Typically, when an individual gains access to restricted information, it is “read” — a process that involves signing documents at the beginning, in which they acknowledge legal requirements not to share information about sensitive programs with unauthorized persons or to keep classified documents in unauthorized persons. parts. When they leave such jobs, they are “read out,” again acknowledging in writing their legal responsibilities and declaring that they are not in possession of any classified documents. David Priess, a former CIA officer who is now the editor of Lawfare, a national security website and podcast producer, said presidents are not read by classified programs when they leave office. This, he said, “is because presidents are not formally read.” Said Priess: “There’s a myth out there that presidents have official security clearance. They don’t.” The “commander in chief has the ability to classify or declassify documents,” Pries said, because he is elected president by the American people. “A former president may have access to restricted classified material after leaving office to help write a memoir or at the discretion of the current president, but no formal security clearance is involved.” Email Shows White House Counsel Agreed In 2021 Trump Documents Should Be Moved To Archives In previous classified mishandling cases involving non-presidents, the official paperwork of reading and extracting classified material has been an important part of the investigation. When retired general and former CIA director David H. Petraeus pleaded guilty in 2015 to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information, for example, court documents said that he had repeatedly signed documents saying he would not share or improperly keep classified material. Petraeus signed at least 14 such nondisclosure agreements during his military and intelligence career, including a statement in 2006 that he would “return all materials that may have come into my possession or for which I am responsible because of of access, at the request of an authorized representative of the United States Government, or upon the termination of my employment or other relationship with the United States Government.” The same statement says Petraeus understood that if he did not return such materials upon request, it could be a violation of the Espionage Act — the same section of the criminal code that is referenced in the FBI’s search warrant for Trump’s home in Mar-a- Lagos this month. . In 2012, as Petraeus left the CIA, he signed a document stating, “I certify that there is no classified material in my possession, custody, or control at this time.” This document later became part of the case against him. But Trump, like his predecessors, apparently did not sign such documents, which could have legal implications for how prosecutors view his case. The Trump investigation arose out of a dispute in which the National Archives repeatedly pressed the former president to provide material deemed government property under the Presidential Records Act. Ultimately, Trump advisers turned over 15 boxes of material, including what the agency said were more than 100 classified documents, some of them top secret. The return of those boxes from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in January raised alarm bells in the administration that the former president or his aides had mishandled and retained significant amounts of sensitive national defense information. But Trump’s status as a former president means that the criminal investigation may, by necessity, end up focusing more on what Trump did beginning in May, when he received a grand jury subpoena for any remaining classified material, than on his actions. regarding delivered items. end in January. If Trump doesn’t fully comply with the subpoena, experts say, he could face legal danger regardless of whether he was read from the classified programs when he left office. “It’s one more reason why the criminal investigation and prosecution of a former president has complexity,” said Brandon Van Grack, an attorney in private practice who previously worked on classified misconduct cases when he was a federal prosecutor. “What it highlights is that the criminal case focuses on what happened after May, not what happened before then.” A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on how the apparent lack of reading or reading about Trump could affect prosecutors’ legal analysis of the facts in the Trump case. John F. Kelly, Trump’s onetime chief of staff, who said he disliked classification rules and distrusted intelligence officials, said administration officials should have given the 45th president some sort of briefing on classified matters and documents when he left the White House. “It would be important to read it because it would be with some hope that it would not violate all these rules for classified material. The important message would be: “Once you’re no longer president, all the rules apply to you,” Kelly said. A spokesman for Trump did not respond to a request for comment on whether the former president had received any sort of briefing on the exit regarding classified material. Trump has criticized the FBI for searching his home, and his defenders have claimed he declassified the material he took with him before he left office – although no evidence has been made public that he went through the process to do so. The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago probe followed months of resistance, delays by Trump On Monday, Trump’s lawyers filed court papers asking for a special master to be appointed to review the material seized in the August search — an odd request given that such appointments are generally made to handle issues of attorney-client privilege, not classified information. and that The request came just two weeks into the investigation, meaning law enforcement officials have already been reviewing the seized material for a significant amount of time. On August 22, former President Donald Trump’s lawyers asked a federal court to appoint a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago. (Video: Reuters) A federal judge in Florida who received that request asked Trump’s legal team to explain why they did it, giving lawyers until Friday to respond. The mishandling of national security material is not the only crime being investigated in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, and Trump’s status as a former president may not reduce his legal risk for the two other potential criminal charges listed in the search warrant: destruction of records and concealment or mutilation of government material. Yet, Ashley Deeks, a law professor at the University of Virginia who until recently was deputy legal counsel at the National Security Council, said that laws and practices surrounding classified information put a president in a somewhat unique position. “Because the president himself is the ultimate classification authority, it makes sense that the agencies do not formally read presidents into classified programs,” Deeks said. “With regard to former presidents, Congress itself has recognized in statute that former presidents would still have access to at least some of their records, although Congress has also made clear that former presidents do not personally own those records.” .
