DOJ says presidents should be able to sell secrets on eBay

pjc50

Recall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States for a moment: "Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that presidents have absolute immunity for acts committed as president within their core constitutional purview, at least presumptive immunity for official acts within the outer perimeter of their official responsibility, and no immunity for unofficial acts". Now, if there was any kind of consistency, there would be a ruling that the president's "personal" White House papers aren't above the law, but I expect another piece of legal Calvinball to happen again.

dylan604

Just because POTUS writes down classified information in his personal notes/papers does not mean the information is no longer classified. Yes, POTUS has the power to de-classify, but there's a way of doing that so everyone is aware that certain information is now public. Doing it on a whim as a CYA because someone wants to make their illegal decision legal only after it becoming publicly known it occurred is not the way of properly de-classifying something.

mrinterweb

We all know who Trump is. This behavior, from Trump, should shock no one by now. I'm equally upset with all those who enable him. Midterms are here, time to do the one thing we are still allowed to. Be certain, Trump will cry foul on the elections unless they go his way.

wat10000

Ridiculous as it may be, I'm not sure the argument is incorrect under the law. The president is the ultimate classification authority. The only reason he was prosecuted for mishandling classified documents previously is because that was after he left office. The American system of executive power needs a major rethink. For decades, Congress has given up more and more power to the executive under the assumption that the president will be a careful steward of those powers. This was a dumb decision at the time and it's made quite obvious now that an absolute cretin holds the office. Unfortunately, I don't imagine we'll get that rethink. Instead, we'll just try to fix it by giving somebody else too much power and hoping they use it better.

declan_roberts

It looks like this stems from the Mar-a-lago raid in 2022. Did we ever find out what the president was actually squirreling away there that he wants to sell on eBay? I remember the leak at the time was that it was nuclear secrets, but I haven't really seen an update on it.

otterley

Source article: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/16/presidential-record...

testemailfordg2

This sounds like POTUS is the new Roman Emperor of our times and he / she can sell the republic or interests of its subjects to anyone as he wishes, keeping all the benefits generated for his personal fortune and distributing all the mis-fortune / longer term effects to the wider population base... Guess what there is a name for this game, "Privatize the profits and socialize the losses".

NooneAtAll5

I don't think being able to sell secrets on eBay is a bad thing. The point of secret classification isn't to restrict trusted people - but to restrict *unathorized* access. And highest person in chain of command naturally has full authority to do as he sees the situation fit What I don't understand how it's allowed is that money earned from such ebay sell would go to private pocket instead of the government I feel like that latter point isn't accentuated enough

metalman

I like the way it's worded, as it leaves open if you are buying information on a specific person or thing or haveing information on a specific person or thing, become secret. But the real money and show auctions will be for end of term pardons for things that cant be kept secret, and then there will be all sorts of deals and perks, get a free secret with a full family pardon and complimenterty stay in the white house epstien suite.

suchoudh

we are living in age of monsters.

solid_fuel

It you don’t think national secrets should be sold on ebay to personally enrich whoever happens to hold office, good news: we are in the middle of election season and now is a great time to do something about it. Let this serve as a reminder to vote! Removing this dementia addled criminal and his supporters from power is the patriotic thing to do if you care about this country and its future.