Should Trump go to jail for mishandling classified information?

[WEATHER53]

How do you mishandle what is yours and is stored in closed boxes?
More melodramatic Pearl clutching from all aghast lib loons.

 

[WEATHER53]

I had a SECRET Clearance for 40 years
I have received numerous briefings on how the Classification system works and how to handle classified documents

Enough to know that Trumps claims to collectively declassify are full of shit as are those who repeat them

Oh my God. Now you are a top secret clearance dude
Hardy har har

 

[rightwinger]

Oh my God. Now you are a top secret clearance dude
Hardy har har

Never had a TOP SECRET clearance
Had an opportunity to work on some of those programs but it wasn’t worth the aggravation

 

[rightwinger]

How do you mishandle what is yours and is stored in closed boxes?
More melodramatic Pearl clutching firm all aghast lib loons.

It was not his

Once Trump takes possession of classified information, it becomes his responsibility to protect it

 

[WEATHER53]

Secret Agent Man in our midst!!

 

[Lastamender]

Secret Agent Man in our midst!!

No, Inspector Clouseau.

 

[Rigby5]

Trump says he should……

Donald Trump has repeatedly called for lengthy jail sentences for those who he claimed mishandled classified information

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for the lengthy jailing of opponents of his who he claimed mishandled classified materials.

www.cnn.com

In my administration, I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law."

"One of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information," he said in September 2016.
Speaking in July of that year, Trump said Clinton's mishandling "disqualifies" her from public service.

"Any government employee who engaged in this kind of behavior would be barred from handling classified information," Trump said. "Again, that alone disqualifies her

Wrong.

First of all, Hillary mishandled classified docs by deliberately avoiding State Department regulations and laws like FOIA, by using her own private email server.
She was not a president, so did not have ultimate personal discretion like Trump did, and she was broadcasting all those classified docs all over the world.
She did not even have to send them in an email, since any doc in her server could easily be accessed by anyone.
That how is just careless and not a crime.
The crime is that she then had the servers wiped and cellphones smashed, to deliberately violate FOIA.

Seconds is that presidents are NOT given classified clearance by government, but by an election that automatically gives them ULTIMATE discretion above any congressional legislation.
It is the president who decides what is classified and what is not, and who can access, completely under their arbitrary discretion. No one else gets to say anything about presidents.
And ex-presidents retain that ultimate discretion for all docs created before their term ends.
You can't wipe their memory, and they retain the most important "need to know".
No one else would have the context to even be able to understand historical docs.
That is why the precedent is that former presidents are the ones who create their presidential libraries.

 

[ABikerSailor]

How do you mishandle what is yours and is stored in closed boxes?
More melodramatic Pearl clutching from all aghast lib loons.

Classified material doesn't "belong" to the president. He is simply the caretaker of it and is required to handle it as regulations dictate. Over my 20 years in the Navy, I had access to lots of classified material, but none of it was "mine", even when I had sole possession of it (as in the case of Navy Wide Advancement exams and classified material for various reasons in performance of my job). When I no longer had reason to have it (exams had been administered, or the classified material was no longer required by me), I had to return it via the various procedures outlined for the material I had. Yes, Trump DID mishandle the classified information in question. Either it was ignorance about procedures required (likely), or it was because he simply thought he didn't have to because he was president (even more likely), and thought he could do things like the CEO of a company and ignore rules.

 

[JimH52]

If he is not prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law...the DOJ will have shown a dangerous precedent that can be used by others who steal classified documents.

 

[Rigby5]

I had a SECRET Clearance for 40 years
I have received numerous briefings on how the Classification system works and how to handle classified documents

Enough to know that Trumps claims to collectively declassify are full of shit as are those who repeat them

Wrong.
I have had clearance on and off as well, and that has NOTHING at all to do with it.
Presidents do NOT get "clearance".
What they have is vastly ABOVE "clearance", and is ultimate discretion.
Everyone is below them.
No one else gets to say anything regarding presidents.
They collectively hold the delegated authority of the people.
There is nothing higher than that, or a greater "need to know".

There are questions as to ex-presidents.
But from what I understand, since they had ultimate discretion while president, they retain it because no one else can.
The only clearance they do not retain, is to new docs created AFTER their term.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Wrong.

First of all, Hillary mishandled classified docs by deliberately avoiding State Department regulations and laws like FOIA, by using her own private email server.
She was not a president, so did not have ultimate personal discretion like Trump did, and she was broadcasting all those classified docs all over the world.
She did not even have to send them in an email, since any doc in her server could easily be accessed by anyone.
That how is just careless and not a crime.
The crime is that she then had the servers wiped and cellphones smashed, to deliberately violate FOIA.

