DOJ says Trump's tweets "declassifying" Russia documents are not orders

[brooklynite]

Source: Axios

Attorneys from the Department of Justice argued in court on Tuesday that President Trump's tweets authorizing the "total declassification of any & all documents" related to the Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton's emails should not be considered real declassification orders.

Why it matters: BuzzFeed News reporter Jason Leopold cited the tweets in an emergency motion last week seeking to gain access to special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.

Details: DOJ attorneys told District Judge Reggie Walton, who demanded that the DOJ clarify its standing on the tweets, that they conferred with the White House counsel's office "and were informed that there was no order requiring declassification or disclosure of any document at issue in this case."

"The Department was further informed that the President’s statements on Twitter were not self-executing declassification orders and do not require the declassification of any particular documents," the attorneys wrote in a filing.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/trump-tweets-declassification-russia-doj-1b1e48fa-8564-4936-adde-45b1e1ed0bfd.html

[RockRaven]

1. Barr/WHC knows those documents are worse for Trump than Trump understands.

Not that this is news -- the list of things which are worse for Trump than Trump understands is long but distinguished.

[disalitervisum]

2. how could the president of the united states possibly be

an asset of the USSR? that's ludicrous, right?

it's really nice that you all got to live a quiet peaceful life these past thirty years lol.

[angrychair]

3. I will not miss it

government by tweet. How f*cking ridiculous do you have to feel as DOJ lawyer in court talking about the president's tweets.

That said, I think the argument is weak. Trump has tweeted orders before and people followed them.
He has even fired cabinet members by tweet.
When do you know he means it and when hec doesn't?

That is why this is completely f*cking ridiculous

[Dios Mio]

4. Ok

his tweets now have to be cross examined.

[Canoe52]

5. When he fires Barr via tweet, will Barr leave?

[neohippie]

6. In 2017 DOJ argued that Trump tweets are official communication from the President

Yet in 2017 DOJ argued that Trumps tweets are official communications from the President

Trump has the power to declassify, and has stated that he authorizes total declassification now the DOJ is trying to save him from himself


They seem to argue one thing when it benefits them and the opposite when it doesn't






https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/government_says_trumps_tweets_are_official_presidential_statements

The Department of Justice on Monday told a federal district court judge In Washington, D.C. that Donald Trump’s tweets are “official statements of the President of the United States.”
As the National Law Journal reports, the assertion that the tweets are official government statements was made in James Madison Project v. Department of Justice, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that seeks the release of documents related a dossier of allegations regarding Trump’s ties to Russia and written by former British spy Christopher Steele.

The president’s tweets are relevant to the case because the plaintiffs—the James Madison Project, an intelligence watchdog organization, and Politico—had argued that certain tweets waived the DOJ’s responses to their FOIA request.

Judge Amit Mehta asked DOJ attorneys to explain “how official [the tweets] are, are they statements of the White House and the President.” In a response filed Monday (PDF), DOJ attorneys said “the government is treating the statements upon which Plaintiffs rely as official statements of the President of the United States.”

That may be relevant to another case, in which several Twitter users have sued the president for blocking them on Twitter. In Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University v. Trump, the DOJ had argued (PDF) that Trump’s tweets are official policy statements, although his actions with his Twitter account are “personal conduct that is not an exercise of state power.”

“To be sure, the President’s account identifies his office, and his tweets make official statements about the policies of his administration,” the DOJ’s motion for summary judgment argues. “But the fact that the President may ‘announce the actions of state’ through his Twitter account does not mean that all actions related to that account are attributable to the state.”

[JohnnyRingo]

7. So DOJ is protecting Trump from himself.

Barr knows declassifying the Muelller report in order to find some minor trash on Hillary and Obama would reveal major incriminations of the idiot himself.

Sick of Barr running interference for Trump. I'm paying his salary, not the president.

[BainsBane]

8. Exactly.