...The FBI found the documents during a raid of Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, last summer. Now, Trump has reportedly been charged with seven federal criminal counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements, and unauthorized retention of national security documents.
The former president's response has been annoying, albeit typical for Trump. Here's the first paragraph of Trump's statement from yesterday:
The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is "secured" by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time.
Trump insists that the charges are part of a politically motivated witch hunt and is trying to deflect blame to Democrats, in this case, President Joe Biden.
While the indictment is not yet public, what we know about the charges suggests that they are also annoying.
Unauthorized retention of national security documents violates the Espionage Act of 1917, but it beggars belief that Trump's behavior amounts to espionage. The Espionage Act charge could carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison per offense.As Reason's Jacob Sullum noted last August, "there is some evidence to support the inference that Trump's alleged mishandling of classified material was 'intentional and willful'" or, at minimum, "a pretty reckless way to handle sensitive material." And according to the Justice Department, documents found at Mar-a-Lago included sensitive information "relating to nuclear weapons."
Granted, the offense Trump is reportedly charged with—illegally retaining "national defense information"—needn't involve a plan to give or sell that information to a foreign country.
The Espionage Act charges have raised eyebrows on the pro-Trump right and from libertarians and folks on the left. On the one hand, it represents Trump being treated just like ordinary citizens. On the other,
maybe ordinary citizens should face fewer Espionage Act charges, too.
"I'm categorically opposed to charging anyone under the Espionage Act, even those who seem obviously to have engaged in espionage," tweeted former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash. "It has a terrible history of abuse. Government has employed it to avoid scrutiny and chill free speech, and it violates basic tenets of due process."
The Intercept's Ryan Grim noted that Daniel Ellsberg—who leaked the Pentagon Papers to news outlets in 1971 and was charged under the Espionage Act—"has been arguing for years that the Espionage Act is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment."
"If a govt official mishandles classified info they can be administratively punished, fired, etc, but it's not a crime," tweeted Grim. "That's his argument and I think it's a good one."Trump and his team have argued that Trump declassified whatever documents he retained before leaving office.
If true, that would of course preclude charges related to mishandling classified documents—and could point to one reason why the Espionage Act is being invoked here. As the Times points out, "prosecutors would not technically need to prove that [the documents at Mar-a-Lago] were still classified because the Espionage Act predates the classification system and does not refer to it as an element."
There's a lot we still don't know. But it's a good bet that, regardless of how this turns out, it will still be annoying.
