Honest question, can the POTUS unilaterally declassify something like that?
Yes. As far as I have read. Also that goes double now that SCOTUS has made almost anything the president does legal.
apparently, just by thinking about it. yes.
the president can literally do whatever he wants with the only recourse being if congress decides to punish him. he could kill trump tomorrow and as long as the congress leaves him be, its legal as an ‘official act’.
The conservative court would just rule it wasn’t an official act and say he could be prosecuted for it. They have no qualms with contradicting themselves for whatever political goal they are seeking to achieve.
Assuming this is in reference to Epstein’s testimony to the Grand Jury, that was never classified. Those records were sealed under State (Florida) Law. And were also unsealed in July by a special (also State) law. But, to answer the question you are asking “could the President unseal such documents?” No, the President could not. Especially considering that the documents were sealed by State Law, over which the President has zero say. The President could apply political pressure and ask the State nicely to do it. But, the President cannot unilaterally override State Law.
A State can’t deny the federal government access to documents. Once the federal government has the documents, they can do whatever they want with them. They can be sealed to Florida residents and unsealed to DC residents.
But more simply, a Federal Judge can over rule a State Judge.
Yes they can, it’s actually what Trump is trying to insist he did do in the classified documents case, which he did not.
Technically I don’t think they declassify it, but they can release the contents if they so desire.
Back in the 50’s my dad had a security clearance, and at one point worked on a highly classified project that he said about 10 people, including the President, knew the full details of. A few months after my dad’s involvement with the project ended he heard the President talk about it during a state of the union address.
The next day when he got to work there was a memo waiting for him saying that under no circumstances was he to confirm, deny, or even talk about anything he may have heard the President talk about.
The project remained classified for years after that day because it involved national defense. The President spoke about it to let the USSR know what our capabilities were, but not the specifics of how we did it.
