Trump in Florida federal court today as his lawyers argue a motion to dismiss the first 32 counts of Florida....basically every charge about retaining documents.
The main thing to discuss is the Presidential Records Act.
Trump's lawyers boldly argued that the PRA gave Trump “virtually unreviewable Article II executive authority to designate the records as personal when, as alleged in the Superseding Indictment, he ’caused’ the materials to be transported out of the White House while he was still in office.”
Smith has countered by saying Trump simply had no such unilateral authority under the PRA.
But Charge 19 deals with Q clearance.
In their February motion to dismiss on grounds of unconstitutional vagueness, Trump lawyers argued the nineteenth willful retention of national defense information count, relating to an “Undated document concerning nuclear weaponry of the United States,” could not stand. They said the special counsel handed them Department of Energy records “indicating that President Trump maintained the ‘Q’ clearance that is relevant to the document charged.”
In his opposition, Smith called the “Q clearance” argument meritless because discovery actually shows the “Q clearance” went away “as a matter of law” when Joe Biden was inaugurated as president.
Is there a standard or protocol that can be documented and shown both to the public and to the courts and anyone else that the specific documents/records were declassified? Or are we always forced to speculate on this forum about this subject with zero way to provide what we post is true or untrue regarding DJT’s docs?
There are "DOCUMENTS" that are signed but it is by INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE DEEMED CLEARED FOR RECEIVING/TRANSMITTING DOCUMENTS...
IF the documents being passed and/or receiving then the individual(s) also NEED "Q clearance"...
I KNOW this is redundant but it is important: NO ONE without a Q Clearance can handle Q Clearance Documents...
I am not trying to confuse but some will question the "what if" situation and I'm just taking that off the list...
Much appreciated on your insights 🐸
It's an interesting question.
The question of if these documents are classified has already been raised before several judges and the grand jury.
One judge said I have evidence that these documents are classified.
The evidence is prima facie evidence. Which means by looking at the evidence I see it has a top secret classified cover sheet and it is stamped classified. On the face of it I can tell this is a classified document. So to counter that you would actually have to present testimony or evidence to prove otherwise.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/prima_facie
just as classified documents are are stamped showing what level of classification they have when documents are declassified for release they are restamped and cleared. It should clearly say it's a declassified document. You also have to tell all the original agency that created them at the document is declassified. How much of that is required by law? I don't know.