Month: August 2022

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The FBI’s seizure of classified documents during its recent search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence has renewed a debate over whether a former president can assert executive privilege, or the right to shield documents from disclosure.  

 

Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records belong to the government and must be handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of a president’s time in office. 

 

The FBI is investigating how hundreds of pages of documents, some classified as top secret, ended up at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House in January 2021. 

 

Claiming the documents are “presumptively privileged,” Trump has asked a federal judge to stop the FBI from reviewing the records while an independent, third-party assessment is conducted.  

 

Trump’s claim is not groundless. In 1977, the Supreme Court recognized the right of a former president to assert privilege over certain private communications, and a year later, the Presidential Records Act affirmed that right.   

 

But Trump’s assertion of executive privilege in this case is highly unusual. Never before has a former president sought to prevent a current president from obtaining his presidential records from the National Archives, according to legal experts.    

 

“To the best of my knowledge, it has never been done,” said Gary Schmitt, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.  

 

Here is a look at executive privilege and the debate over Trump’s claim:  

 

What is executive privilege? 

 

It is a president’s right to keep sensitive communications and other presidential records confidential. The idea is that presidents need frank advice to discharge the duties of the office and that candor by advisers requires a promise of confidentiality.

Although the practice is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the Supreme Court has recognized the presidential prerogative to keep certain records confidential. The executive branch has interpreted the privilege to cover three categories of documents and communications: state secrets, presidential communications and “deliberative” communications within agencies, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.  

 

The principle is not novel. Presidents going back to George Washington have claimed the privilege, in one form or another, to withhold information. It wasn’t until the 1970s, though, that the Supreme Court weighed in on the issue. 

 

In 1974, then-President Richard Nixon, asserting that executive privilege allowed him to withhold sensitive information, refused to release White House audio recordings sought by a special counsel and seven defendants in the Watergate case.   

 

While recognizing the “privilege of the confidentiality of presidential communications,” the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes. The presidential privilege, the court said, was not “absolute.”  

 

Does a former president have the right to assert executive privilege? 

 

The question is the subject of some debate among scholars. Citing a landmark 1977 Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of a law ordering Nixon to transfer the White House tapes and other records to a government agency, some legal experts argue that a former president has an implied authority to assert executive privilege.   

 

In the case known as Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, the Supreme Court rejected the government’s argument that “only an incumbent president may assert such claims,” and it held that Nixon, “as a former president, may also be heard to assert them.”  

 

The rationale for conferring the privilege on a former president is the same as the sitting president: If aides believed that a president’s executive privilege ends with his presidency, so goes the argument, they’d be loath to dispense frank advice.  

 

But other scholars note the Supreme Court ruling came before Congress enacted the Presidential Records Act of 1978, giving the incumbent president the ultimate authority to exert privilege. 

 

While the Presidential Records Act affirms a former president’s executive privilege, in cases of a dispute between a former and incumbent president, it is the current occupant of the White House’s authority that matters, according to Schmitt.  

 

“A former president certainly can try to make a claim of executive privilege, but it’s still the case that the sitting president has the constitutional authorities and also the constitutional responsibilities to judge whether that claim is appropriate or not,” Schmitt said. 

 

What about Trump’s assertion of executive privilege over documents found at Mar-a-Lago?  

 

In the year and a half since he left the White House, Trump has asserted executive privilege on several occasions. 

The first was when the U.S. House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol last year requested Trump White House records from the National Archives. 

The second came earlier this year when the National Archives informed Trump’s lawyers that the agency wanted to turn over certain classified documents to the FBI. 

More recently, the former president made the claim after the FBI removed boxes of documents from his residence during the August 8 search.  

 

Trump’s first two attempts were unsuccessful.  

 

In the case involving the congressional committee’s request for records, the Biden administration objected to Trump’s assertion of “communications privilege,” and a federal court agreed. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the lower court’s ruling, though not because of Trump’s “status as a former president.”  

 

In the second case, Trump’s lawyers asked the National Archives for additional time to review the records before they were turned over to the FBI. The lawyers wanted to “ascertain whether any specific document is subject to privilege” and give Trump an opportunity to “assert a claim of constitutionally based privilege.” 

