CNN is very excited: Trump was allegedly captured on a recording talking about how he’s knowingly retained “classified” documents. It seems that “journalists” are incapable of (and definitely unwilling to) understand that the classification system is different for U.S. Presidents. Meanwhile, Joe Biden and Mike Pence, both of whom illegally possessed classified documents, are going to walk away untouched.

As noted, CNN is bursting with the news that Trump practically confessed to the crime of illegally possessing “classified” documents:

Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.

The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.

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Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Justice Department investigation into Trump, has focused on the meeting as part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of national security secrets. Sources describe the recording as an “important” piece of evidence in a possible case against Trump, who has repeatedly asserted he could retain presidential records and “automatically” declassify documents.

Hogwash.

Because it’s important, let me restate the argument I’ve made before about the fact that Trump cannot be found guilty of illegally possessing classified material. In Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518 (1988), the Supreme Court stated that the President has plenary power over document classification and other national security issues:

The President, after all, is the “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” U.S.Const., Art. II, § 2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant. See Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U. S. 886, 367 U. S. 890 (1961).

Neither Congress nor the rule-makers in the various administrative agencies that report to the President may limit this power. The President does not need to follow any procedure to declassify documents. If he treats them as declassified, they are declassified. That’s how plenary power works.

So, regarding those documents to which CNN referred, if Trump gained control of them during his presidency, he could at that time do anything he liked with them. Heck, he could have read them aloud in the Rose Garden. However, showing that Trump properly understood their national security implications, while he possessed them quite legally, he was sensitive to the need to keep them safe from dangerous prying eyes.

CNN admits that it hasn’t actually heard the recording, so some of this is guesswork. However, if Trump said that he could not declassify the documents, it’s possible that he may have misunderstood his own unlimited power as president.

Alternatively, Trump was saying that, when he took the documents from the White House, he intended, at that time, to declassify them for himself and his aides. However, because his intention at that time wasn’t to make them more broadly declassified, he was currently respecting the fact that, as an ex-president, he no longer had the authority to change their classification status. Importantly, no matter what Trump meant, he did nothing wrong.

Meanwhile, both Joe Biden and Mike Pence unquestionably and illegally possessed classified documents that they took with them while they were Vice Presidents. Neither had the authority to do so and, if the law in America were applied equally (i.e., the same standards apply whether one is a private in the military or a former Vice President), both would and should be in jail.

Instead, it’s apparent that there is no meaningful investigation into Biden’s criminal conduct. Meanwhile, the DOJ has announced that it will not charge Mike Pence despite his having admitted that he had classified documents stored in his home:

BREAKING: Former Vice President Mike Pence will not face charges in a probe of classified documents. @GerardFilitti reacts.

MORE: https://t.co/kaqIyDkY3H pic.twitter.com/LlxCQC0kkt

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 2, 2023

Think of it this way: In America, all people, other than a sitting president (whose power exceeds congressional laws and regulatory rules), are forbidden to possess classified documents. Nevertheless, a one-time sitting president, who is the only person who did not violate any national security laws regarding documents, is being relentlessly persecuted, while two men who admittedly, and grievously, violated national security laws, are getting a pass.

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