DONALD TRUMP SAID he “absolutely” plans to testify in the federal government’s case against him regarding classified documents he removed from the White House. “I’m allowed to do whatever I want … I’m allowed to do everything I did,” the former president told conservative podcast host Hugh Hewitt.
In an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” that dropped Wednesday, the host asked Trump, “Did you direct anyone to move the boxes, Mr. President? Did you tell anyone to move the boxes?” referring to the boxes of more than 300 classified documents the federal government seized last year from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“I don’t talk about anything. You know why? Because I’m allowed to do whatever I want. I come under the Presidential Records Act,” Trump replied, while also taking a quick detour to bash Hewitt. “I’m not telling you. You know, every time I talk to you, ‘Oh, I have a breaking story.’ You don’t have any story. I come under the Presidential Records Act. I’m allowed to do everything I did.”
Will be super interesting to see him try that under oath…
“OBJECTION YOUR HONOR. My client is a moron and just incriminated himself.”
“Your honor, I object!”
“And why is that?”
“Because it’s devastating to my case!”
“Overruled.”
“Good call.”
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His lawyers actually said that while he was president. They said he was incapable of being deposed without perjuring himself. Eventually they sent 10 questions written out and he had his lawyers with him to help respond.
They said he was incapable of being deposed without perjuring himself.
“Perjury trap” is a fake term that tries to place the blame for “My client is a compulsive liar and literally can’t tell the truth to save his life” on the other party. And whoever came up with the term deserves both a raise for being amazing at their job, and a knee to the groin for being a shit human being.
And whoever came up with the term deserves both a raise for being amazing at their job, and a knee to the groin for being a shit human being.
So, a lawyer.
Probably went to the same school as the lawyer that came up with “afluenza”
I cannot imagine the guy speaking a single word in court.
I can def see a man-child reaction exactly like this dumb statement -kinda like what he did on the debates with Hillary and Biden, interrupting and interjecting his sad alternate reality- as the cases pick up steam and hes forced to fly between Fla, DC, Ga and wherever his current cult rally/grievance is that day, oh boy, is it gonna be fun or what?
Thing is, neither a man-child reaction, nor making deranged statements, helps you in court. So, I’m imagining his lawyers will instruct him to please shut the hell up.
yeah cause the trumpet is well known for heading his lawyers advice
Eh, I also just imagine, he’s not particularly excited for speaking there. The judge won’t let him blathe on like an imbecil, but rather demand proof for his statements. And the only way, he can avoid subjecting himself to that power dynamic, is to not speak to the judge.
But yeah, we’ll have to see…
I could see him yelling and screaming as they take him away.
Oh yeah, after the verdict, I can imagine him inciting another coup and whatnot.
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I can.
And it almost is a replacement for PornHub.
It seems like he is showing what his defense will be. It won’t be whether he moved documents or shared confidential information or whatever. It will be them challenging the scope of power of the presidency.
The defense comes down to the Afluenza Defense. Note, to my knowledge that never really worked before.
He keeps repeating he thinks he’s allowed to do all these things and even when found in court he isn’t allowed to do those things, they’ll try to say he didn’t know.
Thing is, he’s playing dumb now, while he’s repeatedly shown he knows full well what’s right and what’s wrong, his statements like how he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and no one would do anything about it, or the grab em by the pussy line.
He made statements showing he knows perfectly fine these are things one shouldn’t do, but he does them anyway as he was never held responsible and could get away with it.
Except in the cases of Brock Turner, the convicted rapist and Ethan Couch, the teen who killed 4 people driving drunk and only served 2 years in prison.
And then there’s all the deferred sentence stuff that practically every white collar criminal gets to stay rich and out of prison.
What are you trying to say here? You clearly show they all got convicted.
It was just the sentencing they got treated lightly on.
And it’s a given Trump won’t see the inside of a jailcell.
But a conviction on any level will disqualify him politics, for a while.
I’m highlight that it’s lack of (the same) consequences for action as the rest of us would receive.
The only thing that will disqualify him will be individual states or congress. And unless the GQP is kicked out of power, I’m worried that a conviction isn’t going to do shit without real punishment.
Not really the scope of power so much as destroying Trump’s delusional interpretation of the Presidential Record’s Act.
