One argument made by Sen. Lindsey Graham in defending former President Donald Trump after his indictment is that he’s no spy, so why is he being charged like one? But this misconstrues the Espionage Act provisions being used to charge Trump.
The relevant portion of the law deals with the proper and improper handling of sensitive documents. It says:
Someone who"willfully retains" a covered document"and"fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it" can be fined or imprisoned if found guilty.The indictment says that Trump,"having unauthorized possession of, access to, and control over documents relating to the national defense, did willfully retain the documents and fail to deliver them to the officer and employee of the United States entitled to receive them.
"The government does not have to prove that Trump was giving them to a foreign power to use against the United States," said Joan Meyer, a former prosecutor and partner at the law firm Thompson Hine LLP.
Despite this, Meyer said she expects Trump to make the argument anyway,"because we have seen it in other cases."mostly been
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