Timeline for Why did the House Intelligence Committee vote against releasing the Democratic memo?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
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| Jun 14, 2020 at 8:43 | history | edited | Glorfindel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
broken link fixed
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| Feb 5, 2018 at 16:04 | comment | added | Ukko | Just as a bit of followup, the White House explicitly declassified the memo, That means the issue I was discussing did not come into play, and we did not get a test case to help clarify this bit of law. | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 4:46 | comment | added | Ukko | The rub is that the law allowing congress to release the information does not say that it results in declassification. It is not a preferred source on SO but here is a link to a twitter thread by a lawyer specializing in this area arguing it would not declassify the info: twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/958184614618697733 It is important to remember that classified does not necessarily mean secret. Lots of classified files on people and events contain basically newspaper clippings.Classification often is not protecting what we know, but how much we know, good or bad. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 19:58 | comment | added | hszmv | @Ukko: The documents the memo is based on are still classified because they might have more information that is not released that needs to be protected for whatever reasons. Only the document written by Nunes loses it's classification. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 19:56 | comment | added | hszmv | @Ukko: "Even if it is publicly released it is still classified." No, that's information that is released through unauthorized channels, like a leak to a Newspaper or a media outlet. Congress can release their own products as the deem fit. The only reason they have to bother the President is he owns the source of the information used in their product and they need to verify with him that there is nothing that disrupts other needs for his own classification. If approved, the memo becomes public knowledge and is no longer classified. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 19:18 | comment | added | Ukko | it doesn't work that way. The classification does not belong to the work-product but to the underlying information, the digression about who owns the work product is a red herring. The information is still classified regardless of who wrote the memo until it is declassified. Even if it is publicly released it is still classified, and that can cause real problems for people who hold security clearances. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 18:15 | comment | added | hszmv | @Ukko: Basically, the intelligence the memo is based on is owned by the Executive Branch, and thus POTUS is the ultimate authority. However, the actual document(s) to be released are owned by Congress. Thus POTUS cannot authorize it's release. In order to do this, Congress needs to meet with the President (and his agents) to make sure nothing their document says compromises sources and methods for obtaining the Intel it used. If POTUS says yes, they will move forward. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 18:10 | comment | added | hszmv | @Ukko: The logic behind this procedure is discussed in the linked article: "The memo is a committee work product and the responsibility for releasing it, or not releasing it, rests with Congress. The underlying intelligence, however, belongs to the executive branch, and Trump could unilaterally make it public if he wished." | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 18:05 | comment | added | Ukko | There is no procedure for overriding classification available to the House of Representatives like you are describing. This is not a process that they are following. The declassification of the memo would be done by Trump via the power of the president. | |
| Jan 30, 2018 at 17:22 | history | answered | hszmv | CC BY-SA 3.0 |