This is CBS. I am John Bacheler. Classified Information Procedures Act, said as CEPA.

That is the fundamental discovery I have from a new column by Andrew McCarthy of the National

Review Online about what is ahead in the government case against Donald Trump and one

other Mr. Nauta about the incorrect handling and in fact abuse of classified documents

at Mar-a-Lago. CEPA, I welcome Thaddeus MacArthur, American greatness and Andrew McCarthy

and National Review Online. And I begin with a request for a definition of CEPA. What

does it mean in a courtroom? Good evening to you.

Good evening, John. And Thaddeus, CEPA is the classified Information Procedures Act.

And it was enacted by Congress in the second half of the 20th century to deal with an

issue that often comes up in cases that involve classified information. Not that we've had

a ton of those, but we've had enough of them that we know some of the problems that recur.

And one of them is that a defendant will in order to try to persuade the government

either not to prosecute or to drop the case will often claim that he needs access to

classified information in order to mount his defense. And that it wants to get access

to the classified information not only claims that he needs more but claims that he needs

to put the classified information that he's been shown in discovery into the case before

the jury at trial in order to mount the defense that he intends to put in at the trial.

And of course, the government never wants to expose more classified information than is

necessary. So the tactic is known as graymail, reminiscent of blackmail. And it's a procedure

for the court basically to rule on the admissibility of classified information evidence prior to

trial so that everybody knows what has to be declassified. There's one thing I should

add here, John. I've been asked from time to time about whether you'll need to get clear

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