June 12th, 2023

On Monday’s Mark Levin show, Senator Chuck Grassley on the Senate floor announced that the 1023 form confirmed there are 17 secret recordings of Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and a Burisma executive who allegedly paid Biden. The recordings were kept as an insurance policy by the Burisma executive, whose name was redacted on an unclassified document. This shows why President Trump was indicted on bogus charges; they knew the knowledge of these tapes would come out and covered up for the Biden crime family yet again. Also, Congress passed the presidential records act because they decided presidential records should not belong to a president on their way out the door and have only existed since 1981 and were enacted under President Reagan. Before then, a president could take anything they wanted with them, including classified information. Why is it that no other former President has been prosecuted under the espionage act despite the fact there have been other Presidents that have done what Trump has? It was never imagined that an anti-spy statute would apply to a President, but the DOJ under Biden and the Pravda Democrat media are changing that.

Photo by Alex Wong

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Rough transcription of Hour 1

Segment 1

Hello, America. Mark Levin here. Our number 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. Presidential Records Act. This is very important. You’re going to know more than anybody else by the time I’m done. Presidential Records Act. It’s amazing thing you being here, this show. 6 to 9 p.m. and we have all kinds of sports events, play offs and all the rest of it. Dinner and so forth. And I’ll get into these heavy issues and you still show up. That’s, to your great credit, not hearing very well in my headphones. Mr.. But it is true despite my messing around with these these knobs here. In any event. The Presidential Records Act of 1978, Congress passed this law and Jimmy Carter signed it into law because they decided that. Presidential records shouldn’t belong to a president on the way out the door. That they were too important this first time in history they made this decision. And they applied it in 1981. Forward. So it’s really only been on the books for a little over 40 years and it’s really only been relevant for the last 40 years or so. They they made an arrangement where Richard Nixon did the government and paid him several million dollars for his records, for his papers. But before then, a president could take anything a president wanted to with him or her. Including classified information. I want. Bill Barr and some of my colleagues and I don’t say this to be rude. I say this to debate them. Andy McCarthy. Even Jonathan Turley has been superb. Why is it that no president. Has been prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act since 1917, despite the fact that there was no Presidential Records Act enforced until 1981 and one didn’t pass until 1978, that is. A president taking classified information with them. Why weren’t they prosecute it? Under. Section 79 three. That prohibits, among other things, willfully retaining national defense information and failing to deliver it to a proper official. What happened? It was never viewed applicable to a president. The espionage was never viewed as applicable to a president. Or a former president. Which is why I posted that last week. Let me repeat it so that backbenchers and legal analysts can repeat everything I’ve been saying, which they’re trying to. I said Donald Trump, if he’s found guilty of one charge, would spend. The rest of his life in prison and die there. I said that on HANNITY, and that’s been regurgitated. But let me continue with this point. Why is it that no former president, even before there was a 1978 Presidential Records act? Which took effect in 1981. Why is it that no president from 1971 to 1981 was ever charged with violating the Espionage Act for retaining national defense information? Because it was never imagined. Not even dreamed of. Then an anti spy statute would apply to a former president. That’s number one. Isn’t it interesting you haven’t heard that despite all these days of. Comment on this and we’re really kills is they bring people on with no constitutional background or historic background, whatever. Commentators, analysts who just spew their stupidity and then they bring lawyers on who have very little constitutional knowledge, who spew their idiocy because they’re former federal prosecutors. And then we have constitutional lawyers had come on who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. So all of a sudden, they found the Espionage Act and only Donald Trump. You see every took a single sentence. Of national defense information with him never before. Well, how do we know that? We don’t. In fact, we can prove the opposite. There are parts of presidential libraries, to my knowledge, all of them, but maybe just some. But to my knowledge, all of them. That is considered. Off grounds for the general public. We have to get permission to go into certain parts of the library and read certain files. What does that mean? How did that happen? Anyway. So there’s Presidential Records Act as passed in 1978. It goes in effect, 1981 starts being applied to the Reagan administration forward. Now, here’s some relevant parts of this law that people throw around that you may not be aware of. But I want you to be aware of it. All weekend long. All the yammering going on. You know, I only had 30 minutes. I wish I had 2 hours. I could have explained it. But here we are on radio, which serves a important purpose. It establishes public ownership of all presidential records and defines the term presidential records for the first time. Requires that vice presidential records be treated in the same way as presidential records for the first time. Places responsibility for the custody and management of incumbent presidential records. Ready for this one with the president? Requires that the president and his staff take all practical steps to file personal records separately from presidential records. Now, you remember the assumption before this was that these records were the property of the of the outgoing president. Allows the incumbent president to dispose of records and no longer have administrative historical information, evidentiary value. Once the views of the archivist of the United States on the proposed disposal has been obtained in writing. That’s not relevant here. But what’s interesting is even if the archivist disagrees, the president can still destroy them. Establishes in law that any incumbent president records, whether texture or electronic held on courtesy storage by the archivist, remain in the exclusive legal custody of the president, and that any request or order for access to such records must be made to the president, not to the National Archives. No wonder. Jack the Ripper. Smith did not cite the Presidential Records Act in his 49 pages of indictments. It establishes that presidential records automatically transfer into the custody of the archivist as soon as the president leaves office. Establishes a process by which the president may restrict and the public may obtain access to these records after the president leaves office. Specifically, the PRA allows for public access to presidential records through the Freedom of Information Act, beginning five years after the end of the administration, which of course had not occurred, but allows the president to invoke as many as six specific restrictions to public access access for up to 12 years. Codifies the process by which former and incumbent presidents conduct reviews for executive privilege prior to public release of records by the National Archives and establishes procedures for Congress, courts and subsequent administrations to obtain, quote unquote, special access to records from the National Archives. They remain closed to the public following a privilege review period for the former and incumbent presidents. You see the control that a former president has over his documents. The procedures governing such special access require and requests continue to be governed by doesn’t matter establish preservation requirements for official business conducted using non-official electronic messaging accounts. Any individual creating presidential records must not use non-official electronic messaging accounts. That would be like Hillary. Unless that individual copies an official account as the message is created or for, it’s a complete copy of the record to an official messaging account. This is why Hillary Clinton had the private server in her home for the specific reason of violating the Presidential Records Act and getting around it. Prevention. Individuals being convicted of a crime doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. So President Trump has a dispute with the archives. They say, wait a minute, he took a whole bunch of boxes. And even contained classified information. So what? So what? Well, those records belong to us. Well, the president has a period of time to review those records and make his own determination when it says. But what about classified information? It doesn’t say anything about that. Doesn’t even make a distinction about it. So how do you square the Presidential Records Act of 1978 with the Espionage Act of 1917? You don’t. Because the Espionage Act of 1917 was never intended to apply to a former president. There is nothing. And I looked. Nothing in the original legislative record that supports what’s being done today. There is nothing in any of the amendments that imply this. Nothing. You can’t really square the two statutes. And yet one was passed in 1978. And became applicable in 1981 and not a single former president. From 1917. Again, for the third time. I want the backbenchers to regurgitate this from 1917 to 1981 has ever been charged. Ever been charged. Under the Espionage Act period, but under the specific section that is placed throughout the indictment, Section 793. But this is the most muddy exception. It’s the one they cling to that prohibits willfully retaining national defense information and failing to deliver it to the proper official. Now, this further demonstrates to you and should, how outrageous it was to get a warrant, how outrageous it was to have f armed FBI SWAT team sent to the president’s home in Florida. There still were many years available to have these negotiations. About what should and should not be. Considered presidential or not presidential or whatever. Five years. Five years. But the archives want the Department of Justice. Probably for the first time ever. And the Department of Justice. Couldn’t wait to sharpen its teeth. Bill Clinton had tapes in his socks drawer. When he left the presidency. Those tapes were a. Aggregate of a number of interviews he did with reporters, I guess, and others that his presidency. And Judicial Watch sued under the Freedom of Information Act and asked Judge Jackson, an Obama appointee in Washington, D.C., who is a horrific judge. Please direct the archives. They get those tapes and we want copies of them. Judge Jackson looked at the presidential records back. Not the Espionage Act, the Presidential Records Act. But you say. All right. Mr. Producer says I have to go. I want to finish this. I’ll be right back.

