DOD sued over Obama-era directive on classified documents – Washington Examiner
EXCLUSIVE A legal group headed by ex-Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller accused the Defense Department on Thursday of failing to answer a request for an Obama-era memo that may reveal pertinent information surrounding the 45th presidents classified documents indictment.
America First Legal in January filed a Freedom of Information Act request to compel the DOD to submit information pertaining to a secretive technology committee created in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama in response to foreign cyberattack threats. Millers group argues that the Presidential Information Technology Committeecreates a presumption that the President controls all information he receives and says that it could have sweeping implications for Trumps 40-count indictment of allegedly mishandling classified records.
The Defendant has violated the FOIA by failing to reasonably search for records responsive to AFLs FOIA request and release nonexempt records within the prescribed time limit, lawyers for Millers group wrote, noting the agency only acknowledged the request on March 15 and has not released any responsive records as of Thursday.
In March 2015, a publication of Obamas PITC memorandumestablished the presidents exclusive control over information resources provided to the president, the vice president, and the Executive Office of the President. The memorandum made clear that any records sent to EOP systems or records stemming from those systems are controlled by the president.
Trump has argued that under the Presidential Records Act, he had broad authority to designate documents from his time in office as personal property, and he has argued his decision to take the material to his Mar-a-Lago estate showed that he treated the records as such.
AFLs present FOIA request raises important legal questions, the group wrote in its DOD suit. First, in the superseding indictment by the Special Counsel team against former President Trump, it was alleged that Trump was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents.'
But AFL contends the PITC memorandum complicates the allegation against Trump because of the presumption the memo created of the presidents exclusive control of information provided to him, or that the former President may have believed that such exclusive control gave him authority to retain certain documents.
Also at issue in AFLs quest for information are the boxes of documents that Trump provided from his Florida home to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Based upon its inspection of those records, the National Archives decided that classified information may have been possessed illegally and made a referral to the Department of Justice, AFL wrote in its nine-page complaint. That referral informed the Special Counsels case in the Southern District of Florida. However, if the originals of those records are in the possession of the Department of Defense (due to PITC), it would mean the records at Mar-a-Lago or at least some of them were mere copies of actual Presidential records and thus excluded from the Presidential Records Act.
Dan Epstein, an attorney for AFL, said the idea that PITC presumes all information received by the president is within his control complicates the indictment, particularly on the question of what President Trump was authorized to access and retain.
If the court finds that the records subject to PITC are indeed agency records and not presidential records and were separately preserved by the DOD, Epstein argues that it still raises serious questions about NARAs decision to refer Trump to the Department of Justice because the referral would be based on a false claim that President Trump removed presidential records, Epstein added.
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DOD general counsel Caroline Krass was not available to respond to theWashington Examiner.
The full complaint from AFL is below:
AFL complaint over lapsed FOIA deadline by Kaelan Deese on Scribd
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DOD sued over Obama-era directive on classified documents - Washington Examiner
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