> The Court will grant the motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) because plaintiff's claim is not redressable. NARA does not have the authority to designate materials as “Presidential records,” NARA does not have the tapes in question, and NARA lacks any right, duty, or means to seize control of them. In other words, there has been no showing that a remedy would be available to redress plaintiff's alleged injury even if the Court agreed with plaintiff's characterization of the materials. Since plaintiff is completely unable to identify anything the Court could order the agency to do that the agency has any power, much less, a mandatory duty, to do, the case must be dismissed.
>...Under the statutory scheme established by the PRA, the decision to segregate personal materials from Presidential records is made by the President, during the President's term and in his sole discretion, see44 U.S.C. § 2203(b)
The room for judicial review of a President's determination of personal vs. presidential records is so narrow the chances of it actually being successful in court are slim.
> Moreover, that goes in hand with the recently released audio of the events transcribed in US v. Trump Nauta wherein he acknowledges that he could have declassified it, but did not.
Looking at the context in which the statements were made, it is clear that Trump's primary intent was to signal the authoritative nature of the documents - in order to demonstrate that a senior military official had been lying about him (with regard to plans to invsde Iran).
His statements about whether they are classified mean very little when his very act of retaining them makes them personal records. Saying "I could have declassified them" is simply another way of saying "I could have made them public" and is not a statement about his right as president be the sole arbiter over what constitutes a presidential record.
>...Under the statutory scheme established by the PRA, the decision to segregate personal materials from Presidential records is made by the President, during the President's term and in his sole discretion, see44 U.S.C. § 2203(b)
https://casetext.com/case/judicial-watch-inc-v-natl-archives...
The room for judicial review of a President's determination of personal vs. presidential records is so narrow the chances of it actually being successful in court are slim.
> Moreover, that goes in hand with the recently released audio of the events transcribed in US v. Trump Nauta wherein he acknowledges that he could have declassified it, but did not.
Looking at the context in which the statements were made, it is clear that Trump's primary intent was to signal the authoritative nature of the documents - in order to demonstrate that a senior military official had been lying about him (with regard to plans to invsde Iran).
His statements about whether they are classified mean very little when his very act of retaining them makes them personal records. Saying "I could have declassified them" is simply another way of saying "I could have made them public" and is not a statement about his right as president be the sole arbiter over what constitutes a presidential record.