Espionage

A search warrant viewed by POLITICO reveals that the FBI is investigating Donald Trump for potential violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of ...

But after several rounds of negotiations in which materials were recovered by the Archives, federal investigators came to believe Trump hadn’t returned everything in his possession. “The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.” The disclosure of the documents comes four days after Trump publicly confirmed the court-authorized search of his Mar-a-Lago home by the FBI, marshaling his political allies to unleash fierce criticism of federal investigators. But that’s stands in contrast with how Trump’s office has handled matters of declassification in the past. The concern grew so acute that Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the unprecedented search of Trump’s estate last week. Conviction under the statutes can result in imprisonment or fines.

With news Trump is being investigated for violating the Espionage Act, a look at his swirling, twirling excuses for possessing classified documents.

While asserting the whole thing was all a political hit job by radical Democrats, Trump and company slammed the FBI and the Department of Justice, comparing them to the Gestapo and other horrible things. After the Washington Post reported Thursday that some of the documents FBI agents were seeking involved nuclear weapons, Trump again called that a hoax, then followed up hours later with this statement: “President Barack Hussein Obama has kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. But the Justice Department, you see, refused to release the search warrant, right up until Thursday when it said, “Sure, let’s release the search warrant.” Of course Trump himself could have released the warrant at any time. But, the warrant got stuck to his hand after he ate a jelly doughnut, putting the onus on the government to release it. Well, it’s complicated, but here is a rough rundown of what we’ve heard over the course of this momentous week. So how are Trump and the Republican loyalists and right-wing media pundits who make up his Praetorian Guard explaining all this? How many of them pertained to nuclear? It's also the process. If you’ve followed Trump over the years – and I pray you haven’t – you can hear his meandering mendacity already: “It was the best espionage. Where was I? For starters, Trump didn’t have any classified information at Mar-a-Lago and this is all part of an elaborate “witch hunt.” Also, as Trump and many politicians and pundits suggested on Fox News and elsewhere, who’s to say those devious FBI agents didn’t plant stuff in Trump’s boxes of documents, the ones he didn’t have in the first place because – all together now – it’s a witch hunt. Tears! And he said, ‘Thank you, sir, for doing such amazing espionage.

FBI agents in this week's search of former US President Donald Trump's Florida home removed 11 sets of classified documents including some marked as top ...

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced that the department asked Reinhart to unseal the warrant. Since Monday’s search, the department has faced fierce criticism and online threats, which Garland have condemned. It did not spell out the details about why investigators have reason to believe such a violation occurred. Also included in the list was information about the “President of France.” As such, Trump’s claims that he declassified the documents would have no bearing on the potential legal violations at issue. That law was initially enacted to combat spying.

Ex-President Donald Trump could be in serious legal trouble after a warrant for a search of his Mar-a-Lago home suggested an Espionage Act probe.

In that role, Laufman supervised the investigation and prosecution of cases affecting national security, including mishandling of classified documents. It is difficult to think of a crime more serious than violations of the Espionage Act.” Specifically, the warrant authorizing federal agents to search Mar-a-Lago shows that authorities sought a range of highly sensitive documents, including 11 caches of classified materials. The FBI and Justice Department have long warned that Chinese agents are in the United States looking to collect any information they can. But the other two statutes cited in the search warrant are also serious, legal experts said. In April 2019, federal authorities said they were reviewing whether then-President Trump's private resort was vulnerable to foreign spying, a person familiar with the matter said. The legal predicate that is part of the Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 793, pertains to “gathering, transmitting or losing defense information.” Instead, they're supposed to be held by the National Archives, he said, in a secure location not unlike Fort Knox where no one can access them without many layers of authorization and approval. “You don't think the U.S. intelligence services would be all over themselves trying to penetrate that site?” I guarantee you that there's foreign intelligence services who have targeted that location,” Leonard told USA TODAY. "The fact that the search was predicated on evidence of crimes committed under the Espionage Act is of enormous importance," said Ryan Goodman, a national security law expert and former special counsel to the Department of Defense. But if the FBI, the Justice Department and an independent federal judge are to be believed, Trump could be in some serious legal trouble, including what they say could be violations of the U.S. Espionage Act.

An unsealed warrant for the search of former President Trump's home indicates the FBI is investigating a possible breach of the Espionage Act.

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The Justice Department is investigating Trump for potential Espionage Act violations, according to a search warrant. What does it mean?

"I personally do not foresee the government bringing such a case here, unless the information is something they can also prove was classified," Moss said. The latter carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence, double what someone would face under Section 793 of the Espionage Act. Trump has claimed that all the documents were declassified. "I think that's one of the closest precedents to the current situation," said Ryan Goodman, a New York University law professor. In January, the National Archives and Records Administration said it retrieved 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago, some of which contained classified national security material. Congress enacted the Espionage Act on June 15, 1917, two months after the U.S. entered World War I, to stifle dissent of U.S. involvement in the war.