Trump And Classified Documents.

Donald Trump likes to live in fantasy land: you know, where he any time or on any day can declassify what up until then has been deemed classified documents. Of course, Trump is full of shit. First off, only a sitting president can declassify documents unless, by executive order, he or she enumerates a list of people who can also declassify documents on the president's behalf. That's what Obama did with Biden when he was VEEP, so Biden did declassify documents while Vice President.

Once a president is out of office, that power ends upon expiry of the presidential term. So, No, you can't declassify documents while at Mar-a-Lago, nor can anyone for that matter declassify documents just by "thinking about it". That last beauty even applies to a sitting president. Various laws have to be followed.

And then there's this: why does the president declassify? Quite simply, documents are declassified so at least part of them if not all can be released into the public domain. That's not what Trump did at Mar-a-Lago. He shoved those boxes in a closet only for his own personal access as an ex-president. That doesn't cut the mustard. Period.

The Presidential Records Act (PRA) is the statute that governs classified documents. All classified documents, by their very nature, are national security documents. At the end of a term, a former president must transfer all of them to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in a timely manner. None can be omitted, nor can any be held back at the whim of a former president. If any are, that could potentially amount to obstruction of justice. So Trump is on thin ice, to put it mildly.

So...to quote Trump, I guess we'll see what happens.