The Espionage Act also prohibits taking or possessing national security-related information from the government and keeping it in an unauthorized location
The Mike Davis commentary explains (inferentially) that the Espionage Act cannot apply to personal documents, because they are not "Presidential documents" nor "Government documents." Nor does the Presidential Record Act prevent the President from retaining custody over classified Presidential documents.
Basically, none of this can touch the President, because one branch of government (Legislative/Congress) cannot dictate the behavior of another branch (Executive/President). Any such regulation comes from the Constitution.
Nor does the Presidential Record Act prevent the President from retaining custody over classified Presidential documents.
It absolutely does prevent a former president from retaining custody of presidential documents. That's the reason the law was created.
I learned two things tonight.
One Classified documents are often not Presidential documents because there's and exclusion in the law for agency documents.
The second thing is Trump's lawyers are upset with Tom Fitton for pushing the same argument as Davis
Several other Trump advisers blamed Fitton for convincing Trump that he could keep the documents and repeatedly mentioning the “Clinton socks case”
Trump's own lawyers felt Trump could have avoided an indictment if they negotiated to return all the documents. They feel Fitton got Trump into this mess. Fitton is not a lawyer, remember. And Fitton is a witness in this case.
Your counterargument falls apart under Article 2 of the Constitution, which vests ALL executive powers in the President. The president ultimately has the authority to dictate to all agencies beneath him what is and is not vital to national security, and what is or is not an authorized location. The agencies do not hold authority over the President. The 102 documents he took with him, if they are all pertaining to the alphabet soup spying on him during his campaign, were declassified before he left office.
Additionally, the 2012 case law resulting from the sock drawer case establishes that it is the President's responsibility and sole authority to separate personal records from presidential records. No other agency under the executive branch can supersede that authority.
Clearly this falls under Presidential records.
It is absurd to pretend that he sold secrets. This is prosecutorial over-reach.
How many times did Comey say w.r.t. HRC's classified bathroom server and hammer beaten phones, that NO Reasonable Prosecutor would charge her??
They are not saying he sold secrets.
https://jnslp.com/2022/12/02/willfulness-and-the-harm-of-unlawful-retention-of-national-security-information/
The Mike Davis commentary explains (inferentially) that the Espionage Act cannot apply to personal documents, because they are not "Presidential documents" nor "Government documents." Nor does the Presidential Record Act prevent the President from retaining custody over classified Presidential documents.
Basically, none of this can touch the President, because one branch of government (Legislative/Congress) cannot dictate the behavior of another branch (Executive/President). Any such regulation comes from the Constitution.
He's pulling a sleight of hand
This is absolutely true
This part is false
It absolutely does prevent a former president from retaining custody of presidential documents. That's the reason the law was created.
I learned two things tonight.
One Classified documents are often not Presidential documents because there's and exclusion in the law for agency documents.
The second thing is Trump's lawyers are upset with Tom Fitton for pushing the same argument as Davis
Trump's own lawyers felt Trump could have avoided an indictment if they negotiated to return all the documents. They feel Fitton got Trump into this mess. Fitton is not a lawyer, remember. And Fitton is a witness in this case.
Your counterargument falls apart under Article 2 of the Constitution, which vests ALL executive powers in the President. The president ultimately has the authority to dictate to all agencies beneath him what is and is not vital to national security, and what is or is not an authorized location. The agencies do not hold authority over the President. The 102 documents he took with him, if they are all pertaining to the alphabet soup spying on him during his campaign, were declassified before he left office.
Additionally, the 2012 case law resulting from the sock drawer case establishes that it is the President's responsibility and sole authority to separate personal records from presidential records. No other agency under the executive branch can supersede that authority.