 

The archivist rejected Trump’s request, citing a Justice Department opinion that “there is no precedent for an assertion of executive privilege by a former president against an incumbent president to prevent the latter from obtaining” government records from the National Archives. 

 

Trump’s claim of executive privilege over the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago remains unresolved. If a federal judge accepts Trump’s request for a “special master” to review the documents, the former president may decide to assert executive privilege over some records. Dismissing Trump’s request as unnecessary, the Justice Department wrote in a filing late Tuesday that any assertion of executive privilege by the former president “would fail here because this case involves the recovery and review of executive records by executive officials performing core executive functions.” 

 

What makes Trump’s claim of executive privilege unusual is that he’s asserting it against a current president, said Michael Stern, a former congressional lawyer who writes about legal issues affecting Congress. 

 

“In the past, what has come up is issues where outside parties like the Congress or the public is seeking to get information and the former president may, in that situation, assert executive privilege,” Stern said.  

 

“There’s been very little thought, up until now, about the idea that the current president would need to get access to the presidential records of a predecessor, and that predecessor would try to stop him,” Stern said. “That is something that I think is the most extreme view of a former president’s authority, and one that I think will have a very short life.”

In a prime-time televised speech Thursday evening in Philadelphia, U.S. President Joe Biden is to speak about what White House officials characterize as “the battle for the soul of the nation.”

In the address outside Independence Hall, where the country’s Declaration of Independence was debated and adopted, and the Constitution was written by the Founding Fathers, the 46th U.S. president will discuss “how our rights and freedoms are still under attack. And he will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy,” according to the White House.

“It is striking President Biden is going to go there and give a speech, which is kind of an attempt to paint a big-picture view of where we are as a nation,” said prominent neoconservative political analyst Bill Kristol.

Biden should make the address — with midterm elections about two months away amid a highly polarized political environment — “not just a political stump speech, but really a more profound speech to all Americans,” Kristol said in a VOA interview. “I think it’s appropriate for the president to say, ‘Let’s step back here, and let’s be cautious about what we’re risking. And let’s be thoughtful about the way in which we conduct our politics.’”

Dartmouth University professor of government Brendan Nyhan predicts Biden will use the speech to “rally his party in advance of midterm elections that Democrats fear could go quite poorly for their side. But he’s also calling for Americans to reject the anti-democratic forces that have challenged the political system in this country.

“One of those approaches is partisan. The other one is in keeping with his role as president, as head of one of the three branches of government. I hope he can make a sober-minded case for the preservation of our democratic system.”

In recent days, Biden has been rhetorically battling Republican lawmakers, as well his predecessor, Donald Trump, and has sharply attacked the opposition party’s philosophy as “semi-fascism.”

In a speech Monday in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, which was mainly about gun violence, the president criticized Republican lawmakers who he said have been warning of “blood in the street” if Trump is prosecuted.

Should the former president be prosecuted for mishandling classified information, “there’ll be riots in the streets,” U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham predicted on a Fox News program on Sunday.

But Walter Shaub, a former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said Wednesday on Twitter, “If Trump doesn’t get prosecuted, it will mean the government thinks a former president is above the law, because you or I would absolutely be prosecuted for doing what he did.”

Trump, who lost to Biden in the 2020 election, is the subject of a federal investigation. He could face charges for retaining highly classified documents after he left office in January 2021 and related obstruction of justice charges, according to legal filings made by the Department of Justice.

A search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and private club in Florida by the Federal Bureau of Investigation prompted threats against the bureau’s agents. One man tried to breach the FBI’s office in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 11 before being fatally shot after an hourslong standoff with police.

“It’s sickening to see the new attacks on the FBI, threatening the life of law enforcement agents and their families for simply carrying out the law and doing their job,” Biden said in Monday’s speech in Pennsylvania.

Trump, who is considering another presidential run in 2024, has accused the Biden administration and the FBI of targeting him for political reasons. Before that, Republicans are hoping in this November’s midterm elections to wrest control of Congress from Democrats, who control the Senate and the House.

