Wow, like NO ONE HERE has any idea what they are talking about. Some wild assumptions as well that are absurd. Like, when a President assumes office from another, are we seriously going to think there is no debrief? I mean, POW, ex-Pres it out and new Pres is in and nothing?
“Just Do It” I suppose.
The President, can not legally at least, take classified information into a space that is not at that classification level. In fact, no one can as it would be illegal. For those that have access (I used to as a DoD contractor with a clearance level that required it and a CAC), their is in fact training associated with this. It details the roles and the process for which classified information is determined and controlled. It’s not some willy-nilly thing, you don’t want to over-burden the system with worthless information but at the same time you need to pay attention to make sure information at a lower classification level, when aggregated with other lower-level info, doesn’t reveal more information than intended and is classified at the appropriate level.
Who makes the “need-to-know” determination? The President is the boss of Agency heads, so he can make the determination of eligibility and the determination of “need to know”. Sure, an NDA might need to be signed, but so what?
The bottom line is the classification process, as noted by the poster above, is governed by Executive Order, and can be changed at any time by the Executive.
How do you think information becomes classified? Based on classification guidance ultimately deriving from the Executive Order, which the President can change at any time, since he is the Executive.
Isn’t the point also moot since the President can just say "My husband has extensive foreign policy experience and so I wish to discuss some issues with him as an advisor. Please grant him a TS/SCI clearance.
That sorts it out for Hilary and Bill. For other Presidential spouses I’m sure if the President makes the request and can find some justification for the “need to know” then the clearance would be granted.
Gah - so much misinformation before we even get to the speculation on what a president can and cannot do. Let’s review the facts:
The President under the Constitution holds all executive authority. There is no agency head that can exercise any discretionary authority in order to deny the President his decision making authority. In other words, no agency head can tell the president that he lacks the need to know.
The President does not hold a security clearance. The President has access to classified information by virtue of the office he holds, just the same as congressmen who also do not have clearances.
The system of classifying information is virtually entirely a function of the Executive Branch, which gives the President extremely broad powers relative the the administration of classified information. For the most part, the only time Congress or statutes have some impact on this discussion is laws providing penalties for some types of disclosures.
I think ultimately, common sense would prevail and Presidents keep secrets secret. However, if a controversy about the President telling FLOTUS something classified, it becomes one of those “can God make a rock so big he can’t lift it” questions. Can the President write a rule that he is not allowed to break?
Hmm, a quick read of the Wikipedea page on executive orders suggests that they are much more constrained in many ways. They are intended to allow the President to execute the law. In this they must be based upon an existing law, or power explicitly provided in the constitution. They are subject to judicial review. Importantly they cannot make law, or contradict existing law. Also, unlike Nixon’s famous words "if the president does it, it is legal’ executive orders seem to be much more formal. They need to be a formal order. They are not a matter of a president just saying something. Implicitly, it would seem that the president is bound by any executive order he makes. He might be able to make another order, or rescind an order he finds unexpectedly binding, but in general, given the president is bound by law, and his job, as the executive, is to execute law. and the purpose of executive orders is to provide a mechanism for him to do so, it seems very unlikely the president could make an order that provided for him to avoid any law, certainly not an order that would survive judicial review.
I am bit surprised nobody picked up on Edith Wilson. She rather famously took over vetting all information that was presented to her husband, Woodrow Wilson, after he had sustained a CVA. She worked to keep her husband’s condition secret, and although she claimed to have never made a executive decision herself, she was clearly privy to everything that POTUS would see for six months, and probably until the end of Wilson’s term.
“I studied every paper sent from the different Secretaries or Senators,” she wrote later of her role, “and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband.”*
Edith Wilson did not see any classified information, for the simple reason that the classification system did not begin until Executive Order (EO) 8381, dated March 22, 1940.
I’m not saying that no secrets existed before then or that information was freely dispersed. More that our modern notions of classified information do not fit well to a different time before that way of thinking even began. Edith no doubt upset every notion of propriety for her day and might be illegal if Michelle did it for the next six months, but our world is so different from hers that I don’t want to make any comparisons.
My wording may have been vague. Your clearance continues to be valid, but your access to information at your former job ceases, since you no longer have a need to know. Also, an abbreviated background check will likely be done on you even if your clearance is still active. I left the Navy with a DOS top secret, and immediately went to work for a DOD contractor. I needed a lower class of clearance, and since is was for DOD had to have a DIA background check done. When I left there after two years and went to work for the DOS full time, they did another BC for a TS clearance.
I had several other jobs in later years, working for companies that did business with the government, and each time there was an “interim clearance” period while yet another BC was done. Granted, it’s a far, far shorter process than a full BC where they talk to your family and neighbors. My family is still convinced that I worked for the CIA.
I believe that, technically, the President in in charge of deciding who can and cannot have access to Classified information, so I suppose technically he can share it with whomever he likes.
In practise, he probably doesn’t. And he probably has to keep records of everyone he has shared it with.
OTOH, I seem to recall a couple decades back the FBI declassifying some of it’s file on Marilyn Monroe, and part of what was in there was that they started keeping a file on her because they believed JFK was discussing nuclear policy with her.
My brother once worked as a supervisor for a major national private security company. While he did not manage any accounts for nuclear power plants (he did do a PGA tournament), the company did have such accounts. All of his friends and immediate family had a brief chat with nice men from the FBI before he was officially hired.
So yeah, lots of jobs require some kind of clearance.
The spouse’s “Need To Know” is that she needs this information to do her job. That job would be: being an adviser to her husband.
Someone mentioned above how teachers and doctors can’t share information with their family, but in my experience they actually do. So long as “identifying information” is omitted, no ethical breach has occurred.
That is, a doctor can’t say “John Smith, the guy who lives next door, came in with a raging case of gonorrhea today.”
But he totally can say, “I have a patient, he’s about 55 and has five kids, and today I had to tell him he’s got terminal cancer.”
Everybody has people they turn to for emotional support and ethical guidance. That usually includes their spouse if they have one. And if you are a head-of-state, those advisers may need to be privy to secrets to give proper support/advice.
And the President is technically the head of EVERY agency, so all he needs to do is get an NDA from his wife. Which, let’s face it, she probably signed before moving into the White House. A nice little blanket “You may be exposed to secret information during the next 4 years, and you aren’t allowed to repeat any of it.” kinda thing.
The President probably keeps most of the Classified stuff he knows from his wife, because limiting the number of people who know that stuff is important. But if there is something he feels he simply must discuss with his wife, I don’t see any legal reason why he couldn’t.