If I were advising Trump ...

"Executive Order 13526 was issued on December 29, 2009 by United States President Barack Obama.^[1] It is the latest in a series of executive orders from US Presidents outlining how classified information should be handled. It revokes and replaces the previous Executive Orders in effect for this, which were EO 12958 (text) and EO 13292 (text)."  wiki

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Listen up, pilgrims!  The system of classifying most US government information originates in an Executive Order, not in federal law. 

If you watched the senate hearing yesterday presided over by Lindsay Graham it quickly became evident that he was to some extent channeling Roy Cohn in the long ago Army-McCarthy hearings (1954).  I was a boy then but, freaky kid that I was, I was glued to our tiny black and white TV set to watch.  "Have you no sense of decency left? " Lawyer Welch asked Senator Joe McCarthy.   I had the feeling yesterday watching Senators Feinstein and Whitehouse try to torture responses into new meanings that this was a "star chamber" proceeding in the fullest meaning of the term.  A clear example was Feinstein's attempt to twist the former AG's statement that Flynn "could have been compromised" into "Flynn compromised the national security of the US."  It seems evident to me that a certain element in the Democratic Party is intent on portraying both Flynn and Trump as traitorous agents of Russis.  

Well, pilgrims, life is not just a bowl of cherries and fire should be fought with fire.  The president is the ultimate declassification authority.  As noted above, the classification and security clearance structure and procedures are created thought Executive Orders (with the exception of atomic energy information).  In other words, with that exception, the president can declassify anything that is presently classified.

It is not a crime to talk to Russian officials. Flynn talked to the Russian ambassador on circuits that were commercial and unencrypted telephones.  Presumably they spoke in English.  The whole world knows that these conversations took place.  The New York Times revealed this to the world after someone in the government told them.  The whole world knows that all capable governments eavesdrop on foreign government officials.  This is a secret without effective secrecy.  Was the information collected by a cooperating foreign service?  Well, that is just too bad!  The political situation in the US is so toxic that exceptional disclosures by the US government are justified. 

IMO, the president should declassify the transcripts of the intercepted Flynn/Russian ambassador conversations and the present DNI should release them himself at a presser with release of hard copies of the documents to the press.

If Flynn was guilty of something more than chatting with this Russian diplomat or any others, the transcripts will show that.  pl

ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13526

Comments

[readerOfTeaLeaves]

All,
"The political situation in the US is so toxic that exceptional disclosures by the US government are justified. "

Unfortunately, two key factors exacerbate the toxicity:
1. Trump's firing of Comey, apparently so abrupt that Comey learned of it from televisions in LA
2. Grand jury subpoenas issued to associates of Flynn in the hours prior to Comey's firing.

Irrespective of anyone's personal political views, the timing and juxtaposition of events are concerning.
It's going to take extraordinary efforts to reduce the political toxicity.

[Bill H]

I recall that as well. It never got any traction as the media sort of implied that even if the president told him to do it, it was still illegal.

[Bill H]

Part of the hyperventilation, particularly from Sally Yates, is that Flynn had put himself in a position where he could be blackmailed by the Russians. Does that remind anyone other than me of Cold War rhetoric? The Soviet Union was certainly a threat. To what degree is Russia, even with its nuclear arsenal, a similar threat, given that we are not provoking them?

[Account Deleted]

So there's nothing like events to get you to re-evaluate your premises!

Even if Trump doesn't know he can declassify the transcripts already, his willingness to use executive power so far suggests he would find a way, if he wanted to. Gonna have to go with Occam's razor on this one now: Transcripts compromise Flynn, probably Trump & won't see the light of day under what is left of POTUS45.

[turcopolier]

Schnozzola

No. IMO this is suicidal. pl

[Eric Newhill]

Sir,
When you reply from your I-phone, the comment that you are replying to disappears and there is a pre-canned messaged that reads "This comment has been removed by the moderator....." - or something close to that.

It happened to a comment I posted a little while ago and that you replied to from your i-phone. I thought I had offended you somehow, though it was a pretty innocent comment. Later the same day the comment was back up. On this thread there were three comments where the same thing occurred. One was a comment by Walrus.

We know you replied from an I-phone because your response is stamped with something that says so.

[turcopolier]

Eric Newhill

Ah! OK I will stop responding by iphone. pl

[BillWade]

Clinton's base will have to process some hefty "doublethink" ideas today, it has me LMAO. President Trump is a very brave man. I still think he should be impeached for the Syria missile salvo - again lmao, as if that's ever going to happen, perhaps he got some bad advice from a Borg darling, yeah, probably. I think McMaster is next up to the plate, home run or strike out?

[BillWade]

Your IPhone comments initially process in a weird manner, rather than posting a reply it deletes the comments posted by the likes of Walrus, they are a "bug" and not a "feature" of this site and likely not something you intended to happen,

[LeaNder]

Yes, no doubt, to the more casual observer it feels a bit like a soap opera scenario for public consumption.

Gonna have to go with Occam's razor on this one now: Transcripts compromise Flynn, probably Trump & won't see the light of day under what is left of POTUS45.

If you say secret and classified over and over again this no doubt stimulates our imagination.

Personally, I would be more interested in how the now three agencies--versus all seventeen collectively as HC claimed--came to the conclusion that the Russians, especially its own agencies versus let's say some type of Russian-Anonymous-hacktivists, who didn't cover their trail well enough, interfered with the American election.

[jld]

given that we are not provoking them

Hmmmm...
Are you sure that this is the Russian assessement of the situation?

[William R. Cumming]

P.L. correct that Secret Restricted Data a product of the Atomic Energy Act.

[William R. Cumming]

IMO the current "Russia" meddling is mislabeled in that FP set by oligarchs on both sides not nation-state interests. The true interest of Russian oligarchs is to see that money laundering can continue in the West largely through real estate, a largely unregulated sector of Western economies.

[Bill H]

Well, good point. I worded that awkwardly. The thought hit me as I was posting and I tried to tack something on to avoid looking like an idiot. Wound up looking like an idiot. Of course we are provoking them.

What I meant is, would they be a threat if we were not constantly poking them in the eye with a stick?

[Fred]

WRC,

Real estate is unregulated? You must not have tried to build anything in any of our cities.

[William R. Cumming]

Fred! Definition of "property" one of state law. You are talking building and zoning law while I am speaking to funding of real estate ventures.