If he honestly tries that in court he’s going to get “Um, actually” lawyer-splained so fast BARRON’S kid’s heads will spin.
It would make for a much shorter trial, at least. Basically just a guilty plea with extra steps.
I like a petulant Trump. Means he’s worried.
He’s always been petulant though.
Which makes sense given his constant state of anxiety about whatever demographic, real or imagined, is supposedly after him for no good reason next.
There is only one person trying to take down Trump and that is Donald Trump. He’s absolutely his own worst enemy because he doesn’t ever think.
The speech centres of his brain appear to be directly wired to his mouth without reference to the critical thinking or self-preservation lobes.
He can in fact do whatever he wants, he just needs to deal with the consequences of his actions.
I don’t see proof of that last part for the moment, hopefully it will become true
Well, technically, no consequences are some kind of consequences. But I really do hope that he will pay for what he did wrong.
Candidate Trump needs to be belligerent and defiant. Defendant Trump needs to STFU.
The problem is those two things are in competition. So he has to say, Russia, Russia, Russia as candidate Trump, but that isn’t a relevant or useful argument for defendant Trump. He has to say, “I’m allowed to do this thing” as candidate Trump, but as defendant Trump, I’m allowed to break the law is not a defense.
His only hope is to delay. If he goes to trial on anything, defendant Trump loses. If he can hold out, then candidate Trump will win.
This is his bet. He wins and it all goes away and the US is ruled by a guy who believes he can get away with anything.
Maybe we get lucky and he has a cheeseburger embolism between now and then and then Walter Reed docs just choose to try a little less hard that day.
If I was a Republican, and I fancied myself a man of wit, accountability, and maturity, I would not be able to reconcile my politics against just how absurdly juvenile, idiotic, and whiny Trump is at all times.
Yes, but what if they make you hate the others more than this mob?
That, and “eh, they’re all the same”, and when you need to support the team no matter what - can lull your critical faculties quite well.
This attitude is terrifying to people who handle national security information. Just because you might have authority to declassify something doesn’t mean you should. It’s reckless and irresponsible to expose sources and methods unnecessarily - not to mention the information itself. There’s a reason that declassified documents still have a lot of redactions.
This type of stuff is usually in a very controlled environment with significant physical security - not a bathroom.
Holy shit I hate this man so much.
No you are not. It is classified for a reason.
American government: ‘No, you’re not.’
You stopped being president nearly four years ago, man. Grow up.
I truly hate that technically, former presidents can be called Mr. President for the rest of their lives.
I still laugh that donnie Bin Laden and his supporters were outraged that a judge called him “Mr. Trump”.
I will die not understanding the allegiance this man has among his followers.
I think it’s at least 90% racism and misogyny and the hope that they will get to unleash their worse selves on others. Hillary was right about them, and my dog, the huffing and puffing her correct statement created among the tone police/“liberal media” and of course his base that is even still having a fauxrage over it…while simultaneously proudly declaring themselves “deplorables” and playing the victim card over it.
He’s right until they prove him wrong.
There’s literal audio recording of him acknowledging that he’s fully aware he can’t do whatever he wants with classified files.
As usual he’s right until he proves himself wrong then claims he’s right again.
He’s aware that it’s illegal, but until there are consequences, whether something is illegal or not means fuck all.
His lies here are for his reprogrammable meatbag base, though. They probably don’t even know he contradicted himself in a recording.
he’s allowed to do whatever he wants with whatever and whoever he wants whenever he wants or why else is he the king
Okay.
Catch is… I- and everyone else- get to do what ever we want to him
tell his Supporters… you gotta fight them… they’re the ones who want him as King…
Do they still manufacture torches and pitchforks?
Let the courts sort out his stupidity.
Can he sit in prison while he awaits his trial?
Presidents do generally have ultimate authority on what is and is not classified. The act of them just waving their hand and saying, “this is declassified” is generally enough to make it unclassified. This has been established through courts before. I think where they are trying to get him is where he previously said “I did not declassify these before getting out of office” and now that he isn’t the president he no longer has declassification authority. Some constitution lawyers still argue he can’t be prosecuted for anything he grabbed as president. The supreme court will likely have to decide and given that they are a super conservative majority they will likely side with him in the matter.
