November 3, 2023
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump offered evidence that may show prosecutorial misconduct in classified documents case prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Judge Aileen Cannon heard arguments regarding the order in which the documents at issue were first declassified by Trump, then later reclassified by President Biden in order to create a criminal offense the Biden DOJ could prosecute, based on memos first uncovered by investigative journalist John Solomon.
Journalist Julie Kelly, who attended Wednesday’s hearing in Florida also revealed in a post on X, the existence of a letter in the possession of Trump’s defense team showing Trump’s security clearance was active and in effect several weeks AFTER his indictment on mishandling classified documents, and nearly a year after the raid on Mar a Lago.
Here's what happened:
1. Biden asked NARA to remove Trump's executive privilege over documents
2. NARA granted it
3. Biden declared documents reclassified
4. Biden used new classification to order Mar-A-Lago raid— JD Sharp (@imjdsharp) November 1, 2023
Under the constitution and applicable federal law, the President has a plenary power to classify and declassify materials. This power is not subject to restriction or review by Congress or the courts, as it is specifically granted to the President in the constitution.
According to Trump’s attorneys, they have in their possession documents that undermine the entirety of the government’s prosecution.
According to the above-mentioned memos, now in the possession of the defense, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to arrange for the investigation into Trump’s handling of documents.
By retroactively revoking his predecessor’s executive privilege claim, Biden paved the way for Trump to be subpoenaed over materials he possessed legally at the time he acquired them.
The question of whether a sitting President has the power to revoke the executive privilege of a former President, as Biden has done, has not yet been adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, the retroactively arranged circumstances enabled Biden’s DOJ to investigate and criminally charge his leading political opponent.
The Administration then retroactively reclassified the documents in question to claim Trump was in violation of the Presidential Records Act, and illegally in possession of classified materials, according to arguments made by Trump’s defense team.
The raid on Mar a Lago occurred on Aug 8, 2022.
The letter to revoke Trump’s security clearance is dated June of 2023, nearly a year later and several weeks after Jack Smith had already indicted Trump on 37 counts related to classified documents – 31 counts for willful retention and the other 6 counts included conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, false statements and representations.
It is the argument of Trump’s attorneys that the crimes alleged to have been committed were not possible for a former President with an active security clearance to commit, as the active clearance rendered the charged acts permissible.
Beyond this element of the timeline, Trump’s team also argued before Judge Cannon that the prosecution is asserting classified status over 340 documents, but has yet to provide any underlying evidence the documents were ever classified at all.
They are requesting the Judge review the applicability of laws retroactively applied to acts that were legal at the time they occurred, in addition to postponing the trial date to permit time for the defense to adequately review the many thousands of documents and materials obtained in discovery, and some the prosecution has yet to turn over.
The original article can be viewed here
Note: The views expressed on vinceiori.org are not necessarily those of Vince Iori, Vince’s Blog, or Vince Iori Live.
Timeline of Documents Case Indicates Biden Admin Retroactively Reclassified Docs to Charge Trump added by Admin 1 on
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