If TFG can declassify by "thinking," can he give pardons that way also?

[yellowcanine]

Inquiring minds want to know

[uponit7771]

1. K&R, there was a 2018 decision (link) that stated something like a declaration even by twitter

... of declassification isn't formal enough.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/02/trump-tweet-syria-cia-judge-690585

Even if TFG did declassify every doc he took that doesn't mean they're his cause they already have US doc designations on them.

The docs being classified is a slam dunk prima facia crime and disqualifies TFG from running again if he's convicted

[FBaggins]

9. That decision is more problematical than helpful.

The ruling doesn't say that a president can't declassify something by declaring it to be declassified. It says that he can't unknowingly and unintentionally declassify something just by talking about it.

From the ruling:

"It is undisputed that the President, as the head of the Executive Branch, has broad declassification authority" that "flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power ... and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant."

The court seems to make clear that an actual unequivocal statement that the president had declassified something would be a very different situation. Entirely independent of whether it aligned with how Congress said the process should work.


Just as importantly - nobody hints that he broke any laws by disclosing the program... when it would have been a crime for almost anyone else to do so.


One other note:

and disqualifies TFG from running again if he's convicted

That part is clearly not true. Regardless of what the law appears to say, Congress cannot amend the constitution through legislation. There's no way to keep him from office apart from beating him (either in the primary process or in the general election). Or... if we want to get really hypothetical... some think that the senate could take back up the impeachment and actually vote to disqualify.

[FBaggins]

2. Not relevant to the current conversation

No evidence that he’s thinking.

[OLDMDDEM]

11. Hmmm

No evidence that he knows how to think.

[Solomon]

3. You know he's going to try.

[Walleye]

4. Heck, he can make himself president just by thinking

[Meadowoak]

5. What a beautiful day it will be, when Trump draws his last

Evil breath.

[dalton99a]

6. The Power of Trump's Positive Thinking

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/13/donald-trump-positive-thinking-215704/

The Power of Trump’s Positive Thinking
The president always has believed he could will himself to success. But has he crossed the line between optimism and delusion?
By MICHAEL KRUSE
October 13, 2017

Donald Trump is a self-help apostle. He always has tried to create his own reality by saying what he wants to be true. Where many see failure, Trump sees only success, and expresses it out loud, again and again.

“We have the votes” to pass a new health care bill, he said last month even though he and Republicans didn’t then and still don’t.

“We get an A-plus,” he said last week of his and his administration’s response to the devastating recent hurricanes as others doled out withering reviews.

“I’ve had just about the most legislation passed of any president, in a nine-month period, that’s ever served,” he said this week in an interview with Forbes, contradicting objective metrics and repeating his frequent and dubious assertion of unprecedented success throughout the first year of his first term as president.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. He can even stay President, if he thinks about.

Just in his amazing mind, though.

Spoiled NAZI never learned that that’s not how the world operates.

[tavernier]

8. He can wriggle his ear and pull his nose

and make magat’s brains disappear. Fortunately that’s his only power.

[C_U_L8R]

10. His reality distortion field is faulty

He truly has the self-centric reasoning of an infant.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Since Trump declassified the top secret stolen documents with his mind

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet