Re: Let the truth be known
FMR. ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR: Absolutely. The legal theory by which he gets to take battle plans and sensitive national security information as his personal papers is absurd. It's just as wacky as the legal doctrine they came up with for having the vice president unilaterally determine who won the election. The whole purpose of the statute, the Presidential Records Act, is- was to stop presidents from taking official documents out of the White House. It was passed after Watergate. That's the whole purpose of it. And therefore it restricted what a president can take. It says it's purely private, that have nothing to do with the deliberations of government policy. Obviously, these documents are not purely private, it's obvious. And they're not even now arguing that it's purely private. What they're saying is the President just has sweeping discretion to say they are, even though they squarely don't fall within the definition. It's an absurd argument.
FMR. ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR: Absolutely. The legal theory by which he gets to take battle plans and sensitive national security information as his personal papers is absurd. It's just as wacky as the legal doctrine they came up with for having the vice president unilaterally determine who won the election. The whole purpose of the statute, the Presidential Records Act, is- was to stop presidents from taking official documents out of the White House. It was passed after Watergate. That's the whole purpose of it. And therefore it restricted what a president can take. It says it's purely private, that have nothing to do with the deliberations of government policy. Obviously, these documents are not purely private, it's obvious. And they're not even now arguing that it's purely private. What they're saying is the President just has sweeping discretion to say they are, even though they squarely don't fall within the definition. It's an absurd argument.
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