You are incorrect. Even if you were correct it doesn't change the ruling by Judge Jackson.
for the 10th time, NARA is the archivist (that means someone who keeps archives). Judicial Watch assumed these tapes would be in the Presidential Records archives. Upon being informed that they were personal and not archives, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request with NARA which they denied. So, Judicial Watch sued them. And the DOJ defended a fellow Federal entity in the case, which I assume is customary.
I can't make this any more clear. I don't understand why this is hard:
From the article, again written by the losing attorney:
My organization, Judicial Watch, sent a Freedom of Information Act request to NARA for the audiotapes. The agency responded that the tapes were Mr. Clinton’s personal records and therefore not subject to the Presidential Records Act or the Freedom of Information Act.
We sued in federal court and asked the judge to declare the audiotapes to be presidential records and, because they weren’t currently in NARA’s possession, compel the government to get them.
In defending NARA, the Justice Department argued that NARA doesn’t have “a duty to engage in a never-ending search for potential presidential records”....
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To your second point, I'll provide you her own words (as well as a summary written by the losing attorney) to show that once again you're wrong. NARA, nor anyone else, gets to decide what Trump should and should not have. The PRA, along with his unique ability to classify or declassify anything he wants, makes it impossible for him to have documents "he shouldn't have". Your premise is wrong on its face.
If you want I can separate each sentence out and tell you what it means, line by line. It feels like that's what it's going to take at this point.
The government’s position was that Congress had decided that the president and the president alone decides what is a presidential record and what isn’t. He may take with him whatever records he chooses at the end of his term.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed: “Since the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of Presidential records during his time in office,” she held, “it would be difficult for this Court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal records.”
Judge Jackson added that “the PRA contains no provision obligating or even permitting the Archivist to assume control over records that the President ‘categorized’ and ‘filed separately’ as personal records. At the conclusion of the President’s term, the Archivist only ‘assumes responsibility for the Presidential records.’ . . . PRA does not confer any mandatory or even discretionary authority on the Archivist to classify records. Under the statute, this responsibility is left solely to the President.”
I lost because Judge Jackson concluded the government’s hands were tied. Mr. Clinton took the tapes, and no one could do anything about it."