It is unclear if Biden in the Thursday evening address will mention Trump by name. He has accused the former president and his supporters of following an “extreme MAGA philosophy,” choosing “to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division.”

MAGA refers to “Make America Great Again,” a slogan Trump popularized in his successful 2016 bid for president.

The stakes are high for Biden’s speech, according to Nyhan, who is also co-founder of Bright Line Watch, a watchdog group monitoring the status of American democracy.

“I believe U.S. democracy faces the greatest threat it has seen since we became a full-fledged democracy after the Civil Rights Movement [of the 1960s]. We’ve seen a violent insurrection that attempted to overturn a presidential election, and now we’re seeing threats of violence in response to efforts to enforce the rule of law,” Nyhan told VOA on Wednesday.

“Americans would be very clear-eyed about what they were seeing if they saw it in another country. And I think we need to recognize that the threat we see here at home is significant,” he said.

Trump, on his own online media platform, Truth Social, this week has continued to falsely insist he was the real winner of the 2020 election, demanding “immediately” a new presidential election — something that is not possible under the U.S. Constitution.

“What former President Trump is calling for would be an extra-constitutional step that would undermine the system of government we have in place, especially given that he was defeated in a free and fair election that has been shown to be free of the widespread fraud that he and his allies have falsely claimed,” explained Nyhan. “It is very worrisome to have a defeated president calling to be illegally reinstated in power.”

Kristol agreed, stating “it is revealing that Trump’s overheated rhetoric tosses aside one of our most basic constitutional norms.”

Unlike countries with parliamentary systems, the United States does not have snap elections.

“We don’t have votes of confidence where governments fall, presidencies fall,” noted Kristol, who was chief of staff for Vice President Dan Quayle in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. “We have a presidential system with a four-year term.”

Trump contended this is justified because the FBI allegedly thwarted its own investigation into compromising information contained on a laptop of the president’s son, Hunter Biden.

A whistleblower claims FBI officials instructed agents not to investigate the laptop ahead of the 2020 election, saying the bureau was “not going to change the outcome of the election again,” according to Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican senator, who this week sent a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general demanding immediate steps be taken to investigate the FBI’s actions or lack of them regarding the computer.

“Every credible review, including by numerous judges — many of whom were appointed by Trump himself — repeatedly and emphatically rejected the claims of the Trump campaign,” Nyhan said. “There simply is no credible case against Joe Biden’s victory.”

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

After Monday’s scrubbed Artemis launch, NASA is awaiting liftoff of its first mission back to the moon — an unmanned test flight of its new rocket and capsule system. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports on the excitement surrounding the Artemis program, which aims to one day send humans to Mars.

NASA’s space shuttle program brought Brenda Mulberry and her husband from Tampa to Florida’s Space Coast in the early 1980s. Since then, Mulberry has operated “Space Shirts,” a space-themed clothing shop not far from Kennedy Space Center.

She said business slowed significantly when shuttle launches ended in 2011.

But this year is different.

“Excitement is over the moon,” said Mulberry, in between helping customers pay for armfuls of souvenirs.

People now flock to Mulberry’s store to get anything they can related to NASA’s new Artemis mission.

“On a normal day we might see 60 to 70 people in a day in our store,” she told VOA. “We’re seeing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds an hour. It’s a zoo.”

Artemis — NASA’s ambitious program to return to the moon — has generated renewed interest in space exploration ahead of the launch of the first unmanned test flight of the SLS, or Space Launch System, rocket and the Orion capsule, which will eventually carry astronauts back to the moon more than 50 years after the last Apollo mission visited the lunar surface.

Monday’s first launch date was scrubbed, disappointing throngs of tourists, but added to the anticipation for when the program’s first liftoff occurs. NASA will try again on Saturday.

“I call it the Artemis generation. Apollo had a twin sister — Artemis — and this is our generation,” said Branelle Rodriguez, an integration manager for NASA’s Orion capsule that will house astronauts traveling to the moon and back. “I think it’s a fantastic thing for us to experience, for people to go explore and create a presence on the moon.”

NASA astronaut Stan Love said the Artemis program will feature crews that pave the way for the first woman and person of color to stand on the lunar surface.

