Transcripts For ALJAZ The Bottom Line 20220911

Sovereign of the united kingdom. 2 days after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, the ancient ceremony held at saint jamess palace was broadcast, live on television for the 1st time. In taking up these responsibilities, i shall strive to follow the inspiring example. I have been set in upholding Constitutional Government and to seek the peace, harmony, and prosperity of the peoples of these islands and of the common rose realms and territories throughout the world. Meanwhile, other senior members of britains royal family thanked crowds outside Balmoral Castle, where Queen Elizabeth died, the queens 3 younger children, princess and Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were among those that viewed the floral tributes following a private service at the scottish estates. Rob madison has more from bell moral in scotland was more convoy of green range rovers the cars usually used to carry members of the royal family made its way from Balmoral Castle to coffee church, which is just down the road from where we are now for a private ceremony, that was the 1st time that the members of the royal family had been staying here at abum or castle since the death of Queen Elizabeth had been seen in public. A short time later, the cars returned to and made their way back up the driveway. It was a significant moment from many of the people who were had been standing here waiting to cross the bridge on carrying flowers and other tributes and to pay their last respects to Queen Elizabeth, who died here at the castle on thursday afternoon when the cause reached the main gates of the castle, the cause stops and the occupants got out. We saw a princess and we saw Prince Andrew resolve, Prince Edward, and his wife sophie and their children. They took time to look to act. The floral displays that had been delivered over the last day or so since the announcement of the queens death. And they were looking at some of the messages that had been contained there as well. This was a very significant moment for those members of the royal family, because this was the 1st time that they had been seen in public since the death of Queen Elizabeth this the 2nd. But it was also a very important moment as well for the people who been gathering here to pay tribute to the queen because they too caught their 1st glimpse of those members of the royal family. What was interesting was the amongst that group was Prince Andrew. Prince andrews personal lie has been the self of headlines over the last few years and that has been distancing between him and the rest of the wall family. But he was part of that group it and it was perhaps an indication that the royal family, at least for this occasion, for this period of morning, have decided to put any differences aside and allowed the whole family to come together. King charless 2 sons and their wives came together to look at the tributes and flowers left their grandmother outside windsor castle. The full royal spent more than 30 minutes speaking to members of the public. Its the 1st time the 2 couples have been seen so closely together since harry and megan officially left their royal duties and moved to the us. In other news, a magnitude 7. 6 earthquake has struck east and popping you guinea a soon. Army warning is in place and the quake was at a depth of 61 kilometers. According to the Us Geological survey. Theres no word yet on any casualties. Ukrainian forces, a regaining territory last to the russians in the northeast, the eastern town of coven esque near. Hi, keith has been retaken and forces are closing and on another town. Moscow says its forces are regrouping, but a pro russian separatist leader admits fighting has been difficult in the dynette screech in france the u. K. And germany say they have serious doubts about around intentions. To revive the 2015 nuclear deal. Earlier this week, the u ins Nuclear Watchdog published a report, sang around stock piles of up to 60 percent and rich uranium have grown by more than 12 kilograms. With the news continues here on al jazeera after the bottom line with the high on steve clemens. And i have a question, is the uproar over American National security documents at trumps home, a serious crime or political witch hunt . Lets get to the bottom line. Ah, for the 1st time in american history, the f b, i executed a search warrant on the home of a former president. Last month. The federal agents were retrieving sensitive. Whitehouse documents from Donald Trumps mar logo is state in florida. Some mark this top secret. Now the Justice Department is investigating with the trump broke the law by keeping them and by obstructing their work, by claiming that he returned all the files. Trump says the whole thing has been blown out of proportion to serve the Democratic Party before the mid term elections a few weeks from now, he sued the government, and a judge that he appointed stalled parts of the investigation and authorized an independent 3rd party to filter out materials that trump has the right to keep private confusing. So whats next, and what are the chances that a former president will be charged with the federal crimes . Today were talking with brian greer, a lawyer who worked in the office of general counsel, where he was a member of the Senior Intelligence service and worked on the classification of National Security documents and kinda go over a politics reporter for semaphores. A new Media Company that in full disclosure, im also affiliated with, and formerly with buzz feed where she covered congress and National Politics here in washington dc. Brian, let me just start out with you and ask you what, when it comes to the president and National Security documents, what is the line between right and wrong . Well, our whole system is set up with now security in general, in classification, particular to assume that the president is going to be acting in the national interest. That hes going to be acting with the Public Interest at heart, not private interest. And so it gives him or her maximum leeway. So youre saying theres an assumption involved there. Theres not a legal responsibility