Trump's emergency powers worry some senators, legal experts

The day he declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency, President Donald Trump made a cryptic offhand remark.

I have the right to do a lot of things that people don't even know about," he said at the White House.

Trump wasn't just crowing. Dozens of statutory authorities become available to any president when national emergencies are declared.

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.

That prompted 10 senators to look into how sweeping Trump believes his emergency powers are.

They have asked to see this administration's Presidential Emergency Action Documents, or PEADs. The little-known, classified documents are essentially planning papers..

The documents don't give a president authority beyond what's in the Constitution.

But they outline what powers a president believes that the Constitution gives him to deal with national emergencies.

The senators think the documents would provide them a window into how this White House interprets presidential emergency powers.

Somebody needs to look at these things, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said in a telephone interview.

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.'
I'm merely speculating. It may be that we get these documents and there's nothing untoward in their checks and balances and everything is above board and reasonable.''
"The memo notes that while no 'express statutory authority' exists for such a measure, 'it can be argued that these actions would be legal in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack based on the president's constitutional powers to preserve the national security.'