Comments on: Oh, you don’t say!: Biden had classified documents in his office

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 05:24:22 +0000

Pay attention to the spin – NBC cuts Biden the slack it denied Trump by the choice of adjectives and selection of facts (their preferred alternative ones).

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-aides-find-second-batch-classified-documents-new-location-rcna65371

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 05:05:46 +0000

Biden Inc – the gift that keeps on giving –

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/more-classified-biden-docs-discovered-at-undisclosed-location/

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 04:02:18 +0000

@ Barry > “if a president of a country sold the farm to China, that president wouldn’t want anyone to know about it either”

Then why not destroy the papers instead of keeping them?
And especially keeping them in a not-too-secret place.
Or did some functionary ordered to “pack up the office” when Biden left the VP slot just dump things in a box without looking to see what they were?
(as I suspect happened with a lot of the docs Trump had)

By: Barry Meislin

Barry Meislin — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 20:16:24 +0000

Listen, if a president of a country sold the farm to China, that president wouldn’t want anyone to know about it either….
What’s so difficult to understand here?

(It’s just a sequel (to a sequel to a sequel, etc.) to the “Hunter Biden” saga—AKA, “Game of Groans”(?)—with an unusual twist in the plot line.)

Meanwhile, tell me yer pronouns (or even better, OD on fentanyl—or no! I’ve go it: let’s scratch our heads about the FAA “fiasco”! Sorry, make that, DISTRACTION….)

File under: Keep yer eyes on the ball!… (But what happens if it’s the guvmint’s ball…and IT decides to take it and go home…?)

By: Don

Don — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 20:03:58 +0000

In following up, it seems that W Bush and Obama had EOs that granted the VP original classification authority. However from what I can tell, the VP wasn’t explicitly given declass authority over anything he didn’t classify.

Given the nature of what Biden had, it is likely documents that didn’t originate in his office, wasn’t classified under his authority. And likely then a crime.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 19:19:29 +0000

Kate,

That is how it seemed to me. My first assumption was that the VP would have class/declass power over items created by his office, essentially delegated by POTUS.

I only state otherwise because based on a source I trust. Doesn’t mean he’s correct. But I don’t bet against him on these sorts of questions.

By: Miguel cervantes

Miguel cervantes — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 19:14:20 +0000

https://twitter.com/ArthurSchwartz/status/1613215346776752128?cxt=HHwWgICyrfGzpeMsAAAA

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 18:20:09 +0000

Don, of course I am not an SME, but the Vice President is not in charge of the government unless there is a situation covered by the 25th Amendment. So I doubt the VP has ordinary authority to declare documents “classified.” If the President delegates responsibility for some matter to the VP, the VP would operate under the security arrangements appropriate to that subject matter. Or so it seems to me.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 18:01:13 +0000

The revelation of the documents comes as the Justice Department has appointed a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Federal investigators recovered dozens of classified files during an FBI search of the former president’s residence. “ Note the tell in the above; the documents were not classified (markings notwithstanding). There is no way to prove they were. POTUS has unlimited declass power which is derived from his constitutional power (and can't be limited by EOs or acts of Congress, only by constitutional amendment). The only exception is if the documents date from after Trump left office, but if that is true, we would know about it. They would have acted on it and filed charges.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 17:55:21 +0000

Bauxite on January 11, 2023 at 7:45 am said:
I took some heat around here for saying that I needed to know more about what was acceptable for other administrations before passing judgement on the MAL raid.

It is easy enough to understand from the beginning, if you understand that POTUS has total power to classify and declass documents. Since the documents date from Trump’s time in office, there is no way to prove they are classified. He had full power to declass them however he wished.

I also have heard from someone I trust and is a real SME that this power extends to the VP as well. If that is correct (and it likely is), Biden had full power to handle his documents as he wished.

But the Mar a Lago raid was clearly just a political action to get Trump. The way info was released and covered in the media, as well as the search warrant, all show that.