training status of their personnel or command and control, there is a whole plethora of kinds of information pertaining to a nuclear offense or defense that could be revealed or information could be inferred by exposure of these documents. this is obviously very valuable top secret information. but what is the value of this top secret information to another country? because, you know, only a certain number of countries have nuclear capabilities. well, that s right. it is a fairly small club of nine or ten, depending on if you include north korea or not, i guess. and as i say, this goes to the very core of our nation s existence. and that is why nations pursue and acquire nuclear weapons. it s why we did. it s why russia has and china. it s why north korea has, because it gets to the very existence and how they deter foreign attacks. and so, this in turn is, as i say, the holiest of holy s of secrets. which nation strived very hard to protect and restrict access to, as we
and, or, importantly, the obverse of that is that it could also indicate what we do not know about a foreign nation. which could give them some form of reassurance, particularly if it s an adversary. so, nuclear capabilities, number of weapons, how many are on alert, maintenance status, training status of their personnel or command and control, there is a whole plethora of kinds of information pertaining to a nuclear offense or defense that could be revealed or information could be inferred by exposure of these documents. this is obviously very valuable top secret information. but what is the value of this top secret information to another country? because, you know, only a certain number of countries have nuclear capabilities. well, that s right. it is a fairly small club of nine or ten, depending on if you include north korea or not, i guess. and as i say, this goes to the very core of our nation s existence. and that is why nations pursue and acquire nuclear weapons. i
well, i certainly agree with both jon and bill barr that this is a delay, this is a holdout, this is not going to determine any outcomes of the case. in terms of whether the judge got it right or wrong, let me just say this, be wary of any blanket assertions that the judge was absolutely right or absolutely wrong on executive privilege. because the fact of the matter is, we have very little case law to executive privilege. and you will hear people from time to time make assertions like a former president does not have a cannot invoke executive privilege. that is just not right. the supreme court has said there can be narrow circumstances were a former president can invoke executive privilege. this is the kind of decision that is invested in our district court judges, a trial court judges. i think what this judge did is weigh two competing factors. on one hand, not wanting to slow down or create unnecessary burden. on the other hand, as jon said, let s be safe, let s bring in a third
weigh two competing factors. on one hand, not wanting to slow down or create unnecessary burden. on the other hand, as jon said, let s be safe, let s bring in a third party, let s bring in a neutral outsider, so at a minimum we will have an appearance here, we can tell the american public that all precautions were taken to guard the privileges. and i think the judge did a reasonable job of balancing those two factors. listen, the couple times we heard from the former attorney general bill barr, he has been going against what, you know, the former president, abby, he was one the presidents biggest enablers, but now is making a hard turn. this is what he said to the january 6th select committee, watch this. i made it clear i did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which i call the president was bullish it. if he really believes the stuff, he has, you know, lost contact with, he s become detached from reality if he really believes the
the plan was for troops at the border. who suggested we send a quarter million u.s. troops to the border? steven miller. i think he s joking. i turn around and look at him these dead pan eyes, it s clearly he s not joking. and i told this story to general milley and my chief of staff. i said, let s be safe. let s just check and make sure that this isn t being worked in the building. and he comes back somedays later and says, secretary, you re not going believe this. and that s when he explains to me that they were working. we had developed a plan. whatever happened to that plan? it died. i gave specific instruction to tell northern command to stop work on it. they were working it without the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs knowing about it? that is one of of the most revealing parts of that whole