that the president is going to behave sumption. How can we, in a nation of rules and laws, ought be assuming anything. Its difficult to with President Trump, for sure. The classification system was set up to govern. Not only what the president does, what all employees we worked for him, do. And theres very specific rules in place on what employees like me when i was at the see i had to do in regards to handling classified information. But a lot of those rules dont apply to the president because again, they assumed the presence going to be acting the Public Interest. Here we dont have that. And sort of the, everything sort of goes out the window when it comes to things like that. He declassify the documents, so were a little bit in the wild west. But we still have very clear criminal statutes that apply to both government officials in private citizens like former present trop, about handling and with handling classified information. And thats where now for President Trump has gone over the lot. So before he jumped the giddy, i want to get his can, the president of the United States declassified documents it will. And if he can, doesnt that allow, could be a gober and myself and the public because president s go declassified for themselves, they declassified for the public. So help me solve this riddle. Yeah, it is quite a real and i did see a lot of things put out at 1st that were just frankly true on both sides of this issue. And thats why i felt compelled to speak up. The president does have very broad declassification of authority, and a lot of people are saying that 1st is, well, no, theres a process in place that he has to fall. Theres really not. I can speak from experience been involved in president ial declassification, so he has a file on a manual macro and sex life, which some people are saying he might have maybe a speculation. He can declassify, he can take that home declassify that. But what is, thats what youre saying is theres no process, but what is the requirement the how do people know its declassified . Well, thats what normally this goes back to my 1st point of the system assumes good faith and act in the Public Interest almost every time i can think of a president as the classified information they do. So because they want to release it to the public, thats what that, thats why weve never had these debates before. The president in law wants to to classify the law right. Almost immediately, he gives a speech right away to the public. Joe biden recently declassified some documents about 911 in saudi arabia development. He signed a public order to declassify the information. So normally its provided immediately to the public because when president obama had the documentation around the, the mid loudon rayden, some have been latin, was killed. He took conscious deliberate steps to declassify that material and put that out to the public. I would think he did almost immediately upon hearing confirmation that the law had been killed by point there is, i dont know for sure, but i seriously doubt that he sat there and signed a piece of paper. Say not here by to classify that, he decided just to do it in the president do have much broader leeway than any other federal employee in this regard. But there has to be evidence that happened and thats whats completely lacking here. The trump team has had i kill 3 oper charities to claim that this information was actually declassified before some sort of agency or tribunal. Theres the national archives, who they talk to you for a year, or would of been very relevant to tell them that they never did. There was the department of justice who theyve been talking to since april or may. They never once told them. And then now theres the proceedings before judge cannon and florida. Never once did they claim that there . Why line to any one of those 3 individuals is a crime and it gets you in quite a bit of trouble line on tv, not a crime. What do you think President Trump may have been doing with, i mean, we know that President Trump didnt even like getting security briefings. He didnt like Intelligence Briefings and he was bored by them. And so the notion, thats the 1st thing i saw that they found literally hundreds, if not more classified documents. These are documents that he reportedly from enemy, anyone i talked to on his team, had 0 interest in. So whats, whats a foot . Yeah, i mean that is the 1000000. 00 question here. We dont know that why the department of justice may know that, and thats going to be the key question they want to solve, just to be clear for any other federal employee. If you have that many classified documents that your house in particularly you have these documents, you know what happened to you initially, id certainly get my house search that, that there is no question about that. And then i think that quickly to try to determine with what was mindset, what was my purpose . That volume alone would at least support some sort of inference amounted in, might result in me as a normal federal employee receiving charges given the volume and sensitivity of those documents. So i think that standard probably is not here, particularly because he was given to opportunities to return them. Thats what you hear. So tell us about that because thats an element here with regard to the issue of declassification, of the president asserting that these documents were treated differently. Earlier. His staff, his lawyers had signed documents that they had returned everything that they had. And that you made the point in your, in your tweets, that they did not say that they had declassified in these documents. Is that an important part of this story . I think so for sure, because again, you would, if youre the trump team, you want to tell that story 1st to the national archives, which is that 1st requested those documents because you know, if youre smart, thats the 2nd, they get a classified document in their position theyre going to go refer to the department of justice for prosecution, which is exactly happen. See what has told them. We certainly would have pulled the Department Justice because he would not have wanted all this to transpire. And