Our Classified System Is A Joke

Asia Janay Lavarello (a civilian employee of Defense Department) took materials, including classified documents, to her home as well as to her hotel room to write a thesis. She was fired, fined and expelled. sentenced Three months imprisonment. Izaak Vincent, a contractor in the Air Force, was found with 112 classified documents in his house in 2021. “[d]espite having training on various occasions on how to safeguard classified material.” He was sentenced up to one year in jail A man by the name of Weldon Marshall was sentenced to a year in prison in 2017. sentenced For having classified documents on a disk from his time in Navy, he could spend up to three years in prison.

There are hundreds more.

According to my knowledge, none of these people attempted to sell state secrets or to the Chinese. Most had merely mishandled documents for personal reasons — perhaps even accidentally. But the Espionage Act or Presidential Records Act allows you to be compliant with authorities, have good intentions, or make mistakes. Those who break laws governing classified documents are subject to strict liability because it’s the mishandling, not the motivations, that matter. Hillary Clinton wasn’t selling top-secret documents when using her illegal private server, but she should have known there was a high probability Foreign governments could hack them. This is why her disregard of the law was more severe than any other official I can recall.

However, these laws were long arbitrarily enforced. If you’re a political official sworn to uphold the nation’s laws, you’re probably going to be fine. If you’re some technocrat at the Pentagon, on the other hand, your life might be destroyed. We have new standards thanks to Merrick Garland.

Yesterday we learned from Mike Pence, former Vice President notified His lawyers found the following: Congress “a small number” In his Indiana home, he found documents with classified markings. The former vice president’s aides also found White House records that had not been logged with the National Archives. Recall that after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, ABC News asked The always-principled Pence would be a good candidate if he could also have taken classified documents from White House. “I did not,” He replied, “Ex-Vice President.” David Muir asked the former vice president if there was. “any reason for anyone to take classified documents from the White House,” Pence replied, “There would be no reason.”

Our partisan AG Merrick Garland probably wishes he had thought about the precedents he was setting when raiding an ex-president and potential presidential candidate’s house. One thing is certain: “Trump era” The truth is that Democrats are always too ambitious. Garland has no reason to allow any high-profile politician to continue operating under the honor system. Why shouldn’t there be a special counsel to investigate Pence, as there is for Trump and President Joe Biden? When will the FBI search Pence’s home?

Trump: