re: a president's discretion on what are personal vs. official records is far-reaching and

quote:

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I greatly appreciate the intellectual honesty there

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Then let's be intellectually honest.

Your original stance in this thread was that none of the documents at MAL were declassified. Proof was shown that at least everything pertaining to Crossfire Hurricane (specifically) and the Russian Collusion (hoax) investigation (more generally) were quite publicly declassified.

Also, there is no law nor statute governing the precise methodology a sitting President must go through in order to declassify something. Before arguing "there is" or "there must be", please take some time to research it then post your link to the statute or law which supports your stance. (I think a link to Egan has already been posted, but if not I'll gladly post it if you need)

The overriding concern by those of us on this side of the issue is that this is being done, not to target a former President who may have broken some rule, but is done as a witch-hunt against Trump specifically to keep him from running for President again. Backing up that claim: the audio tapes Bill Clinton kept.

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The case in question is titled Judicial Watch v. National Archives and Records Administration and it involved an effort by the conservative watchdog to compel the Archives to forcibly seize hours of audio recordings that Clinton made during his presidency with historian Taylor Branch.

For pop culture, the case is most memorable for the revelation that the 42nd president for a time stored the audio tapes in his sock drawer at the White House. The tapes became the focal point of a 2009 book that Branch wrote.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson (appointed by Barak Obama) in Washington D.C. ultimately rejected Judicial Watch's suit by concluding there was no provision in the Presidential Records Act to force the National Archives to seize records from a former president.

But Jackson's ruling — along with the Justice Department's arguments that preceded it — made some other sweeping declarations that have more direct relevance to the FBI's decision to seize handwritten notes and files Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago. The most relevant is that a president's discretion on what are personal vs. official records is far-reaching and solely his, as is his ability to declassify or destroy records at will.

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That's precedent.

This all ties back to all authority to classify/declassify documents flowing from the Office of the President. There's no legal framework for any process a sitting President must go through in declassifying something. None. Zip. Nada. There's discussion about an Obama EO but the SCOTUS has waffled on whether a President is tied to former President EOs or not (one case saying yes, the other saying no).