again, you will convey that the judge cannon and florida whos overseeing the special master proceedings because it would be highly relevant to her if there was some question about the classification of these documents, that might be an issue for the 1st we throw these term special master i had, this is a new and this is not a dungeon. And dragons, this is, you know, especially to do, you know, anything about special mastercard. Just thing is, if i could think about the muller report and how special prosecutors were in, but it speaks to what the public knows about this, right . They just think we have a global audience right now. Wondering what is a special master . Why is the special master in this trump one did one . Ah, i think most of the rest of the commentary it did not want one. A judge appointed by donald trump gave this leeway to say, yes, we must have a special master in place. Because of the acknowledgment by the department of justice, in part that some of the documents may be covered by whats called executive privilege. Which means documents that are, you know, to try to take the weeds with this folks. But that are privileged and not public because they involve private communications between the president and other people within regard to doing his his work. So given that is just is this inappropriate action by this judge, or is this a partisan effort or a favor that the judge is giving President Trump . We have to see if everything is going to be fair and jeff moving forward. But some of the criticism has been around this decision and her just deciding, well yeah, he has some level of executive privilege and even post presidency. And im going to respond in that way that thats what ive been hearing. Some of the criticisms around her decision trying to my reading of the judges decision is it wasnt all a slam dunk for donald. That he didnt, she did not agree to return the documents to him. She did not agree to stop all the parts of the movement, particularly the damage assessments of the potential damage assessments of the these top secret documents. What is your judgement of the judges action . Because a lot of people in a partisan way that are already been slamming her. You think shes credible or not . Yeah, i mean, i dont think we should be focusing on the fact that shes a triple point, a judge or might be politically motivated. I like to look just look at this on the legal merits and there i think her opinion is lacking in many different ways. And so i do agree with a lot of the substance criticisms, and theres even more out there that people havent really focused on yet. You mentioned she sort of tried to split the baby bye thing, then tell Us Communities assessment of these documents could go on. But the criminal investigation with respect to these arguments needed to stop to me that doesnt make sense in a couple ways. One is, lets say they told us, going to get the document. Its very sensitive, has especially source revealing or question method revealing information about it. Their 1st question is going to be, who saw this document when under what circumstances they held us community cant answer that for themselves by law for very good reasons. They need the f b i to do that. So then they go call up f b i and say, hey, can you tell us this . Thats b, i why this special master proceeding is going to going on. Its going to say no, im sorry, were not allowed to engage on these potentially privilege documents right now that alone is something that could hinder this. I see assessment thats going on. And also just doesnt really make sense to me that that she would permit that to go on, but not the criminal investigation, which i would argue is just as important. And in fact could lead to more discoveries of other damage to National Security. That is the one whos going to discover, you know, people are speculating what was in those 43 empty folders, right . Maybe there were just other documents in room, but maybe those are somewhere else. Now thats the needs to be able to do a job and maximum leeway going forward. Could dia recently at the end of august on fox news Lindsey Graham made this falling, same as it is, is a prosecution of donald trump from his handling classified information. Theyll be riots in the streets. So this is obviously a politically infused moment. It matters not just in the legal sense that brian is outlining here. But in the way people look at political winners and losers and actions of whats going on. Now i remember very well when donald trump was running for the presidency the 1st time. And the big issues were hillarys e mails and ben, gauzy, and, you know, various issues like this. And im just interested in how we can have such he voluminous amount of classified information in the private residence of donald trump and see how Many Americans went. Lindsey graham says, are going to go to the streets and progressive use, and what kind of contradictions are, is the American Public holding in its head at the same time, in that marriage, exactly, with the Division Within the American Public, right. Democrats or people on the left are chomping at the bed in, think that this is going to be the last draw and trial that this will stop him from going, you know, running for president or get him arrested. So they think this is great. Absolutely. Most democrats on the roman said this is great, and on the right it, its a the polar opposite where they are suggesting this is a which hind and that, you know, you even see it, like i said earlier, playing out in the legislative or the congressional in congress where republicans are already gearing up for next the next session, the 118th congress and deciding that they are going to base most of their committees on investigation, investigating the department of justice or anyone that has persecuted the former president in the past. So this is not changing. What will be interesting is the independent who are just sick of the noise and who dont want to hear about a former president and or someone they voted for going to prison or being indicted this. And lets not forget, this isnt the only thing that president a former President Trump is facing right