade-going-backfire-badly-biden/
Even if he wasn't, the U.S. Code and PRA are clear Trump has authority over all his personal and Presidential documents, even classified.
Sorry to hear about your friend. There's a lot of people in that position, unfortunately.
We are all getting an education in real time and MSM muddies the waters with rhetoric and lies. The gateway article links (toward the bottom of article) to a twitter thread by a lawyer who worked for Grassley and there is sauce in the thread about relevant sections of the law. I can't guarantee the courts won't mess this up but it reads like an open-and-shut case of DOJ overreach.
There is no document in the possession of the US and its agencies that is "classified" from the President. He can view any document at will. No one can redact or withhold it.
I would also go so far as to say that a President can declassify information at will. You will hear loony liberals say that "he needs to put in an application for declass tot he appropriate agency." if that were true, then the agency could reject applications - effectively preventing the President from exercising his powers.
Putting in an application is a formality. If the agency doesn't get around to it, does that mean it wasn't declassified? No. Long story short - any President has the authority to declass anything, at any time.