**Title:** Did Trump Have the Authority to Declassify and Hold onto Documents? | America Uncovered
**Description:** In this episode of America Uncovered, we delve deep into the controversy surrounding former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents after the 2020 election. Some argue that Trump had the power to declassify records and retain documents under the Presidential Records Act, while others claim he exceeded his legal authority. We explore the potential charges Trump may face, his defense team’s arguments, and the relevant laws in this case. Tune in to uncover the truth! 📚🔍
[Watch the Full Episode Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aQTkWepw8w&ab_channel=AmericaUncovered)
**Keywords/Tags:** Chris Chappell, America Uncovered, Can Trump Declassify Any Classified Information He Wants?, Trump, Donald Trump, politics, US news, Sean Hannity, DOJ, President Trump, classified, Trump classified documents, Department of Justice, classified documents, President Donald Trump, top-secret documents, Presidential Records Act, Constitution, classified information, classified info, national security, Trump indictment, Donald Trump indictment, Trump documents, Trump charges
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**Full Transcript:**
Trump is facing intense scrutiny regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Did he possess the authority to declassify them? While Trump argues in favor, the reality of the situation is more complex. Welcome to America Uncovered. I’m Chris Chappell. In a previous episode, I discussed how Trump faced a second indictment due to his alleged mishandling of classified information. For a detailed exploration of the indictment itself, check out the link below. However, this indictment raises questions about Trump’s ability to declassify information.
When the FBI seized documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, he told Fox News host Sean Hannity that as president, he could declassify simply by verbally stating so or even by contemplating the decision. However, his indictment painted a grim picture when audio transcripts revealed that Trump admitted to retaining secretive military information that he did not declassify. “See as president, I could have declassified it,” he stated, “but now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
Despite Trump’s remarks, some Republican figures like House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan continue to support him, arguing that he possesses declassification authority according to the Constitution and the Navy v. Egan case of 1988. According to Jordan, “The standard is clear. The standard is the 1988 case Navy v. Egan, a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court, written by Justice Blackman. It affirmed that the president’s authority in classifying and controlling access to national security information stems from the Constitution. He alone decides. He said he declassified this material. He can put it wherever he wants. He can handle it however he wants. That’s the law. That’s the standard.”
When faced with Trump’s recorded comments admitting his inability to declassify certain information, Jim Jordan deflected the issue, dismissing it as a politically motivated indictment. It’s quite amusing when politicians attempt to evade direct answers to unwanted questions. But does Jim Jordan’s argument hold water? We’ll tackle this issue head-on.
Article II of the US Constitution designates the president as the commander in chief of the US military. In the Navy v. Egan case, the Supreme Court affirmed that the president’s authority to classify and control access to national security information stems from this constitutional clause. However, it’s crucial to consider the context. Navy v. Egan revolved around Thomas Egan, a Navy employee whose national security clearance was denied. The case established that the US president possesses constitutional powers to withhold national security information in the interest of national security and established a “compelling interest” in doing so.
Hence, the context indicates that withholding information from individuals was the primary concern, rather than whether the president had complete discretion over national security documents. Generally, it’s widely accepted that the president has broad authority to declassify information. PolitiFact asserts that the president can essentially declassify anything, and The New York Times believes the president can do so directly. The debate arises when considering the procedures, if any, that the president must follow to make declassification official.
Advocates for broad presidential power argue that both the 1988 Supreme Court case and the US Constitution grant the president the discretion to handle national security information as he wishes. However, dissenting voices point to a 2020 court case involving the New York Times and the CIA. The Second Circuit ruled in this case that “Declassification, even by the President, must follow established procedures.” The American Bar Association views this ruling as evidence that “A formal procedure is required so that governmental agencies are certain of what has been declassified and decisions are recorded.”
Now, how does all of this apply to Trump? Let’s find out after a short break. Welcome back. So, can Trump declassify any information anytime, or is he required to follow specific procedures? Some argue that the 2020 New York Times v. CIA case ruled that “Declassification, even by the President, must follow established procedures.” However, there’s a lot of misunderstanding surrounding this case. First, we need to address a key aspect that the case references: President Barack Obama’s 2009 Executive Order 13526. Brace yourselves, Trump supporters, as this might disappoint you. Obama’s executive order outlines a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information. It explicitly designates the president as an “original classification authority,” granting him the autonomy to determine whether information should be classified. However, when it comes to DEclassifying information, the order doesn’t explicitly mention the president or grant him direct declassification authority. In fact, limitations exist.