Segment 2

I want to be very, very clear about this. Under the Presidential Records Act. In the first instance, the records are with the president, unless the president gives them all to. The Arkush. But there’s a period of time the president. Can take to go through the document to make his own decisions. He’s in no hurry to do it. At no time has there ever been a criminal. Potential that hangs over the president’s head. At no time. Assumes that the records were not personally the president. Are under his control. The responsibility for the custody and management of incumbent president to records with the president. So he has boxes and he moves them around. Well, we had a subpoena for that. Those subpoenas were illegitimate. I’m going to get into this and much more detail. Stick with me. I’ll be right back.

Segment 3

Judge Jackson ruled in 2012 federal district judge appointed by Obama under the statutory scheme established by the Presidential Records Act. The decision to segregate personal materials. And I read that part of the statute to you from presidential records is made by the president. I’m quoting her by the president’s term, and it is sole discretion. Jackson wrote in her March 2012 decision. And they didn’t appeal it either. Since the president is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of presidential records during his time in office, be difficult for this court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal record, she added. And the judge noted a president could destroy any record he wanted during his tenure, and his only responsibility was to inform the archives. Jackson also concluded that the decision to challenge a president’s decision based solely with the National Archives and cannot be reviewed by a court. If the archives wants to challenge a decision that agency and the Attorney General can initiate an enforcement mechanism under the law. But it is a civil procedure. And has no criminal penalty. On the classification issue, Both President George W Bush and Barack Obama signed executive orders which remain enforced to this day, declaring that presidents have sweeping authority to declassify secrets and do not have to follow the mandatory declassification procedures all other government officials do. Why? Because he’s the president. He’s the only one mentioned in the Constitution. They don’t mention all the other little runaround pipes, all the layers of bureaucracy. Because there weren’t any. There weren’t any. So when Bill Barr says if he’s found guilty of these charges, he’s toast. What Bill Barr should have said if he was actually educated and informed about these issues was. First of all, the government’s going to have to get through a number of motions that are going to be filed challenging this since no former president was ever charged with removing or even holding classified information or any other information from 1917 when the Espionage Act was passed in 1981, when the Presidential Records Act takes force in lieu of any conceivable application of the Espionage Act. That’s number one. Number two. He should have carefully walked the audience through the Presidential Records Act. Which he did not do. Because he’s in Trump hate mode. And I would discourage using him as a as a guest because he’s thoroughly uninformed or utterly dishonest about what he’s saying. Number three. Presidential Records Act gives a president enormous power because prior to the Presidential Records Act, he owned all this stuff. But Mark, the gun produced didn’t matter. President would take these things with him. They’d have these presidential libraries and they would segregate. Classified information from other information. At the president’s behest. And even here they’re saying it’s at the president’s behest under the Presidential Records Act. Right. Responsibility for the casting and management of incumbent president records is with the president requires the president his staff to take all practical steps to file personal records separately from presidential records. Establishes in law that any incumbent presidential records, whether textual or tronic held on courtesy storage by the archivist, remain in the exclusive legal custody of the president, and that any request or order for access to such records must be made to the President, not the archives. There even building a distinction. About the power that he has. Andy, the records are to be automatically transferred in legal custody the archivist as soon as the president leaves office. But the president has control over them. The president. The former president. He can restrict access to the records. He can restrict public access to the records. He can restrict the current president from having access to the records. He can restrict the current government from having access to the records, with a few exceptions, which are inapplicable here. Inapplicable here. If Congress, the courts, subsequent administrations want to obtain special access to the records from the National Archives, even though they remain. The president’s record. Even though they remain the president’s records. They have to be a review governing such special access requests. A review. By the former president. Establishes preservation requirements for official business. Conducted using non-official electronic messaging accounts. And that’s where Hillary got all gummed up. But you understand. So there are very clear issues here and some ambiguity here. But to go to court and get a warrant and for the judge to be so ignorant about the Presidential Records Act. Because the other side doesn’t have to be there necessarily with aspects of this. And then to do a SWAT team seizure of all the records. Because they found that boxes were being moved, even though they subpoenaed the records. You have to roll it back. Under what authority did they subpoena the records? The Espionage Act. Well, the Espionage Act doesn’t apply to this. The Presidential Records Act applies, and you don’t get a search warrant. You can bring a civil matter to a court to try and gain the records. You don’t criminalize it. And then from criminalizing you, you see we get the obstruction issues and the conspiracy to obstruct and all the rest of it. And the hundreds of years in prison that Trump is facing. If you’re a camper. Remember, this guy got in trouble with the Supreme Court in an 8 to 0 decision. One had to recuse. In the Bob McDonnell case. I keep bringing it up and bringing it up and bringing it up. Then, Virginia. It was reversed by 820. A trial jury refused to convict John Edwards. I keep bringing it up and bringing it up and bringing it up based on this guy’s charges. Why? Well, in the case of Bob McDonnell, they took an ethics law and stretched it. And the jury went for it and the appellate court went for it. But the Supreme Court said, wait a minute, you have to have notification, you have to due process. That’s not what the statute says, 8 to 0. And throw it out. And he did the same thing with an election law. The federal election law in North Carolina. When he argued that the money that donors gave to him specifically to put up his his girlfriend and an apartment and so forth was an illegal contribution. Why? What’s the same thing the idiot Manhattan is doing? Well, he did it to cover up the fact that he had an affair, and that is his girlfriend was pregnant. Therefore, it was a contribution to his campaign. And the trial jury said we’re not buying that, you know, contribution to his campaign. And he lost that. And here he’s taking the Espionage Act. And absolutely pulling it in one direction and another. So it’s unrecognizable and utterly and completely ignores the Presidential Records Act. Now, I guarantee you Trump’s lawyers will bring this up, but they shouldn’t have to. The Court That ordered. The search and accept that the warrant, the court should have brought it up. When the special counsel went to the attorney general and said, we’re going to charge Donald Trump with 37 counts, the attorney general should have brought it up. And the former attorney general of the United States. He keeps going on TV and making an ass out of himself because he’s utterly ignorant when it comes to this and all the others who are commenting on this, for the most part, who do not reference the Presidential Records Act and do not reference the fact. That the Espionage Act has never applied to a former president. Lawyer Art is the first one to take classified information. That is impossible. Because we already know. That. That’s impossible. But even if they did. It doesn’t matter. These two laws. Cannot be squared. The criminalization of this. Under the Espionage Act when the Presidential Records Act specifically does not provide for criminal penalties because it applies to a former president. He used to be able to take all the records with them and the hell with anybody else. The Presidential Records Act, which was very carefully drawn up to ensure that the president, the former president, both would have significant authority. They never contemplated the use of the Espionage Act with respect to classified information. Never. And then this happens. Why? Because you have an administration and a prosecutor. We’re looking to do exactly what they did. Just as they will. In Atlanta, Georgia, we have another Democrat, a Democrat D.A. who will, among other things, I predict. It’s pretty obvious, actually. Bring charges about trying to obstruct the transfer of power and violate the. The Georgia election processes because of so-called fake electors. There’s no such thing as fake electors. You send your own set of electors because the election’s close and you’re not sure what Congress will do, whether they’ll count your electors or the other parties electors. It was done in Hawaii in 1960, as the Federalists pointed out. It’s not a crime. Unless, of course, your goal is to criminalize everything. And then I want to add this if I’m wrong. Which I’m not. Well, let’s play around. If I’m wrong. Then Mike Pence must be charged with the same 793 violation. 793. Of the Espionage Act. Well, you only had one document. It doesn’t say you have to have two or 2000. He must be charged with a crime. And if I’m wrong, Joe Biden must be charged with multiple crimes under the Espionage Act over under 793. He must. Although there is a correct argument made that you can indict a sitting president, that’s secondary. That’s beside the point, because the special counsel still can write a report if the special counsel ever gets to work. Mr.. Her you are. But the fact of the matter is. Pence should be charged. Biden should be charged. Hillary should have been charged. You get my point. It’s why the espionage was act was never intended to be used this way. Never, ever. And that’s the other thing Bill Barr should say. And Andy McCarthy and my my other colleagues, Mr. Turley. All of whom I like, except for Barr now. But I think his conduct has demonstrated, has no character. None. I’ll be right back.

Segment 4

I challenge everybody on TV and radio. It was not mentioned in the Public Records Act, and I looked into it to do that. I challenge Bill Barr to explain how he squares one with the other, and you’ll watch how they squirm and they try and figure out some specious argument as best they can. I challenge him to do it. I challenge National Review to do it again. Watch how they try and put the puzzle pieces together. But it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because it makes the. The Presidential Records Act makes no sense. Then, with its reliance on civil procedures, with its constant references to presidential authority. I’m just telling you this, ladies and gentlemen. It’s also why it’s not mentioned once. They talk about retention of documents. They don’t talk about destruction of documents. They don’t talk about altering documents. They don’t talk about lost documents. They take pictures of documents in the bathroom and so forth. To do what? To create the impression of what? I’m not saying that I would like to see former Vice President Pence charged. I’m making the point that if your view that 793. His what? You hang your hat on. Then he has to be charged. And yet they said they’re not going to charge him. Then Joe Biden has to be charged. We can have a debate over whether you can indict a sitting president. Let’s have the debate. But what are they waiting for? They were in a big rush when it came to Donald Trump. I mean, they sent out the troops, they got the warrant. They did this. They did that. Witnesses galore, Documents galore, leaks galore. You don’t see that in the Biden case. You didn’t see that in the Pence case. And Hillary Clinton got a clean bill of health. She should have been doing life plus in a federal prison. That orange jumpsuit she wears on a regular occasion would fit her very well in prison. And by the way, why do we even have women prison anymore? We can’t define women. So she should be in a men’s prison. Now, here’s what I want you to help me do. I don’t have time to watch TV all the time. Mr. Producer gets me clips from time to time. Let’s track and see which legal analyst it bar. If the others now start the reference at least reference the presidential records. Which the special counsel wouldn’t even do. Let’s see if the truly dumb low IQ media. Understand the distinction. And isn’t it funny, Congress passes this statute in 1978 and doesn’t make a single reference. Not a single reference to the Espionage Act. Why is that? Because it had no application and was never intended to. That’s why it’s a civil process under the presidential record. We’ve got a lot more. I hope you’re finding this fairly intriguing. We’ll be right back.