now. So itll be interesting to see if theres enough fatigue around that where madison in the mid term. Well brian, i mean, i know this is a political question, but you know, for a while, could you and i were kind of covering the malays about donald trump. We sort of saw fox news, you know, sort of a home base for a lot of trump supporting news watchers kind of slowly divorcing themselves from trump. And then this rate happen. Its very hard if you were to be a novelist or, or write a great screen play with a thriller movie to imagine how you would reverse Donald Trumps growing irrelevant that you know, fading star and bring it back. Other than having this massive rate on his home. And im just interested in the pull it, i mean youre, youre being attacked and celebrated all at the same time. But do you feel the right, i mean, were talking about donald trump. We, we barely mentioned present by, you know, just video did once, but i mean, were talking about donald trump. Hes stealing the air in the room again from every other possibility. Do what do you feel like this is done to restore his the possibilities that hell return in 2024 . I would certainly defer to be honest with you as well, but its certainly going to put him at the for me that has put them in the forward. That is all were talking about today. Were not talking about other Economic Issues or nash curity issues. I do think though, that even though its, its given the public and amazing trend transparent view and how these investigations work, its actually really unfortunate that its playing out in the public. The way it is. Criminal investigation should be kept private for very good reason. You dont want to a unfairly partner someone, but its important for the Justice Department to be seen as being a political to be allowed to do with work because they may ultimately conclude that without charging them, in my opinion, what while they did that they had no choice with the carry out that search, which obviously did the re, the profile a little bit. Its donald trump responding, who has been the one to ratchet up, all the rhetoric to go to court over there. So hes the one whos struggling. Hes the one whos making this into a political issue earliest initially. Not necessarily a department of justice, the bad ministration. I mean, im sure youre in a, in a situation now where your tweets have become so prominent. That may be, folks are sending you information covertly or privately to sure to share with you where its at. I think the thing that really interests me as a, is a tweet that you had that saying he had a lot of memos that were confidential that were not top secret. They were just nuanced. Maybe they were kim jong and love letters, whatever a be, or that they were keepsakes or small things, which hasnt really been part of the story very much. Im interested into the degree of maliciousness. Now a lot of people who are thinking the worst president from, you know, thinks that he wants to take macro material and put it, its in vladimir cancer. The other people have leverage over global leaders. Now that focuses entirely speculation on other peoples parts, not my own. They look at donald trump is someone who is not interested in information unless as a transaction involved. Is there any evidence whatsoever that is out there right now that donald trump was a transactional list with any of this information . Well, we dont know any, we dont know because we dont know whats behind all these reactions and these, we hold that. So this is, these black lines are things we cant read under. Ok. Ok when i was at the, the i with someone who would apply and theres only a heading on that. Right. Ok. When i was at the, with someone who would apply and defend reactions like the one thing i learned from watching, sort of public reaction sometimes is people can try to guess whats behind there. But theres really, its difficult to guess and its pretty dangerous game to go. So i would say like its, its difficult to know whats behind there. But i think knowing the department of justice and knowing even some of these prosecutors how small seat and serve they are there, theyre not going to stick their neck out. They know what uproar this is going to create. I think its fair to assume they have very direct evidence in that by now, at least they know theyve looked before the judge halted them. Theyve had time to look through these documents. They know is there a potential story to tell . Are they related, or are they just re, right . Did it look like you just randomly compiled some documents, in which case still crime, but theres not a story to tell or are they all related . Are they all about, or is a significant talk about mac crone or, nor story or study ravia. If they see that combined with all the information that we dont know, and they have a story to tell, and i think it is going to be very bad for donald trump. Could you let me ask you . You noted that donald trump has called the f b. I vicious monsters. And we dont know what will happen in the upcoming mid term elections in november of 2022. But a lot of people speculate that historically, the Opposition Party to the president at that moment comes back pretty strong. And a lot of people suspect that the republicans may take control of the house. How much of this do you think is going to become part of the agenda of an ascendent, Republican Leadership in the house . And what do you think that will do to the country when youre calling the f b. I vicious monsters particularly, you know, after we saw Blue Lives Matter law and order as a response to the presence complete, you know, complaints about black lives matter, et cetera. What do you think is going to happen in that . In that discussion board question, we talked about the president gaming a bump for 2024. Whats not working in favor of republicans is they dont get an opportunity to talk about inflation, higher gas prices, or any of that. Because donald trump has sucked all the air out of the rooms. No, this is not great for republicans trying to gain back the senate trying to gain back the house. I do think theyll take the house, but this makes it very sticky. Ive