Honestly no clue.
Just going off what I jave heard.
The president can see everything though
Found some things.
Article about declassification in power by the American Bar Association
https://www.americanbar.org/news/ab...es/2022/10/fact-check-presidential-authority/
I was trying to read through the Atomic Energy Act but it's... alot.
From what I have gathered, anything Classified under "RD" or "FRD" can
not be summarily declassified by the President alone, it must go through the Department of Energy. This is generally regarded as Constitutional, as the declassification powers are derived from Article II in regards to national defense... but Congress ALSO shares power in national defense.
(I'm no longer talking anything political, i'm strictly interested in the letter of the laws here, this isn't trying to prove or disprove anything)
The issue is that... the powers have never been tested in court. This may be changing.
Under Article II, if we go by the letter of the law in the Constitution, some are arguing that a President
only has the power to declassify records if in his judgment, it will not cause any harm to national security, or the harm it might cause is outweighed by public benefit. If the President were to declassify documents for any other reason... some examples given were so at as to make it more convenient to work with the documents at a different location or some such, the declassification would not be legal under Article II. It does make some sense, and it's interesting.
Another interesting aspect here is that one of the charges... the most serious one... is the alleged breach of the Espionage Act. In the case of that count, the classification of the information is not actually relevant. The Espionage Act doesn't say anything about
classified information, it criminalizes mishandling of information "relating to national defense".
I think that one of the core questions as it pertains to the Espionage Act charge is that even in Trump had decided to just declassify the information and not tell anyone and not go through any normal channel to do so, bypassing any review by relevant agencies to ensure that there was no information contained with that related to national defense... that may be enough to be considered guilty of breaking the Espionage Act. Generally yes, it makes it EASIER and more obvious to go after someone for the Espionage Act if the information they mishandled is classified. It is not a requirement.
It seems that there is a process that is usually followed for a reason. A President who declassifies information that could harm national defense without allowing for any review of the materials beforehand... may well be in violation of the Espionage Act, and the reason behind the declassification may be important to the legality of the declassification in and of itself.
If a President has a potentially damaging bit of information he wants to declassify, following a procedure of allowing it go through review to make sure everything is good, "covers his ass" so to speak. It's hard to come back and accuse wrongdoing if there's a clear process that it had gone through with relevant agencies giving the green light.
In the matter of anything relating to nuclear energy or weapons... it seems that without approval from the Department of Energy, the President does not have the authority to declassify. I'm interested to see that tested in court, regardless of the outcome.
The one thing I will say specifically in regards to Trump is that from several things I have read, I think it's clear that Trump really didn't know all of the rules or exactly what authority he did and did not have. I don't think that's uncommon... I don't think
anyone actually knows for sure. The criticism is that most Presidents seem to acknowledge this to some extent, so they make sure they have advisors and follow processes to make sure what they're doing is legal and within their authority. That's not Trump's style... I can respect that to a degree, but it's also an easy way to get in trouble. Where most Presidents might thing "I don't know if I can do this or not... let me check.", Trump tends to go "I don't know if I can do this or not, so i'm just going to do it.". Or you have Nixon who's basically just "I don't care if I can do this. I'm doing it. Fuck 'em."