Section 3.1 of the executive order states that “Information shall be declassified or downgraded by… the official who authorized the original classification, if that official is still serving in the same position and has original classification authority,” as well as by successors and those authorized by the originating agency. This limitation is relevant to our inquiry into Trump. If Trump did not originally classify the information he possessed and subsequently brought it home, he wouldn’t have the authorization to declassify it after his presidency ended, at least according to Obama’s executive order. “[Executive Order] 13526 gives the president broad classification authority and suggests a possibility for broad presidential declassification authority under certain circumstances, but it doesn’t explicitly provide for such authority.”
In other words, there isn’t a magical solution for instant declassification. Instead, the executive order emphasizes the need to consult with intelligence agencies before proceeding with declassification in the public’s interest. If you feel disappointed by all of this, don’t worry, because now it’s time to disappoint everyone else. Remember, recommending procedures isn’t the same as necessitating them. The executive order merely identifies who may declassify information and the standards they should adhere to. However, it doesn’t outline any specific declassification procedure. “While both individual agencies and the Information and Security Oversight Office have developed additional rules about how declassification should be carried out, none of these procedures apply to the president.”
In other words, the limitations in the executive order mostly serve as self-imposed restraints that the US president, with his constitutional authority, could simply disregard. Even legal experts within the intelligence community acknowledge this fact. It’s conceivable that Trump could have disregarded Obama’s executive order entirely. The American Bar Association confirms that presidents have the power to modify or nullify executive orders, but there’s no evidence to suggest that Trump took any steps to amend or revoke Obama’s order. Many Trump supporters are now citing the Presidential Records Act…
There has been a lot of discussion about whether former President Donald Trump had the authority to hold onto to all the materials he brought home after he lost the 2020 election. Some say the president has broad powers to declassify records and even more powers to retain documents under the Presidential Records Act. Others say there are limits to those powers, and that in some cases, Trump went beyond his legal authority. In this episode of America Uncovered, we do a deep dive on this topic to figure out what charges Trump might have to worry about, what his defense team is saying, and what laws are relevant to this case.
400 Years in Jail?! Trump Indictment Is Serious Trouble
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If the presidents authority as the executive and his powers therein come from the constitution, congress cannot modify that authority without an amendment. People have this idea that if the constitution doesnt address a specific issue then congress can just write laws, but the constitution is a limiting document. If the constitution doesnt specify then the power belongs to the states and the people, if the federal government wants it, again a constitutional amendment.
As a sitting president yes Dump Trump can declassify and retain documents, but he can't just "think it" as he said.
So presidential executive orders take precedence over the US constitution? Oh OK. What could go wrong with that?
TO ALL AMERICANS CITIZENS,
HILLARY CLINTON SOLD AMERICA NUCLEAR TO RUSSIA WHAT HAPPEN TO HILLARY CLINTON.
REMEMBER NOTHING IS FREE CORRUPTIONS IS THERE 100%
NONE OF THE DEMOCRATS SWAMPS WILL DO IT FOR FREE TO PROTECT JOE BIDEN CORRUPTIONS.
TO ALL AMERICANS CITIZENS SUPREME COURT JUDGES REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS OFFICIALS CONGRESS SENATORS FBI CIA INTERPOL POLICE MILITARILY GENERALS AND THE OFFICE BOYS THAT CARRY THE BOXES OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TO JOE BIDEN HOUSE AND ETC.
DID ANY OF THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS REALLY ASK THEMSELVES, WILL THEY PAY MILLIONS TO JOE BIDEN AND HUNTER BIDEN ?.
WHAT DO JOE BIDEN AND HUNTER BIDEN HAVE TO RECEIVED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
1) WHY ARE THE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS ARE IN JOE BIDEN HANDS IS TO SELL TO CHINA, RUSSIA IRAN ETC
REMEMBER HILLARY CLINTON SOLD AMERICA NUCLEAR TO RUSSIA.
2) THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS COMING FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES IS TO EXCHANGE FOR THE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS.
3) THOSE GOVERNMENTS OFFICIALS, SUPREME COURT JUDGES DEMOCRATS DOJ FBI MARYOKAS WHO ARE KEEPING THE EVIDENCE AND FINDING EXCUSES NOT TO ANSWER IN THE COURT TO REVEALED TO THE AMERICANS CITIZENS ARE ALSO PAID BY JOE BIDEN OBAMA HILLARY CLINTON NANCY PELOSI CHUCK SCHUMER FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES IN MILLIONS
THEY ARE ALL CORRUPTED THAT IS WHY THEY DARE NOT TO ANSWER AND REVEAL THE TRUTH BECAUSE JOE BIDEN HILLARY CLINTON OBAMA SOLD THE CLASSIFIEDS DOCUMENTS TO THE FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND IN EXCHANGE FOR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS,
AND PROTECTION COMING FROM DOJ FBI MARYOKAS FEDERAL COURT JUDGES , CONGRESS SENATORS DEMOCRATS AND CORRUPT REPUBLICANS MILITARY GENERALS NOT TO REVEAL TO THE AMERICANS PEOPLE ABOUT THE SALES OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS AND HUNTER BIDEN IS THE ERRANT BOY FOR THE ABOVE SWAMPS,
JOE BIDEN ( FATHER)
AND THE SWAMPS OF COCKROACHES .