republicans, i talked to me privately and said they havent been on t v into 2 weeks because they dont want to talk about they dont want, they dont want to, they dont want to answer that question. So thats a big thing going into november mid terms that they dont want to talk. They want, they dont want to be asked about President Trump and the f b i investigation doesnt give the big fodder for the upcoming mid terms. And like i mentioned before, if the house, the secure, the public in securing the majority in the house, youre going to see all investigation thats totally going to be there. Totally going to pivot. I think theyre in a precarious position right now though. But let me ask you a medic question, just as we get close to wrapping this up. And its really about secrecy in america and very prominent and interesting writers like dana priest of the washington post, you know, have written about the intelligence industrial complex. How sprawling it big and unaccountable it is. I remember when bill casey was head of the ca, under president ronald reagan. He was a big advocate of growing the boundaries of official secrecy. And, you know, despite what many people thing i didnt see president obama or press and clinton really walk back, that initial secrecy very much. How much have we had to acquiesce to the fact that theres this whole other secret world out there that the average public doesnt have a right to . And thats part of whats going on in this discussion about what secret and whats not. And what, and what should be legally actionable, has the intelligence community, and its enforcers like the f b, i overstepped its bounds too much. There may be some cases where thats true. I certainly dont think this one, as weve talked about, is that case. You know, i think about this issue if were going met 1st. Second is what, what do we want to ca, an essay and other and tells us meaning elements to do what i think Congress Gives money. The ca for is to go steal secrets. What same thing with that essay . So when its discovered like through the stone disclosures that the n s a was really, really, really good at stealing secrets to me. I get why thats newsworthy, but that should not necessarily be scandalous. Thats what its paid to do. The disclosure there was putting aside the u. S. Person issue that he disclosed. What i think is a separate issue, but in terms of their overseas intelligence collection abilities, thats what theyre supposed to do. And the only way that they can do that effectively in the c, i can do that effectively, is by doing it in secret and by being able to promise to with sources. And its foreign partners which can include foreign governments that we will take those secrets to the grave. Whats happened here with President Trump has sort of yet again, cause people to question that. And i think thats why its so troubling. But certainly, that doesnt mean all secrecy is good or that the u. S. Government has drawn the line the right way to have it. And thats one of the reasons im trying to speak out a little bit is to explain the aspects that im talking about. How these prosecutions work that we can be transparent about that. Theres nothing thats really speaker about that. Its important for the American People to understand that particularly how professional is done, typically k d f. Finally, you know, gut reaction. How likely is it is donald trump ever sees a day in jail for any of this . I see, i think very unlikely. Brian, i dont like making predictions. Like i said, if they can tell a story, i think its much more likely that well see charges, but weve also seen numerous senior officials get off in the past. Well, id like to thank brian greer as former lawyer at the cia who handle the classification issues there. Thank you so much for joining us. Could be a go, but Political Correspondent for some of, for congratulations on your new role there. When im looking for to working with you. So thank you both very much for joining us today. So whats the bottom line . The one silver lining, and all this drama is it underlines the thing that really makes america strong. No one is above the law. Whether youre the poorest and meekest person in the United States, or youre a billionaire and a former president of the nation, you do have rights, but you will also be held accountable if you mess with a law. Im not sure that former president , donald trump learned that lesson in elementary school. The fact that he simply took boxes and boxes of documents of the highest classification, some potentially a risk, the u. S. National security, if they fell into the wrong hands, is still so baffling. Maybe he really believes that the rules dont apply to him. But there are 2 takeaways here. First is hypocrisy. Trump spent a lot of energy during his campaign, accusing Hillary Clinton of being reckless with National Security documents. And he made her private e mail server that server that sat in her bath tub famous. And 2nd is america gives its leaders a huge amount of leeway to do what they need to do. And the law is not black and white for them. Trump is popular for breaking the mold in using his president ial powers, but he also exposed a lot of gray areas that need to be severely diminished. And those are the bottom line ah. On counting the cost, the Energy Battle which weve washer on the west is escalating. But whos winning is europe prepared to leave . The challenge of going without wash and gas of soaring fuel prices . Pushing up the cost of living globally. When will inflation peak charging but cost oil dra 0 to simple act, applying a flag. But in the occupied westbank, wheezing. The palestinian flag could get you shot or arrested after the also ports of the 19 ninetys between the palestine degradation organization. And israel bound on the palestinian flag was listed but dont look round. Its becoming much harder to express any type of support for the palestinian called one day. There are no palestinian flag. The neck thats 3 are filled with. Its a really wide tier dead boy. Young man. Were not even born. Wendys railey government 1st declared. The palestinian flag in lou im tom mcbrian, doha, the top stories on al jazeera