It’s not a strong case and never was.
My understanding from briefly covering this in law school and reading some technical articles about it over the past year, is that classification falls under congressional powers, and the only reason the executive branch has any say in the matter as to documents is because Congress passed laws delegating some of that authority to the executive branch. In no circumstance under the law, can the president simply state that a document is declassified and make it so because no such exists under the statute.
The president has authority to initiate the process to declassify any documentwith the exception of nuclear secrets.
The president could read a classified non-nuclear document publicly, and the subject matter would lose its classification, but not the document itself, until it went through the applicable agency’s legal procedure for declassification.
Trump had not initiated such processes and had not declassified the subject matter publicly while president.
The entirety of the above statement are irrelevant to two things as far as Trump’s crimes: any of Trump’s actions after the lawful end of his tenure and nuclear secrets, to which none of the above applies, as Congress delegated classification of nuclear secrets to our nuclear energy regulators.
Trump also lied repeatedly to the public and law enforcement, and engaged in an open conspiracy to illegally destroy evidence and tamper with witnesses.
By the time this is over, I won’t be surprised if it’s revealed he sold nuclear secrets to the Saudis, Russia, or China. Dude had been a foreign agent since the 80’s.
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He admitted on tape he did not declassify the documents while president and no longer can now that he isn’t. That torpedoes any bullshit mind-link declassification powers he asserts he had. He literally admitted it. Literally. I mean in the classic sense of the word literally. He literally already admitted he did not declassify them when being interviewed for a potential book deal.
This is actually the only good argument anyone has made in all these comments. Everything else is “orange man bad hopium”. And is the only reason i’m not 100% sure he won’t be
chargedconvicted. But i’m still 99% sure he’s good to go. Just will have to sit through years of court battles over it.Brother you need to improve your reading comprehension. What about the whole ‘declassification is not done only by the president but its actually a whole process that goes through congress’ argument?
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He was already charged.
You got me, found a gotcha. I mean convicted.
Sounds like you don’t have much understanding tbh.
As opposed to “he just needs to think it and it is so?”
Hmm who do I trust? Special counsel with years experience in government or anon who just hand waved his entire case.
Better go with anon because it would be horrible if anon were right and myself, another anon, would know it.
What a great example of the appeal to authority fallacy . I’m sure everyone here will appreciate the opportunity learn about logical fallacies through your example.
What?
How is the special console not a qualified expert in the matter? I don’t think you know what you are talking about, and you seem to keep providing examples that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Example of a biased expert
That’s just incorrect.
If you think the government doesn’t want more paperwork and documentation that something is declassified, then you have an inflated view of government efficiency. Not to mention the actual importance of a paper trail and approvals.
It’s only incorrect if the supreme court says it’s incorrect. And i’m like 99.99% sure they will agree with this hot take.
Do you really think SCOTUS would be willing to give Biden the ability to do after his presidency what Trump did?
Do you trust the current SCOTUS to not play GOP politics and apply rules for thee not for me?
I could easily see the poor mental gymnastics that would be pulled for protecting trump and then later flipping and condemning the act if done by a non GOP president
Yes I do. Did you forget that he has classified documents at his house from when he was vp? https://www.npr.org/2023/01/21/1150617734/the-doj-searched-bidens-home-and-found-more-classified-documents
Which is objectively illegal. Honestly I think they will give him and Obama the power to retroactively declassify it. Or say Obama said it was declassified. It’s a absolute authority of the president. This court has been pretty consistent in respecting executive authority. They’ve sided with Biden over vaccine mandates for Soldiers who have religious exceptions for example. Even though they are a pretty religious group.
He didn’t refuse to comply with investigators. Did you forget that?
Before I disagree with that statement, is that the law he is charged with breaking? I don’t think so.
This is absolutely not true, but I’ll allow you to try and come up with some example to support your fantastic assertions?
I don’t suggest anyone use polififact for any type of fact checking as they are clearly political biased but they do quote some decent sources here https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/may/16/james-risch/does-president-have-ability-declassify-anything-an/
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/484/518/
“The President, after all, is the ‘Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States’” according to Article II of the Constitution, the court’s majority wrote. “His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security … flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant.”
