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Comment by genericuser | Hacker News Reader

Hilarious twist option Obama gives WikiLeaks and everyone else the trade deal details, and claims the 100k. He could then just put it back into the government where 100k will not even be noticed, donate to some charity in some sort of PR stunt, or whatever as I am sure there are both better and more entertaining options.

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Would be funny, but I doubt Obama has access or much of a say in the matter, and he himself would get arrested and sued for leaking secrets - the president is not above the law.

> the [US] president is not above the law.

Except when it comes to extraordinary rendition and torture.

...or murdering US citizens, or making executive orders that ignore current precedent with regards to illegal immigration, or spending taxpayer money on lavish vacations for you and your family, or using non-profits for political fund raising, or a million other things these days. Just sayin'

When is an option labeled 'Hilarious twist option' ever a good option to actually do when pursuing serious issues in real life? I never suggested the president was above the law, I made a joke, and I thought I labeled it as such. Apparently not enough though, so here I go the post was a joke, an attempt at humor. I am aware it was probably not very funny, but everyone is so serious that I thought a little on topic humor might lighten things up.

Maybe Obama can't personally hand over the documents, but he almost certainly has the authority to authorize their release, which from a PR perspective is basically the same thing.

>the president is not above the law

Yeah, we've seen time and time again that everyone is treated equally in U.S. courts. Money or social standing have no influence whatsoever.

>> and he himself would get arrested and sued for leaking secrets - the president is not above the law

You must be new around here.

Executive branch officials leak classified information whenever it's convenient to them. As long as it's done with approval from higher up, there are no consequences. Even Petraeus received minimal consequences after sharing secrets with his mistress.

Maybe "law" is the wrong term, but considering this is an international treaty, there is not really a "higher up" with the authority to "approve" leaking this. (Unless you believe several of the nations involved are secretly governed by a higher body.) There would probably be fairly severe diplomatic consequences regardless how it leaked, and even worse if it was clearly a high-level official.

Perhaps I was a bit sloppy. I was referring specifically to prosecution. Of course there would be diplomatic problems, and a serious loss of credibility.

Credibility loss? It could get worse than the last 15 years?

The President has the sole legal authority to negotiate trade deals and therefore has the legal authority to unclassify their drafts if he chooses to. (He won't, of course.)

Except the President has the legal authority to declassify anything he chooses.

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