Trump: 'I'm Allowed to Do Whatever I Want' With Classified Info
www.rollingstone.com
The former president told Hugh Hewitt that he “absolutely” would testify in the federal government’s probe of his handling of sensitive material

DONALD TRUMP SAID he “absolutely” plans to testify in the federal government’s case against him regarding classified documents he removed from the White House. “I’m allowed to do whatever I want … I’m allowed to do everything I did,” the former president told conservative podcast host Hugh Hewitt.

In an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” that dropped Wednesday, the host asked Trump, “Did you direct anyone to move the boxes, Mr. President? Did you tell anyone to move the boxes?” referring to the boxes of more than 300 classified documents the federal government seized last year from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

“I don’t talk about anything. You know why? Because I’m allowed to do whatever I want. I come under the Presidential Records Act,” Trump replied, while also taking a quick detour to bash Hewitt. “I’m not telling you. You know, every time I talk to you, ‘Oh, I have a breaking story.’ You don’t have any story. I come under the Presidential Records Act. I’m allowed to do everything I did.”

  • SCB@lemmy.world
    5·
    1 year ago

    I didn’t make any claim, and I think it’s reasonable to assume some Presidents probably committed crimes. There have been a lot of them, during some very corrupt times.

    What I did was ask you for examples, and you specified the last 20 years. I’d love to hear those examples.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
        41·
        1 year ago

        No, Obama authorized military strikes in an active warzone and due to miscommunication - which happens often in war - a hospital was bombed.

        Again, not great, and also not a crime. Bad things happen in wars.

        Do you have any actual crimes to bring up?

        • MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee
          17·
          1 year ago

          It is illegal to bomb hospitals under international law. Obama did that and it’s pretty much impossible that it was an accident. The internationally recognized and Nobel prize winning Doctors Without Borders organization made it entirely clear what their location was, Obama decided to bomb it and they kept bombing even after being called up and informed that it was in fact a hospital being bombed. Crime against humanity.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
            4·
            1 year ago

            It’s illegal to intentionally bomb hospitals.

            Also citation needed on “Obama decided to bomb it and they kept bombing it”

            Because here are the actual facts:

            On 25 November 2015, General John F. Campbell, the American commander in Afghanistan, spoke about the results of their internal investigation and described the incident as “the direct result of avoidable human error, compounded by process and equipment failures.”[56] Campbell said that the internal investigation had showed that the AC-130 gunship crew misidentified the clinic as a nearby Taliban-controlled government building.[56] The American gunship had identified the building based on a visual description from Afghan troops, and did not consult their no-strike list, which included the coordinates of the hospital as provided by MSF.[56] Campbell said electronic equipment malfunctions on the gunship prevented it from accessing email and images, while a navigation error meant its targeting equipment also misidentified the target buildings.[57] The internal report states the aircraft fired 211 shells at the building in 29 minutes, before American commanders realized the mistake and ordered the attack to stop.

            Bad things happen in war. That’s why war sucks.

              • SCB@lemmy.world
                4·
                1 year ago

                A NATO investigation is not “your local police investigating themselves” and you’ll note numerous Americans were notably charged, via our military, with war crimes and severely punished.

                https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandahar_massacre

                Any actual crimes, from a President, to bring up? You didn’t get me that citation on Obama’s personal authorization, either.

                • MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee
                  14·
                  1 year ago

                  Yes it is. Ohhh that reminds me of when Obama and Hillary decided to destroy the country of Libya and then NATO refused to participate in post war investigations and threatened the UN that they’d better not find any evidence of NATO war crimes there lol

                  • SCB@lemmy.world
                    4·
                    1 year ago

                    They didn’t destroy Libya. Gaddafi did when he massacred his own people during an already-ongoing civil war. NATO did nothing but impose a no-fly zone, because Gaddafi was massacring civilians with helicopters.

                    NATO also had obtained the voted support of the UN Security Council to impose this no-fly zone.

                    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya

                    Did you want the US to invade Libya? Cool, me too. Would’ve saved Libyans from slavery. The international community didn’t want that.

                    Highly relevant - this wasn’t even US-led:

                    From the beginning of the intervention, the initial coalition of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Qatar, Spain, UK and US[34][35][36][37][38] expanded to nineteen states, with newer states mostly enforcing the no-fly zone and naval blockade or providing military logistical assistance. The effort was initially largely led by France and the United Kingdom, with command shared with the United States.

                    So not only not bad, and not illegal, but also not even a US mission.