- Aug 12, 2009
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Fair enough. So are you here suggesting that Trump actually declassified all those hundreds of documents they asked him time and again to return, which he simply refused to return them?I'm not the OP, but I can answer the question. The crime can be found under 18 US Code 1924 - Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. The punishment, according to the law, is a fine or up to 5 years or both. Each document would equal one count of violating this law.
You may want to jump on this and say if that's the case, then Trump should also be charged. On the surface, yes, but it's a lot murkier for him than Biden. Trump had OCA (Original Classification Authority) under Executive Order 13526. The President also has the USSC decision of Dept. of the Navy vs. Egan on his side. Most legal scholars believe that it gives any President broad power as to the ability of classify or declassify information in their capacity as President. The USSC cited Article 2 of the Constitution as the basis of a President having this authority. That's why the raid at Mar-a Lago hasn't been the slam dunk that many on the left has been claiming. The DOJ is having a hard time with this because, although, Trump can't declassify anything with his mind, but if a President says that a document is no longer classified, who has the authority to override that decision?
Biden, on the other hand, is a lot clearer. Either President Obama declassified the documents before the end of his Presidency, or Biden broke the law. He can't declassify the documents now as President and be free and clear. The weasel out is going to be that he didn't know that there were classified documents mixed in. Because he's powerful, it's likely going to work. Normal people, however, would fall under "ignorance is no excuse". Especially, if the classification markings were on the documents.
Something that hasn't been discussed much. The last day of the Obama presidency was 1/20/17. The Penn Biden Center was open on 2/8/18. For those classified documents, where were those documents located between those two dates?