Ex Post Facto

Dear Mr. President,

I read your tweets this weekend and I must say, you really need to talk to your lawyers or fire them all. They are doing you a great disservice. Please, let this Informed Citizen talk to you about the basics of a little thing called ex post facto.

Mr. President, this is in the Constitution. (Article I, Section 9, clause 3). It is a really good document, you should read it. Since it is obvious that not only have you not read the constitution and your latest lawyer (Rudy Giuliani) has not practiced law in over 20 years, let me tell what this is all about and how this pertains to you.

Ex post facto simplest conceptual interpretation is that a law cannot be passed that makes an act illegal (or punishment worse) retroactively. If I did something that was legal today, a law cannot be passed tomorrow that says I am guilty of said act. Only a change of status and a lessening of the punishment is allowed, ala the SCOTUS.

Now why does this matter in the case of your tweets this past weekend? Well, you claimed that former FBI Director James Comey leaked memos that were classified pertaining to conversations to you. You claimed that they were classified. Yet, you did not classify them. Sorry, but all conversations with you are not automatically classified. Only those pertaining to national security and there is a process for that.

Now let’s add some more to your education. Mr. Comey was the one who got to determine their classification, not you. He gave them to a friend for safe keeping. They were turned over to the Justice Department and the Special Counselor’s office as part of cooperating with a Federal probe. You know, that Law and Order thing that you campaigned on. The memos were leaked after they were handed over to Congress last week. Who could have possibly leaked them?

Now, you want to have Mr. Comey arrested and tried for the “leaked” memos that you claimed are now classified. This is a case of ex post facto. Yeah, that pesky Constitution keeps getting the way.

So, there you have it Mr. President. Another short lesson on a concept embedded deep in the Constitution. Like I said at the beginning, you really should read it. Knowing it would help with a number of problems you are having.

Signed,
An Informed Citizen