“We are going to broaden our demographics, so it won’t just be white guys on the moon,” Love told VOA during a recent interview at Kennedy Space Center.

NASA’s goals for the Artemis program include crewed missions to the moon for decades to come.

And that’s just the beginning.

“We’re going to establish a permanent [lunar] base, but I think long term, we want to go to Mars. NASA has said this is a steppingstone to Mars eventually,” said Doug Hurley, a retired NASA astronaut who now works on Artemis for Northrop Grumman, a government contractor.

NASA projects the budget for Artemis will reach $93 billion by 2025. While critics have pointed out the program is already billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule, Hurley says patience and expenditure will be rewarded.

“It takes time to build these complicated machines, but it’s worth it. I mean, when you look at NASA’s budget — one-half of 1% of the federal budget — and SLS is a small part of NASA’s budget. So, to me, it’s all perspective,” Hurley said.

Mulberry said criticism of the program is hard to find on Florida’s Space Coast. She credits Artemis with creating jobs and boosting tourism in a part of the state that suffered when the space shuttle program ended.

“I think everybody in the area underestimated the power this was going to have,” Mulberry told VOA.

Even though it’s an unmanned test flight, when Artemis 1 takes off on a planned six-week mission, it will provide valuable data for NASA and show how new systems function in space.

The first crewed mission back to the moon — to orbit but not to land — is Artemis 2, currently scheduled for 2024, with Artemis 3 scheduled to return astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2025.

Here’s a look at what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats have been doing this week:

US-Pakistan 

 

The United States, through USAID, is providing an additional $30 million in humanitarian assistance to Pakistan as the South Asian country suffers severe flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains, landslides and glacial lake outbursts that have occurred since mid-June. The flooding has damaged roads and more than 800,000 hectares of agricultural land, affecting an estimated 33 million people with more than 1 million homes destroyed. 

 

The deadly floods bear the hallmarks of a climate catastrophe, according to scientists.  

Pakistan Fatal Flooding Has Hallmarks of Warming 

U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said in a tweet the aid provides critical humanitarian assistance, such as food, safe water and shelter.

 

US-Russia-Ukraine

Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations of attacks near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant amid international concern the facility itself could be hit, causing a radiation leak.

The U.S. State Department has accused Russia of blocking a consensus document on a nuclear non-proliferation treaty because the agreement noted the risk posed by fighting near the Zaporizhzhia plant. 

Russia Launches New Attacks Near Nuclear Plant, Ukraine Says 

 

Meanwhile, a new Conflict Observatory report unveiled evidence of Russia-perpetrated filtration operations in, and forced deportations from, Ukraine.

“Russia’s filtration operations in Ukraine are devastating the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians. A new Conflict Observatory report shines a light on these and other atrocities. We will continue to work to hold Russian officials accountable,” said Blinken in a tweet.

 

August 24 marked the anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence Day. The U.S. pledged another $3 billion for Ukrainian defense on that day, continuing its support for the country in fending off Russian military aggression. It’s the largest security assistance package for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began in February.

US Announces Largest-Ever, $3B Ukraine Aid Package as War Hits 6-Month Mark 

US-China–Taiwan 

 

The United States said it will not accept China’s attempt to set a “new normal” by escalating military activities in the Taiwan Strait, including flying fighter jets over the median line in the strait.   

 

The State Department said China overreacted and took unnecessary provocations over the past weeks following visits by U.S. members of Congress and elected officials, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican.

The U.S. said it seeks to maintain open lines of communication with China while supporting Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Top Official on China Policy to Visit US Amid Tensions 

Official: US Seeks Constructive Communication With China Amid Rising Tensions 

US-Iraq

Iraq is in political turmoil after a powerful Shiite Muslim cleric announced he would resign from politics, leading to clashes between his followers and those of rival political groups. The U.S. called for dialogue after the disturbing unrest but said it saw no need to evacuate staff in its embassy at this time. The State Department said a Level Four Travel Advisory Warning — Do Not Travel — remains in place in Iraq for American citizens intending to travel there. 

