ChiGoose

This is the first I'm hearing this claim. Everything I've seen states that the boxes came with Trump's stuff when he moved out of the White House. Is there a source for this?

There is a non-zero chance he kept the documents because he liked the love letters from Kim Jong Un or he liked to impress people at his club. Incredibly stupid but not nearly as bad as something like selling secrets to the Saudis.

Even if you end up being right about declassification (of which I am highly skeptical) it would still be a crime for him to possess the documents as they belonged to the government.

You keep sharing this as if it is settled law and the common understanding of how presidential declassification works. It is not.

Even if he declassified them, they belong in government custody and him possessing them post-presidency is still a crime.

Traditional conservatism is now seen as a bad thing by modern conservatives. The new conservative is whatever Trump is currently pushing at that moment.

When did I say that?

There's no proof they were declassified. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't, but they're just claiming it at this point. And even if they were, the records do not belong to him and keeping them out of government custody is still a crime.

Trump in handcuffs would be upholding the rule of law and the spirit of the republic.

I long for the days were Trump is irrelevant and we don't have to worry about him. I doubt we'll return to sanity anytime soon since the Republican Party has gone all-in on Trumpism, but I could do without the man himself.

Looks like WSJ and Breitbart may have gotten ahold of the warrant and receipts. Feels like those leaks came from the Trump side of things.

This country would be much better off if social media just turned off overnight and forever.

US citizens are 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and more than 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes than undocumented immigrants

If the material is not classified, why would it be a crime to make it available to others?

Just want to point out that, under your theory, Joe Biden can leave the White House with all of our secrets and once he’s just a private citizen, he and Hunter can use them to make enough money for all the blow and crack they could ever want. That would be totally legal and aboveboard if your theory is correct. Frankly, I find that idea hard to get behind.

That Biden is going to steal classified documents?

If Biden takes classified material to his house and retains it after he has left office and has been told to return it, then yes, I would absolutely support the FBI searching his home.

That is certainly a legal theory, but I haven’t seen it backed up by any authorities anywhere. I don’t believe it is the prevailing belief in the legal community and if Trump is charged and raises this defense, I’m not confident he would be successful.

It is DoJ policy not to comment on ongoing investigations because doing so could damage the person being investigated. Opening an investigation has a lower burden of proof than charging someone. Many (most?) investigations end without a charge. If you’re not going to charge someone with a crime then they have no way to defend themselves against whatever you make public. Trump has the warrant and the receipts. He could make them public but the DoJ cannot because doing so could harm Trump. Garland basically said that Trump had gone public with this so they think it’s ok to unseal the warrant from their end. Of course, Trump still can object to the unsealing if he wants. Basically, the policy of silence exists to protect the person being investigated

Ok, so is the theory that if the president moves classified material somewhere outside of the government, that this act alone serves to declassify the documents? So if Biden is going to McDonald’s with our military secrets in his pocket, they would be declassified if he ate inside but not if he went through the drive through?

It has happened several times in our history. It’s dumb, but people try it.

So it is your contention then, that if Sleepy Joe goes out for an ice cream cone with a list of all of our spies, and leaves the list on the table while he wanders about aimlessly, that the list has therefore been declassified and anybody can read it?

Is there any case law to support that theory?

He does not have a security clearance. President’s don’t get clearances by virtue of the fact that the President decides what is classified. Therefore, there is no clearance retained when they leave office. The current president usually reads ex-presidents into classified materials to get their advice or as a courtesy but as far as I can tell ex-presidents have no authority to demand or declassify classified intelligence. I think the simplest explanation is that, by the end of his administration, his team was staffed with D-listers and they just took a bunch of stuff not necessarily realizing what it was. For whatever reason, Trump was reluctant to give it back and when his team did send the documents, they messed up and didn’t send all of them. The scary situation that I would be worried about if I were in the DoJ would have to do with the Trump family’s close relationship with the Saudis.

Ah, so now we are on the side of "it's totally fine for a private citizen to have classified materials" Are we throwing an "I'm With Her" bumper sticker on the car yet?