Classification / Intelligence & US Presidents (Page 1/1) 82-T/A [At Work] MAR 02, 12:21 PM Had a discussion (debate) with a friend of mine, and I keep seeing this misconception come up on a regular basis... and just wanted to lay this out so there's no misunderstanding. I continue to see articles that reference former U.S. presidents as mishandling classified information and accidentally "leaking" classified information.... Want to make sure everyone is clear on this: The US President, no matter WHO that is at the time... Republican or Democrat, is the "Ultimate" CLASSIFICATION AUTHORITY. Period. The U.S. President can literally declassify information at any time, merely by speaking it or directly ordering an agency to do so. There is NO ONE that can prevent the president from doing so, and the president releasing classified information in a speech is within his prerogative as the chief executive of the executive branch. The President, as the Chief Classification Authority, can also delegate this authority down to the agency and department heads to declassify information if necessary. If the U.S. President decided that he wanted to sit down and read aloud every single classified document from every agency to CSPAN, he could do so. So if you ever see another article that states... "so and so president may have accidentally leaked classified information." ... the person stating this is probably retarded. rinselberg MAR 03, 07:03 AM The reporting is still sketchy. Or at least my exposure to the reporting has been sketchy. But I believe there is concern about some of the documents that were discovered not too long ago at Mar-a-Lago. If classified documents were taken from the White House by a departing President, and that President had not created any record that he had officially declassified the documents... I question whether that former President would be covered by the authority that he had as President. It's not a big news story yet, and may never become one, but it is an "eyebrow raiser." If the thought here is going to be "Yeah, yeah, what about Hillary Clinton's emails?", what does that say about Trump? That he followed in her footsteps? 82-T/A [At Work] MAR 03, 07:31 AM quote Originally posted by rinselberg: The reporting is still sketchy. Or at least my exposure to the reporting has been sketchy. But I believe there is concern about some of the documents that were discovered not too long ago at Mar-a-Lago. If classified documents were taken from the White House by a departing President, and that President had not created any record that he had officially declassified the documents... I question whether that former President would be covered by the authority that he had as President. It's not a big news story yet, and may never become one, but it is an "eyebrow raiser." If the thought here is going to be "Yeah, yeah, what about Hillary Clinton's emails?", what does that say about Trump? That he followed in her footsteps? I don't know the specifics, but classified material must be kept within a SCIF, or transported using approved methods (double-bagged... so like a folder within a courier bag). But again, as the President of the United States, he has full authority of classified information... so I suppose it would depend on whether or not he was still president during the time that he removed them. Did he remove them prior to inauguration, for example. The president doesn't necessarily have to follow a process, the process is for everyone else.