Five Killed in Iraq Clashes After Powerful Cleric Quits Politics 

US-Iran

The State Department denied reports the U.S. and Iran have agreed to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“That reporting is false. We have not concluded an understanding,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Tuesday. “We received Iran’s comments on the EU’s proposed final text through the EU, and we have responded to the EU on Wednesday, August 24. Now it is up for Iran to answer.”

Bridged by EU, a final draft text was submitted earlier in August. Key sticking points remain, including supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.

A recent IAEA report showed Iran is pressing ahead with its rollout of an upgrade to its advanced uranium enrichment program. Iran said it will not return to the 2015 nuclear deal unless the IAEA ends an investigation. Iran has said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Iran Steps Up Underground Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Report Says 

Iran Says No Return to 2015 Nuclear Deal Unless IAEA Ends Investigations

Mikhail Gorbachev could have been celebrated for involuntarily opening a path toward Ukraine’s independence, but his support for Crimea’s annexation and silence in the face of Russia’s invasion have stained his reputation there.

Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, triggered its demise in 1991, which led to the formation of 15 new independent countries including Ukraine.

But it is no accident that the Ukrainian government is still mute, a day after the death of Gorbachev, whose mother and wife were of Ukrainian origin.

Ukrainians walking through the streets of Kyiv on Wednesday did not mince their words about the leader of the “occupying” and “imperialist” Soviet power.

“I’m very happy he died. The more enemies and their supporters die, the happier I’ll be,” said 32-year-old Oleksandr Stepanov.

Katerina Boyuk, a 17-year-old student, is convinced that Gorbachev “did not really care” about Ukraine and that the country’s independence has “nothing to do” with him.

“He was just the ruler of the USSR, and he couldn’t manage to keep his throne,” she said.

“I think he’s as much of an aggressor as the current Kremlin leaders,” said Vytalya Formantchuk, 43, adding that Gorbachev “put a lot of effort into destroying Ukrainians, their culture and their language.”

The visible hostility of Ukrainians toward Gorbachev also stems from his silence regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Gorbachev, mostly popular in the West, never publicly commented on what has turned out to be the worst conflict in Europe since World War II.

One member of his close circle, Russian journalist Alexei Venediktov, said in July that Gorbachev was “disappointed, of course.”

Even worse, Gorbachev said he “approved” Moscow’s annexation of Crimea to Russia in 2014.

He argued that “the people” had spoken in the referendum on the unification of the peninsula to Russia, widely regarded as a sham.

Kyiv never forgave him for that.

Gorbachev is perceived in Ukraine “with a lot of skepticism — we do not share the enthusiasm we’ve been seeing in obituaries all around the world,” said Volodymyr Yermolenko, philosopher and editor-in-chief of the ukraineworld.com website.

“His destiny is the same destiny as many Russian reformers who want reforms, but only up to a certain point: when people start questioning Russian imperialism and decolonization,” he said.

Gorbachev was Soviet leader in 1986, when Chernobyl’s No. 4 nuclear reactor exploded, causing the world’s worst nuclear accident and spreading radioactive contamination across Europe.

Moscow first tried to downplay the extent of the disaster, which delayed evacuation of locals.

Gorbachev is widely blamed for this and for the decision to maintain the May 1 parade in Kyiv five days later.

Thousands of people, including many children, marched through the city holding flowers and singing songs, blissfully unaware of the radioactive cloud surrounding them.

Gorbachev “was an ordinary Russian imperialist. He simply did everything he could to save the USSR and restore the Russian Empire, which is now waging war against us,” popular blogger and activist Yuri Kasyanov posted on Facebook.

Disliked by Russians, rejected by Ukrainians, Gorbachev still regularly talked about his Ukrainian roots.

“I am, after all, half Ukrainian. My mother was Ukrainian, and my wife, Raisa, was too. I spoke my very first words in Ukrainian, and the first songs I heard were Ukrainian,” he said in a 2015 interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel.

Britain will have a new prime minister next week, nearly two months after the resignation of Boris Johnson in July, following a series of scandals. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Johnson’s successor faces a series of daunting challenges — while Britain’s allies, including Ukraine, are watching closely.