CHECK ALL THEIR BANKS ACCOUNTS AND FREEZE THEIR ACCOUNTS AND ASSETS AND IMPEACHMENT MUST BE DONE ASAP AND IF ANY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS REFUSES TO IMPEACH AND RELEASE SUBPOENAS WILL BE IMPEACH AND SENTENCE TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE FOR NOT FOLLOWING THE CONSTITUTIONS.
IMPEACHMENT MUST BE DONE TO ALL GOVERNMENT SWAMPS OFFICIALS.
TO ALL AMERICANS CITIZENS SUPREME COURT JUDGES REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS OFFICIALS CONGRESS SENATORS FBI CIA INTERPOL POLICE MILITARILY GENERALS AND THE OFFICE BOYS THAT CARRY THE BOXES OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TO JOE BIDEN HOUSE AND ETC.
DID ANY OF THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS REALLY ASK THEMSELVES, WILL THEY PAY MILLIONS TO JOE BIDEN AND HUNTER BIDEN ?.
WHAT DO JOE BIDEN AND HUNTER BIDEN HAVE TO RECEIVED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
1) WHY ARE THE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS ARE IN JOE BIDEN HANDS IS TO SELL TO CHINA, RUSSIA IRAN ETC
REMEMBER HILLARY CLINTON SOLD AMERICA NUCLEAR TO RUSSIA.
2) THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS COMING FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES IS TO EXCHANGE FOR THE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS.
3) THOSE GOVERNMENTS OFFICIALS, SUPREME COURT JUDGES DEMOCRATS DOJ FBI MARYOKAS WHO ARE KEEPING THE EVIDENCE AND FINDING EXCUSES NOT TO ANSWER IN THE COURT TO REVEALED TO THE AMERICANS CITIZENS ARE ALSO PAID BY JOE BIDEN OBAMA HILLARY CLINTON NANCY PELOSI CHUCK SCHUMER FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES IN MILLIONS
THEY ARE ALL CORRUPTED THAT IS WHY THEY DARE NOT TO ANSWER AND REVEAL THE TRUTH BECAUSE JOE BIDEN HILLARY CLINTON OBAMA SOLD THE CLASSIFIEDS DOCUMENTS TO THE FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND IN EXCHANGE FOR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS,
AND PROTECTION COMING FROM DOJ FBI MARYOKAS FEDERAL COURT JUDGES , CONGRESS SENATORS DEMOCRATS AND CORRUPT REPUBLICANS MILITARY GENERALS NOT TO REVEAL TO THE AMERICANS PEOPLE ABOUT THE SALES OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS AND HUNTER BIDEN IS THE ERRANT BOY FOR THE ABOVE SWAMPS,
JOE BIDEN ( FATHER)
AND THE SWAMPS OF COCKROACHES .
CHECK ALL THEIR BANKS ACCOUNTS AND FREEZE THEIR ACCOUNTS AND ASSETS AND IMPEACHMENT MUST BE DONE ASAP AND IF ANY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS REFUSES TO IMPEACH AND RELEASE SUBPOENAS WILL BE IMPEACH AND SENTENCE TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE FOR NOT FOLLOWING THE CONSTITUTIONS.
Trump did nothing wrong✊
Thank you guys. Just, thank you.
You do not patronise your audience and you give out detailed and nuanced information in a manner that expects the viewer to reach their own conclusions, without imposing (at least not purposefully, as far as I can tell) your own biases as a form a context to the information being delivered. Thank you for trusting me and not insulting my intelligence, it's refreshing to feel this way about a news show.
This is why I have been watching your show for 7+ years, you guys rock!!!!!
God bless you and God bless us all!
5:46 an executive order doesn't precede the constitution NOR supreme court decisions. ALL classification in the US government ultimately comes from the authority of the executive office ie the president so he could declassify it at any point despite what any executive order says.
EO's are policy. Not law. This was disappointing. You take blue pill or something? The appropriate law is the Presidential Records Act. Every former president has formerly classified documents, the LAW says they can and they have. This a scurrilous attack on former President Trump particularly since Biden has been caught with secrets docs from his Senate and VP years which he never had authority to even look at outside a SCIF. Anyone with 2 or more brain cells touching knows everything about the "Get Trump" campaign is about stopping the people from voting for who they want. Censoring the peoples choice is the OPPOSITE of Democracy. You lost your way here. You should take this garbage pile down.