Seconds is that presidents are NOT given classified clearance by government, but by an election that automatically gives them ULTIMATE discretion above any congressional legislation.
It is the president who decides what is classified and what is not, and who can access, completely under their arbitrary discretion. No one else gets to say anything about presidents.
And ex-presidents retain that ultimate discretion for all docs created before their term ends.
You can't wipe their memory, and they retain the most important "need to know".
No one else would have the context to even be able to understand historical docs.
That is why the precedent is that former presidents are the ones who create their presidential libraries.

All access for the president ends when their term does. If their knowledge is required at a time after their presidency ends, they are "read in", meaning they are given a temporary classified access that is only valid for the time their knowledge is required. And no, you can't "wipe someone's memory", but you CAN have them sign an NDA which says they won't talk about anything they know about that is classified or they will become liable to criminal prosecution. And those NDA's happen all the time for when a person leaves a job where a clearance was required. For the military, the NDA is written for 10 years after they leave the job or the service.

 

[Rigby5]

He should swing from the end of a rope for this & his coup attempt. Anyone else would be locked up under a $5 million bond.

Wrong.
He not only did nothing wrong, but even remotely calling the Jan 6 demonstration a "coup attempt" destroys all possible credibility.
He would have had to have been gathering weapons or other armed forces for that.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Wrong.
I have had clearance on and off as well, and that has NOTHING at all to do with it.
Presidents do NOT get "clearance".
What they have is vastly ABOVE "clearance", and is ultimate discretion.
Everyone is below them.
No one else gets to say anything regarding presidents.
They collectively hold the delegated authority of the people.
There is nothing higher than that, or a greater "need to know".

There are questions as to ex-presidents.
But from what I understand, since they had ultimate discretion while president, they retain it because no one else can.
The only clearance they do not retain, is to new docs created AFTER their term.

Presidents don't retain their clearances when they leave office. If their knowledge and expertise is required for a situation after they leave, they are "read in", which means they get a temporary clearance for that situation only. And, when they leave office, they sign an NDA saying they won't speak about classified material or they will be prosecuted for revealing classified information. Same as what they do for the military when a person working in a classified position leaves the job or leaves the service.

 

[WEATHER53]

No, Inspector Clouseau.

I am a former astronaut

 

[WEATHER53]

Classified material doesn't "belong" to the president. He is simply the caretaker of it and is required to handle it as regulations dictate. Over my 20 years in the Navy, I had access to lots of classified material, but none of it was "mine", even when I had sole possession of it (as in the case of Navy Wide Advancement exams and classified material for various reasons in performance of my job). When I no longer had reason to have it (exams had been administered, or the classified material was no longer required by me), I had to return it via the various procedures outlined for the material I had. Yes, Trump DID mishandle the classified information in question. Either it was ignorance about procedures required (likely), or it was because he simply thought he didn't have to because he was president (even more likely), and thought he could do things like the CEO of a company and ignore rules.

He is permitted to do as he wishes which we know infuriates the libs emotionally addled and incorrect assertions

 

[Missouri_Mike]

Clean freak germaphobe Trump brought empty folders to Florida. Riiiiiiight.

So now the folders had germs in them. Holy **** man.

 

[ABikerSailor]

He is permitted to do as he wishes which we know infuriates the libs emotionally addled and incorrect assertions

Nixon thought the same thing, and look how that turned out.

 

[playtime]

 

[Indeependent]

I had a SECRET Clearance for 40 years
I have received numerous briefings on how the Classification system works and how to handle classified documents

Enough to know that Trumps claims to collectively declassify are full of shit as are those who repeat them

Funny how you waited this long to post that convenient bit of info.
Everyone who specializes in this field of law says you're FOS.

 

[rightwinger]

Wrong.
I have had clearance on and off as well, and that has NOTHING at all to do with it.
Presidents do NOT get "clearance".
What they have is vastly ABOVE "clearance", and is ultimate discretion.
Everyone is below them.
No one else gets to say anything regarding presidents.
They collectively hold the delegated authority of the people.
There is nothing higher than that, or a greater "need to know".

There are questions as to ex-presidents.
But from what I understand, since they had ultimate discretion while president, they retain it because no one else can.
The only clearance they do not retain, is to new docs created AFTER their term.

Has nothing to do with Trumps claims that he gave blanket declassification orders for all documents he holds

Even his own staff laughed when asked if he gave such an order