![]() ![]() None of the cases involved charges of actual espionage.īirchum, who was an Air Force lieutenant colonel with a decorated 29-year military career, pleaded guilty in February to one count of violating the willful retention of national defense information provision after investigators discovered during the first month of the Trump presidency in 2017 that Birchum had stored more than 300 classified documents or files in his home, a storage pod on his property and his officer’s quarters overseas. Here are seven cases in which little-known Americans have been convicted and sentenced to prison under this provision between 2017, when Trump took office, and this year. In reality, though, the willful retention provision of the Espionage Act has in recent years alone ensnared multiple people who had not previously been in the public eye. Steve Scalise argued on Fox on Wednesday that Trump would not have faced this indictment “if his name was Donald Smith,” an average American. ![]() While the law’s name makes one think it only concerns actual spying, its provisions are far broader than that narrow concept and have been upheld by the courts time and time again,” said Bradley Moss, a national security lawyer in private practice. “The Espionage Act is routinely relied upon to prosecute individuals for willful retention or dissemination of national defense information. Lindsey Graham, someone certainly does not have to be a spy to be charged under that willful retention provision. The Espionage Act provision under which Trump was indicted by a Florida federal grand jury on 31 counts, Section 793(e), makes it a crime when someone without authorization “willfully retains” national defense information “and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.” Contrary to the rhetoric this week from Trump and allies like Republican Sen. ![]() And Trump is also misleading people about the breadth of the Espionage Act.įacts First: The Espionage Act does not merely target “traitors and spies.” Even during Trump’s own presidency, obscure citizens who kept classified material at their homes, and were never accused of communicating it to anyone or aiding a foreign country, were convicted and sentenced to years in prison under the very same Espionage Act provision Trump is now charged with breaking. It has nothing to do with a former president legally keeping his own documents,” Trump said.īut classified documents, like all official records from a presidency, legally belong to the federal government, not to an ex-president. “The Espionage Act has been used to go after traitors and spies. Former President Donald Trump argued in a Tuesday speech that it is “outrageous” for him to be charged under the Espionage Act for having classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and residence. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |