By WND
An old court ruling in a case involving recorded audio tapes Bill Clinton had made stored for a time in his sock drawer could hit the FBI and the Department of Justice hard in the politicized agencies’ attacks on President Trump, according to a new report.
Just the News reported that the court decision at the time concluded that various items were in the possession of Clinton, and therefore presumed to be his personally property, so Americans had no right to force access to them.
The old decision has been brought up because of the raid by the FBI on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Federal agents claimed they were looking for government property, but commentators have suggested the FBI was searching Trump’s personal property for anything he could use later to reveal the extent of corruption in the bureau when it fabricated the Russia collusion hoax against him in 2016.
The report from John Solomon at Just the News explains legal experts suggest the old case ruling may have a “significant impact” on the FBI search, especially when agents searched Melania Trump’s closet and Donald Trump’s personal office.
The report explains the circumstances of the original fight. It was government watchdog Judicial Watch that wanted the National Archives to get and make available audio tapes that Clinton “once kept in his sock drawer.”
At the time, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington D.C. rejected the lawsuit, finding there was no allowance in the Presidential Records Act that would allow officials to force the Archives to grab the records from Clinton.
The ruling also determined 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,” the report explained.
“Under the statutory scheme established by the PRA, the decision to segregate personal materials from Presidential records is made by the President, during the President’s term and in his sole discretion,” the judge said in 2012.
It stands as a precedent since it never was appealed.
Trump has said the documents in question that the FBI seized were his, and anything that had been marked as classified, he had ordered declassified.
Jackson had pointed out, “Since the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of Presidential records during his time in office, it would be difficult for this Court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal records.”
The records could not be seized by federal agents after Clinton left office, because they were “not physically in the government’s possession,” the judge said.
“Defendant submits that it would be required to seize them directly from President Clinton in order to assume custody and control over them. Defendant considers this to be an ‘extraordinary request’ that is unfounded, contrary to the PRA’s express terms, and contrary to traditional principles of administrative law. The Court agrees.”
Further, the report explained both George W. Bush and Barack Obama signed executive orders that still are in effect “declaring that presidents have sweeping authority to declassify secrets and do not have to follow the mandatory declassification procedures all other government officials do.”
The precedents have left some telling Just the News the FBI raid was out of line.
Hahaha.
“But” here emails?
AND her emails!
Clowns.
All the laws and all the precedents do not stop Democrats when they are trying to destroy a political opponent, particularly when that opponent has proven to be undefeatable. The Democrats’ argument will be, “But this is Trump and, merely because we say so, he poses an existential threat to the universe.” With the properly selected activist liberal judge, that argument will prevail.
Sure, this is on a direct, invariable path to the Supreme Court, but how long will that take and what irreparable damage will have been done in the meantime? That, of course, is exactly what the Democrats are counting on; they know they are doing wrong (it why the White House and Obergruppenfuhrer Garland lie about it) but they just need to run out the clock.