
Ed Briscoe
2.8K posts

Ed Briscoe
@edbriscoe
Doing my best to get good things done by moving money to where it is actually needed. Founder of @ImpactDaf and https://t.co/ilxD0O4NG1
































Interesting nugget from last week's trial transcript: if Bratt is correct that Trump "never had a clearance", then it explains their hail-Mary attempt with the Espionage Act claims -- he wouldn't have ever signed an SF312 which would make a more traditional "Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material" charge under 18 USC § 1924 easier. *I had always assumed he would have signed an SF312 as a *candidate* sometime during the 2016 campaign once they started giving him classified briefings; but apparently when that started happening for him and Hillary in Aug 2016, candidates did "not require separate security clearances before the briefings " according to James Clapper, DNI **or at a minimum once he was President-elect, but not yet sworn in, he would have signed one. Obviously once he became President, he had access to classified by virtue of being CINC, but that's different than "having a clearance" -- Bratt's acknowledgement here is a tacit admission that a CINC doesn't need a "clearance" to have access to classified (that will matter later).




