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that's an admission by jack smith that they were overclassified, that they don't constitute national defense information. the 31 documents that he has been charged with, those are going to have to be declassified. they'll have be released, shown to the jury. there -- you know, everybody talks about declassification, classification. to me, it doesn't matter. whether something is classified, declassified, that's somebody's opinion whether it constitutes national defense information. the statue will prohibit willful possession of documents defined as which that the defendant has reason to believe the disclosure of which would be damaging to national security. so a lot of these things, if you talk about, you know, for example, plans to attack iran that were rejected, that were never carried out, that are several years old. >> brian: okay, right. >> are those really national
can't be trusted because we have not yet seen the documents. we've seen a lit but not the documents. will the jury ever see them because they're classified. >> the classification itself is sort of, per se, establishes that this is sensitive information, right? i wouldn't even consider what ric grenell said a truly substantive rebuttal so much as it is casting doubt generally, oh e. well, they should never have been classified in the first place. who the hell are you in the position to make that determination. >> you often hear, though, about this overclassification saying documents are overclassified. i think most say, sure, they do overclassify some things but -- >> nuclear capabilities? >> is that overclassified? >> well, what he's -- >> it's a great question and titles sound serious. what rick is arguing, i think, is that because we haven't seen the documents, you don't foe for a fact that these titles are as serious as they sound.
they regularly call something a national security threat that is simply a public relations threat. so i wonder over the next few days, is this going to be some of what you see from republicans basically saying, the contents of this indictment can't be trusted because we have not yet seen the documents. we've seen a list but we haven't seen the documents. it made me wonder will a jury ever see the documents because they're classified. >> the classification itself is sort of a, per se, establishes that this is sensitive information, right? i wouldn't even consider what rick granell just said a truly substantive rebuttal as amuch a casting doubt generally. >> that is an argument you often hear, know, is about this overclassification, saying documents are overclassified. i think most people say, sure, they do overclassify some things. >> nuclear capabilities, kaitlan? >> is that overclassified? >> it's a great question, and
did he show it to anybody. and the fact that he was waving it around to people was stunning. were these documents really that important were, they overclassified, was this much ado about nothing? but then you read through the list and the headlines of the documents are, like, nuclear weaponry capabilities of the united states, what we're doing in other countries, what other countries are doing. this is serious you know what. these are not trivial items. and, so, that's what makes, when they're out in the open, i mean, it appears these things would've been highly valuable to any random foreign national from an adversarial country who could have passed by. >> they made a point, there's just one sort of passing reference i thought interesting at the very beginning when they say the mar-a-lago club was an active social club, which hosted events for tens of thousands of members and guests. so right there they're making the point. >> didn't a chinese spy go
in defense of the former president. we have an overclassification problem. and we do have an overclassification problem. these are not documents that are overclassified. these are things like nuclear secrets. i'll tell you, anderson, just for two years, i flew the kc-135, the air refuel we are a nuclear mission. we would go into practice our nuclear mission. we had to have top secret clearance to do that. we weren't allowed to take notes. we weren't even allowed to know where our supposed target was. and these documents, what you're seeing, particularly the nuclear ones and the ones that stand out to me, appears to be all of those secrets out there in the bathroom for somebody to go root through and find out. >> you know, i just look at this, and the context that david did and the context that andy mccabe did, as a former assistance deputy director of national intelligence, you work in a world of these documents. but it meant you had to get a top secret clearance, you had to
supreme court. he wants to indict him . i think the plan was to indictho him over classified documentrms and then he got the enormous dom problem that joe biden seemede, to have class documents everywhere, including in. the garage by his old corvette m . i don't think merrick garland will indict trump , overclassified documents. documt here's my prediction. he'll indict trump over, quote, obstruction of justice for hiding the classified documentso . now, mind you , he's not saying the underlying classifiede to jocuments were a crime because he'd have to indict joe biden, too. he's going to instead create a crime about a non crim thee. that's going to be the basis of the indictment. and i think you're right. henter will also and don't india hunter biden, but he'lttl do iti on purely personal matters, dealing with drugs and guns and ta x issues for hunter that have nothing to do with joe biden. dojbecause this doj wants to protect and insulate t joe biden and the biden family's corruption and they wanten a to use hunter biden as.
defense information. whether it's classified or declassified is not an element of that offense. i always kind of looked at the whole declassification issue as kind of an extraneous piece because it ultimately isn't going to change anything. people have been convicted under this statute for possessing unclassified materials, this national defense information. people have been acquitted for possessing top secret documents that were not national defense information and were actually overclassified. >> so the question is, if donald trump is out there and his lawyers are out there representing the idea that he immediately declassified everything that he brought with him to mar-a-lago or bedminster, that he could do so automatically by taking it or with his mind, as he told sean hannity, this tape would seem to contradict that understanding of
young as 18. >> peter: um-huh. >> steve: last year there were something like 600,000 members of the military under 25. so this is something that they do although apparently the military gives you secret stuff on a need to know basis. >> pete: that's how it should be based on your job compartmentalized. certain information i was able to see and other things not pertaining to my job i'm not able to see. >> steve: you didn't have the key to you will at secrets. >> pete: if i needed to look for things that i had a responsibility to see say when i was in afghanistan i could. here is what happened and other people have mentioned it but it's important. the government has overclassified so much. meaning a simple document like the rundown to "fox & friends" classified. there's nothing classified about this but it means it's harder to get access to it. but that means they give more clearances to more people goat access volume. the information is pushed wider out. these young people who get, you
justice department to say they had found some classified documents from his vp days at his indiana home, and he says he that takes full responsibility. so another special counsel? are we in danger can of running out of them? no, the media reaction has been very different just as joe biden's discovery of one batch after another of classified material cast what donald trump did in a different light, the pence administration seemed to take the edge off biden's actions. ah, maybe this is a systemic problem. maybe a lot of this material is overclassified, maybe it's easy to misplace. maybe it's not that big a deal. for all the breathless headlines, nobody -- including journalists -- really believes pence intended anything nefarious or that biden really intended anything nefarious, so where does that leave the trump story? i know trump was engaged in a long subpoena battle leading to the fbi search that found 100 classified documents, but what was portrayed as utter recklessness according to the media could have involved the
is this something that needs to be addressed? >> it does, sandra. i can tell you as a member of the senate intelligence committee i see a lot of documents badly overclassified, sometimes i point them out to intelligence officials and say this is classified but having a trouble finding a secret in the document. can you point it out to me. that said, it does not mean all documents are overclassified. the government has some extraordinarily sensitive secrets and information and they should be handled with care. what we should have had is the fbi becoming the enforcement arm of a bunch of left wing librarians at the national archives as opposed to dealing with president trump exactly the way they dealt with president biden, and past presidents, which is working a cooperative fashion to make sure there's been no endangerment to the national security with mishandling of the classified documents. >> trace: senator, the border now, it's clear the cartels are dominating the southern border