Political Quotes

“Mr. Chief Justice, I send a question to the desk for both President's counsel and House managers. The CHIEF JUSTICE. Thank you. The question from Senator Baldwin is for both parties, and counsel for the President will answer first: Can you assure us that the Jennifer Williams document submitted to the House was not classified SECRET for any reasons prohibited by Executive Order 13526, such as preventing embarrassment to a person? If yes, please describe or identify the serious damage to national security that would be caused by declassifying this document, pursuant to the same Executive Order. Mr. Counsel PHILBIN. Mr. Chief Justice and Senator, in response to your question, the Trump administration's policy is always to abide by the requirements for classification of material, and the classification--my understanding is that that document is derivatively classified because it refers to another document, a transcript that was originally classified. I can't represent to you a specific reason that the classification officer classified that document, but I can tell you that it was originally classified according to proper procedures. It is a properly classified document, and that is the policy of the administration, to follow the classification procedures. The memorandum that she submitted is derivatively classified because of that transcript. Now, that transcript relates to a conversation with a foreign head of state.…”