["If youre not fed up," said watchdog group Public Citizen, "youre
not paying enough attention." ]
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SEARCH WARRANT INDICATES FBI INVESTIGATING TRUMP FOR ESPIONAGE ACT
VIOLATION  
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Jessica Corbett
August 12, 2022
Common Dreams
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_ "If you're not fed up," said watchdog group Public Citizen, "you're
not paying enough attention." _

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump is being investigated for potential
violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice, and unlawful
removal of government records, according to the warrant authorizing
the recent federal search of Mar-a-Lago, which was released Friday.

"This is insane. If you're not fed up, you're not paying enough
attention," tweeted the advocacy group Public Citizen in response to
the Espionage Act revelation.

Some reports about the warrant and an inventory
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what agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation removed from the
Florida residence—including from _Breitbart_
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News_
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and _The Wall Street Journal_
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before a federal judge's 3:00 pm ET deadline
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Trump's attorneys to respond to a U.S. Department of Justice
(DOJ) request
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unseal the documents.

Though Trump's legal team had copies
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the documents—meaning he could have made them public himself—the
ex-president said on social media and to government lawyers that he
did not oppose releasing the materials through formal legal channels,
which led U.S. attorneys to request that the court do so.

While details of the leaked materials circulated widely Friday
afternoon, U.S. Judge Bruce Reinhart—who had signed the warrant on
August 5—ordered the official release.

As Charlie Savage at _The New York Times_ summarized
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The search warrant for Trump's residence cited three criminal laws,
all from Title 18 of the United States Code. Section 793, better known
as the Espionage Act, which covers the unlawful retention of
defense-related information that could harm the United States or aid a
foreign adversary; Section 1519, which covers destroying or concealing
documents to obstruct government investigations or administrative
proceedings; and Section 2071, which covers the unlawful removal of
government records. Notably, none of those laws turn on whether
information was deemed to be unclassified.

The receipt for property shows FBI agents took over 20 boxes of
materials from the former president's home. The inventory lists two
binders of photos, a handwritten note, information regarding the
president of France, "top secret" and other classified documents, and
Trump's executive grant of clemency
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Roger Stone.

"The FBI seized 11 sets of classified documents, four sets top secret,
one of those secure compartmentalized info," noted Noah Bookbinder of
the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington (CREW). "That's an awful lot, and I struggle to think of a
good explanation for why all that would be there, particularly after
several requests and negotiation."

Trump claimed
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his Truth Social platform Friday: "Number one, it was all
declassified. Number two, they didn't need to 'seize' anything. They
could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and
breaking into Mar-a-Lago. It was in secured storage, with an
additional lock put on as per their request."

Savage explained
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even if the former president's declassification claim is true, he
could still face legal trouble:

For one thing, two of the laws that a search warrant executed at
Mar-a-Lago this week referred to—Sections 1519
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United States Code—make the taking or concealment of government
records a crime regardless of whether they had anything to do with
national security.

For another, laws against taking or hoarding material with restricted
national security information, which generally carry heavier penalties
than theft of ordinary documents, do not always line up with whether
the files are technically classified.

The third law referenced in the warrant—Section 793
[[link removed]], or the Espionage
Act—"makes no reference to whether a document has been deemed
classified," Savage highlighted. "Instead, it makes it a crime to
retain, without authorization, documents related to the national
defense that could be used to harm the United States or aid a foreign
adversary."

Details of the search warrant and inventory followed reporting
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Washington Post_ late Thursday that FBI agents were attempting to
recover classified nuclear weapons documents from Trump's home on
Monday.

The _Times_' Alan Feuer noted
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that the DOJ did not seek the release of the affidavit in support of
the warrant, arguably "the most informative—and sensitive—document
connected to the search of Mar-a-Lago."

This work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel
free to republish and share widely.

_Jessica Corbett is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* Donald Trump
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