--- title: DOJ says presidents should be able to sell secrets on eBay description: The Justice Department's position in court is that a president could sell national security secrets on eBay. During D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals oral... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/doj-says-presidents-should-be-able-to-sell-secrets-on-ebay-nya6vfise twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: DOJ says presidents should be able to sell secrets on eBay | daily.dev og:description: The Justice Department's position in court is that a president could sell national security secrets on eBay. During D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals oral... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/doj-says-presidents-should-be-able-to-sell-secrets-on-ebay-nya6vfise og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/nYa6vFisE.png og:image:alt: DOJ says presidents should be able to sell secrets on eBay og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # DOJ says presidents should be able to sell secrets on eBay **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The Justice Department's position in court is that a president could sell national security secrets on eBay. During D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals oral arguments over the Presidential Records Act, Judge Patricia Millett asked whether a president could auction national security secrets to the highest bidder, and the government's answer was yes. The case stems from a DOJ memo claiming the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional and that White House files are the president's personal property. Freedom of the Press Foundation and CREW sued and won an emergency injunction in May requiring compliance with the law. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What did the DOJ argue about whether a president can sell classified government records as personal property The Justice Department argued that White House files are a president's personal property rather than the public's, claiming the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. During D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals arguments, when Judge Patricia Millett asked if a president could sell national security secrets on eBay to the highest bidder, the government's response was yes. _Readers following record-law disputes can track this case's developments on daily.dev._ ### How many people have died in ICE custody this year Recent deaths bring the total number of people who died in ICE custody to 29 this year, a count on track to surpass the prior year's record high. This figure excludes people who died immediately after release from ICE custody, a reporting gap that may hide additional fatalities the agency is responsible for. _Those tracking government accountability data follow updates like this on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 74 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-26). **TL;DR:** The discussion is overwhelmingly alarmed, treating the DOJ's position as further evidence of executive overreach and institutional collapse, with debate mostly over who's to blame and how severe the consequences will be rather than whether the policy itself is defensible. **Sentiment:** 2% positive · 13% mixed · 85% skeptical **The pushback** - Many argue classification authority doesn't equate to personal ownership of documents, and selling them for personal profit likely violates the emoluments clause. - Several note the legal argument may be technically plausible under current law, which they see as exposing a dangerous, long-standing over-concentration of power in the presidency. - Commenters worry enforcement mechanisms (Congress, courts) have already failed to check this kind of behavior, making the legal theory moot in practice. **By community** - hackernews (heated): Commenters largely treat the DOJ's position as alarming evidence of executive overreach and institutional failure, though a sharp side debate breaks out over whether blame is bipartisan or one-sided. **Hottest debate:** Whether this crisis reflects genuine bipartisan institutional failure (both parties/branches sharing blame) or is a one-sided problem caused by a single party's conduct. **Open questions** - Would any proceeds from such a sale legally have to go to the government rather than the president personally? - What specific classified material, if any, was actually at stake in the underlying Mar-a-Lago-related investigation? - Can declassification done informally or after the fact be considered legitimate under existing procedures? **Highlights** > I don't think being able to sell secrets on eBay is a bad thing. The point of secret classification isn't to restrict trusted people - but to restrict *unathorized* access. And highest person in chain of command naturally has full authority to do as he sees the situation fit What I don't understand how it's allowed is that money earned from such ebay sell would go to private pocket instead of the government I feel like that latter point isn't accentuated enough > — [NooneAtAll5 on hackernews · 3 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50245693) > > The point of secret classification isn't to restrict trusted people - but to restrict unathorized access. And highest person in chain of command naturally has full authority to do as he sees the situation fit First of all -- what? The exact legal authority between the President and Congress here is murky, yes (see https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RS21900). But it's completely ridiculous to claim that the only criterion for authorization is that someone thinks a person ought to be authorized. This is unitary executive thinking, grounded in the principle that, because the president is the sole and chief authority and executor of the law, the president may do just about anything in that capacity. It's utter unconstitutional nonsense, no matter what our (openly compromised by lobbyists) Supreme Court justices say. The latter point is "not accentuated enough" because it's secondary to the primary point, which supersedes it. No the president's whim is not the same as executing the federal laws created by Congress within the framework of the constitution. It a mind-bendingly anti-American, anti-Constitutional line of reasoning on display here. > — [gwerbin on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50246151) > For selling his own personal documents? That's crazy talk. Edit: This is obviously a politically charged topic, so I should be more clear. If we accept the (absurd) premise that a president can sell national secrets on eBay because they're his own personal property, I'd be mildly surprised if a court found that he had to give the proceeds to the state. > — [hansvm on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50245312) > I like the way it's worded, as it leaves open if you are buying information on a specific person or thing or haveing information on a specific person or thing, become secret. But the real money and show auctions will be for end of term pardons for things that cant be kept secret, and then there will be all sorts of deals and perks, get a free secret with a full family pardon and complimenterty stay in the white house epstien suite. > — [metalman on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248653) > Ridiculous as it may be, I'm not sure the argument is incorrect under the law. The president is the ultimate classification authority. The only reason he was prosecuted for mishandling classified documents previously is because that was after he left office. The American system of executive power needs a major rethink. For decades, Congress has given up more and more power to the executive under the assumption that the president will be a careful steward of those powers. This was a dumb decision at the time and it's made quite obvious now that an absolute cretin holds the office. Unfortunately, I don't imagine we'll get that rethink. Instead, we'll just try to fix it by giving somebody else too much power and hoping they use it better. > — [wat10000 on hackernews · 4 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50245390) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50243762) · 96 points · 74 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [In a first, US will allow some private firms to carry out cyberattacks](https://daily.dev/posts/in-a-first-us-will-allow-some-private-firms-to-carry-out-cyberattacks-amiaryn9n) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The NSA’s Word Games Explained: How the Government Deceived Congress in the Debate over Surveillance Powers](https://daily.dev/posts/the-nsa-s-word-games-explained-how-the-government-deceived-congress-in-the-debate-over-surveillance-wupt3jscd) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [US authorities punish sellers of malware and spyware](https://daily.dev/posts/us-authorities-punish-sellers-of-malware-and-spyware-ztmvibvsh) · CSO Online · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [White House offers to trade state AI preemption for federal online safety laws in new deal with Congress](https://daily.dev/posts/white-house-offers-to-trade-state-ai-preemption-for-federal-online-safety-laws-in-new-deal-with-cong-ybdvavxtf) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Medium](https://daily.dev/posts/medium-6ahndyxxh) · Medium · 2 upvotes · 2 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/doj-says-presidents-should-be-able-to-sell-secrets-on-ebay-nya6vfise) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"DOJ says presidents should be able to sell secrets on eBay","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/doj-says-presidents-should-be-able-to-sell-secrets-on-ebay-nya6vfise","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/doj-says-presidents-should-be-able-to-sell-secrets-on-ebay-nya6vfise"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T15:46:43.039Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T19:32:48.340Z","description":"The Justice Department's position in court is that a president could sell national security secrets on eBay. 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