What to know about presidents and security permits – public radio in South Carolina

The question of who should have access to the secrets of the nation is one of the most important. In the last two presidential terms, this issue has been aimed at the former presidents themselves.

In 2021, then -President Biden banned the then President of the form of Donald Trump at the intelligence briefings, arguing that Trump could not be trusted because of his “irregular behavior”.

After returning to office, Trump said on Friday that he was doing the same to his predecessor, accusing Biden of determining the precedent and terminating the kind assistance that is traditionally provided to the former presidents.

Moreover, Trump said he would immediately cancel “Biden’s Security Permissions”, although Biden does not in fact have no security permission.

“He did not have a security authorization in the way people in the military or intelligence agencies or the FBI have them by going through the security process,” says Dakota Rudesil, a law professor at the State University of Ohio, who has written Dakota Rudesil, a professor of law at the State University of Ohio who wrote Dakota Rudezil about national intelligence and secret.

Here’s what you know about presidents and security authorizations.

Presidents have access to secrets but do not receive official security permits

Most Americans, such as federal workers or military officials, need a formal security authorization before gaining access to classified information or secured facilities. The process may include skipping through a number of hoops, from background checking to a polygraph test, depending on the level. The goal is to determine whether a person can be entrusted to sensitive information.

But for the President, Vice President, members of the Congress, the judges of the Supreme Court and other civil servants outlined in the Constitution, this determination is not taken by a federal investigator, but rather by election or appointment. Their access expires after leaving the office.

The president of the meeting has access to almost all the secrets of the nation, as well as the powers to classify and declare materials – as can be seen last month when Trump promised to cut thousands of documents related to the killings of former President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F .

What remains out of the scope of the meeting president is the ability to shake nuclear information, which is determined by a law written by Congress, according to Rudesill, which has previously worked in the government for the US intelligence community and has conducted permission for security of high level.

“The congress legally managing the nuclear classified information in a way that they have not ruled another type of national secret is a product of the Cold War and the massive role in the Cold War of nuclear weapons,” he said.

Much depends on the president’s judgment of the meeting

As the presidents do not receive official security permits, their ability to gain access to classified information after leaving Office is completely up to their heir.

“The history of access to classified information about former presidents has been a lot of ad hoc,” Randesil said. “If a former president knows something about a question that a president or administration is working on, this former president will be informed of kindness.”

He said that then President Obama called former President George W. Bush in 2011 to personally share that the leader behind the September 11 attacks Osama bin Laden had been killed.

Rudesill added that the presidents of the meetings do not need to undergo a formal process to disclose classified information, except in the case of nuclear issues.

“The president can simply make decisions on the spot on who gets access and who doesn’t,” he said.

For these reasons, Rudezil calls the meeting president “the most powerful actor in the large -scale secrecy apparatus.”

The Congress technically has the power to limit some of the powers of the executive branch to the provision and cancellation of access to classified information, but these efforts are historically unsuccessful, according to Rudesill.

“The Congress has actually written a relatively small law regarding classified information and security permits, and mainly provided penalties for people who expire or incorrectly disclose classified information,” he said.

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