![]() ![]() Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote a similar letter to Attorney General William Barr and White House counsel Pat Cipollone. King, seven Democrats and one Republican sent a letter late last month to acting national intelligence director Richard Grenell asking to be briefed on any existing PEADs. “This is a case where the president can declare an emergency and then say, ‘Because there’s an emergency, I can do this, this and this.’” ![]() Angus King, I-Maine, said in a telephone interview. “Somebody needs to look at these things,” Sen. The senators think the documents would provide them a window into how this White House interprets presidential emergency powers. But they outline what powers a president believes that the Constitution gives him to deal with national emergencies. ![]() The documents don’t give a president authority beyond what’s in the Constitution. The little-known, classified documents are essentially planning papers. They have asked to see this administration’s Presidential Emergency Action Documents, or PEADs. That prompted 10 senators to look into how sweeping Trump believes his emergency powers are. They are rarely used, but Trump last month stunned legal experts and others when he claimed - mistakenly - that he has “total” authority over governors in easing COVID-19 guidelines. Dozens of statutory authorities become available to any president when national emergencies are declared. “I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about,” he said at the White House. WASHINGTON - The day he declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency, President Donald Trump made a cryptic offhand remark. ![]()
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