President Obama took away 30,000 boxes of documents,to my knowledge. That won't fit in a closet!
I don't really know or care if it was legal for him or not, I just want the rules to be applied equally, which they are clearly not as both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden has done just as bad or worse by the looks of it, and nothing is being done about either of them. Please clean your own damn house before you complain about your neighbor's house being messy, especially when your house is so much worse.
Obama’s executive order is no more binding on Trump, than Trump’s have been on Obriben.
At first they were just glad to clean Trump's desk out for him
I don't see Trump as advancing the march of communism here.
My cammander has divine powers
you cant prosecute one without prosecuting the other for doing the same thing.
The whole thing sounds to me like no one ever thought such ridiculousness would ever happen, so why bother laying out rules for it.
as you said he obviously did not
But if Trump is to be indicted over this, shouldn't Biden be as well?
They found classified documents in his garage of all place after all.
Nothing will change the outcome of world banking puppeteering this pageantry. So why sweat
All Presidents can.
Hatred of Trump blinds Democrats.
Yay Chris! This is really an eye opener. These fakers can say whatever they wish to spew and it just boils down to an age old and trusted rule of thumb. Never ever ever trust anything politicians spews out over a microphone.
So they're all guilty Biden Hillary Obama Nancy Democratic Party Republican party. Cause they all take top secret classified home and they all use private hardware[servers. Verse government officials metaphysics has both. Linked from government to residents to corporation's of foundation of Clinton and other organizations officials to the government to the private server.(resident's to fbi,cia,national security, political 🤔 🙄 🧐😮😮😮🧐🧐🧐
Been a big fan for years Chris but it's time to part ways. Your big picture view appears more than a little out of focus due to your disdain of DJT – in the past this could be overlooked but in light of current events that's become impossible. Good luck and thanks for all the fish!
i think, that Trumo is the last chance for everyone whos not chinese
I appreciate all the hard work put into the research. The issue is source premise of where power actually resides. For example, mentioning the Obama executive order doesn't lay out who can declassify, just who can classify. Ok, but what office is setting these guidelines unilaterally without any input from any other agency or elected official? The president. Literally the office would have to have complete and 100% control over such decisions to be able to make an order outlining how things are to be done and even then executive orders are not laws and Trump could not be prosecuted under them. To be able to even make such an order by defintion assumes 100% power to make such an order being vested in the office or the presidency. There is no agency or buerocrat that has more authority in any matter or any issue of the federal government than the president of the US. They get their power from his office and working at his discression, hence executive privledge. This whole thing is clearly a silly witch hunt and will amount to nothing like always.
LEAVE TRUMP ALONE!
A child in first grade would understand that even the President can’t declassify “with your mind” and without notifying anyone else, or the whole system of trying to keep secrets a secret would be chaotic, useless or both.
People would never know if what they read could send them to prison (well, if you don’t have Republican cronies running defense to keep you above the law because you are “rich” and powerful) and de-classifying something doesn’t make it safe (like if some idiot de-classified a list of US moles in a brutal foreign dictatorship….they would still all get killed and the US would lose all its inside information).
The founding fathers were probably best described as being weary of government and yet knowing that government must be had. As such, it would make sense that the President, which while the legislature could try to set bounds on but be unable to totally obstruct, could kinda do what he wants with a lot of classified documents since, well, nothing is exactly that important to set the importance higher than God. We should not be electing just anyone to office, we should be making reasonable voting choice other than merely their party and popularity.
🐮
How much is the DNC paying you to put this trash out?? LMAO 🗑️
It’s like a dumpster fire meets a train wreck I can’t look away but it’s ugly! Haha
Are we going to do a “Hunter Biden sweetheart deal or tough on crime no one is above the law Biden- Department of INjustice
I don’t believe trump had the authority to declassify any of the information I am curious if you could maybe do a compare and contrast video of this of Hillary emails or joe Biden’s corvette secret folder ??
Another through-line on all of this, which is underdiscussed, is the plague of overclassification in the government. It is dishonest to claim that the people run the country through representatives when they have no information on the biggest, and most critical, matters affecting the country.
Thank you for making this video I knew it wasn’t as simple as this amazing work!!
What kills me is that beyond any of the legal grey debating, it is incontrovertible that what he did is no different from any other modern president. Even more unbelievable is that the DOJ, run by someone who had FAR more egregious abuse of government records, is going after a political opponent in the face of their boss' behavior. The whole situation is unreal.
By all means, Trump should be punished but all the Democrats guilty of the same thing, should be punished as well. Which won’t happen, so the point is mute on if what he did was legal because no one cared until they ran out of ideas to attack him.