Basically, classification and declassification are extensions of the executive branches power. The argument is that you can’t use the presidents power to arrest the president. Classification exist for the president so he can’t really break any rules with it.
Ultimately a court will decide and I’m betting on the president getting to keep ultimate authority on what is and is not classified. Regardless if he told someone else it is declassified.
Yeah, no.
This buffoon would never be able to get cleared for even a generic TS for normal government work. I think our commander in chief should be able to obtain a TS as a requirement to running for office. Then there’s Jared…
Having political power doesn’t imply you can do whatever you want with it. Abuse of power is a crime.
This has been established through courts before
Cite a court case that establishes this. I bet you $500 USD you can’t.
Department of the Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518 (1988)
“The President, after all, is the ‘Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States’” according to Article II of the Constitution, the court’s majority wrote. “His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security … flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant.”
It’s been generally accepted that the president is not subject to his own executive orders because he can change them at will
The official documents governing classification and declassification stem from executive orders. But even these executive orders aren’t necessarily binding on the president. The president is not “obliged to follow any procedures other than those that he himself has prescribed,” Aftergood said. “And he can change those.”
As Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy wrote.
I will take my $500 in bitcoin thank you.
So what your saying is that an ex president can refuse to turn over classified documents that he himself acknowledges he did not declassify, and share that information with people that do not have clearences or precedent to know that information.
If your right, then it isn’t a strong case. If you’re wrong, that case seems pretty fucking damning.
Theoretically the president can indeed forget that he ever declassified them. By being in his possession any requirements were satisfied because he himself defined those requirements.
Hey, that’s pretty neat! Let me try:
The New York Times, et al., v. Central Intelligence Agency (2020)
Declassification cannot occur unless designated officials follow specified procedures. Moreover, courts cannot “simply assume, over the well-documented and specific affidavits of the CIA to the contrary,” that disclosure is required simply because the information has already been made public.
The Shiner affidavits, in addition to justifying the two FOIA exemptions, expressly stated that no declassification procedures had been followed with respect to any documents pertaining to the alleged covert program.
Moreover, the Times cites no authority that stand for the proposition that the President can inadvertently declassify information and we are aware of none. Because declassification, even by the President, must follow established procedures, that argument fails.
Pretty cool!!
That case has no presidential implications. It’s not relevant at all. It establishes no precedent for a president.
Lol THAT’S your response? Just, “nuh-uh, doesn’t count because I said!!”
Okay bud.
It’s like saying because dogs don’t go to jail for eating bones trump must be convicted. So yes I reject it as a relevant example
This seems like a much better example of your appeal to authority fallacy.
Fucking troll…
-_-
It’s not trolling these are the exact arguments trumps lawyers are making.
I was under the impression that it didn’t matter whether or not the documents were classified. After a president leaves office all presidential documents need to go to the National Archives. Trump took a bunch of boxes to Mar-a-Lago that should have went to the archives. That’s what he did wrong. Doesn’t matter if it was a McDonalds lunch order on a napkin or nuclear launch codes. He didn’t have the authority to take documents out of the white house. Full stop.
And what law are you referring to? From who’s authority is it made?
And in case you want a primary source
It was an act of congress in 1978. Basically after a president leaves office all presidential documents belong to the public. No president has the authority to take presidential documents to their private property after they leave office.
Supreme court has already established Congress has no authority over the president and his use of classified documents.
And what evidence do you have that the supreme court effectively nullified the Presidential Records Act?
I already linked the case
It’s not a strong case and never was.
Laughable. ETA: You are.
That all sounds to me like he’s not trying to defend himself in court, that instead his entire plan is to win the presidency and stay there for life. All of these claims (I can do the thing, it’s totally fine believe me) amount to confessions that he did what he’s charged with, but are also appeals to his base that the courts are wrong and illegitimate.
That’s basically it, that’s his get-out-of-jail-free card (though the Georgia case complicates things somewhat), but he’s not the only one that needs for him to be back in office. Russia is also depending on him getting in to help their flailing war effort in Ukraine, because I’m sure one of his first actions will be to suspend whatever aid he can to the Ukrainians. China and other countries would also probably love to see him back in because of how completely stupid and ineffective he is at anything he does, not to mention he’s easily bought. America’s loss will be alot of other country’s gain.
