Classification

"The President, after all, is the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." U.S. Const., Art. II, 2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant." Dept of the Navy v. Egan SCOTUS 1987 As a matter of law the President has the ultimate authority to classify and declassify documents. Given that, it seems like the question regarding the Trump raid is were the documents declassified by Trump specifically of by his actions. A secondary question is how many classified documents are in the posession of former presidents or their libraries, and are these documents stored in an appropriately secure manner. If I haven't been clear before, I expect all former presidents to be subject to the laws of the US, and see no reason why they should be exempt from any laws. In practice this would seem to mean holding all former POTUS to the same standards, and treating them all the same. My problem with the Trump raid is that is has the appearance of being motivated by politics. As I've said earlier, if there is something to this then the Biden DOJ needs to move quickly to bring charges, and hold a trial. If they don't, then they've likely handed Trump the keys to winning in '24 if he runs. IMO, I think that I'd be perfectly fine with each incoming POTUS giving his predecessor a limited pardon that covers any and all offical or quasi offical acts while in office. Taking partisan politics out of this, this sort of thing (especially if it's continued as a partisan tactic) lust demeans the entire FOG. The pardon concept is a very general idea that obviously would need more thought before becoming a thing. BTW, I've seen a really compelling case made that POTUS can declassify something by his/her actions. For example, if POTUS shares a clasified document or information with someone who may not be cleared but POTUS decides has the need to know, the action of sharing that document/information de facto declassifies the document. I'm not saying I 100% buy this, but it's an interesting theory.