Will Trump Be Charged Under the Espionage Act?

This morning former president Donald Trump announced that he is expecting to be arrested next week in connection with alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.Show more

But is this case by the Manhattan D.A. merely a means to an end; a precursor to bringing federal charges for far more serious crimes such as violations of the Espionage Act?

After the FBI raid on former President #Trump's Mar-A-Lago home last August, we learned that the search warrant indicated the search was conducted in connection with, among other things, the Espionage Act.

Violations of the Espionage Act always carry long prison sentences. If convicted, Trump could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The Espionage Act is actually a series of statutes under 18 US Code Chapter 37 related to the collection, retention, or dissemination of national defense or classified information. The Mar-a-Lago search warrant referred to Section 793 — “Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information,” which doesn’t just cover “spying” in the sense that many think of when they hear the term. Section 793 specifically states that people legally granted access to national defense documents — people like the former president — are subject to punishment should they improperly retain that information.

Two months before the FBI executed an unprecedented raid of a former president's home, seizing more than 100 classified documents, some agents wanted to believe that Donald Trump's attorneys had already conducted a thorough search of the Mar-a-Lago premises in Palm Beach, Florida.

A new report from The Washington Post revealed how FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors clashed on how to proceed with a criminal probe into Trump's handling of classified records prior to the months that led up to the Mar-a-Lago raid.

While some FBI officials pushed to get consent from Trump to search his property, other field agents wanted to close the criminal investigation entirely by early June after Trump's attorneys claimed they conducted a "diligent search" of Mar-a-Lago, according to people familiar with the discussions and who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to talk about a sensitive investigation.

On June 3, 2022, a few FBI agents and a DOJ official convened at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve remaining classified documents that were in Trump's possession. Christina Bobb, one of Trump's attorneys, signed a letter attesting that a careful search was completed, according to a court filing.

On this edition of Maverick News, we hear some pretty astonishing details about what happened that day from Trump attorneys Christina Bobb and Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani himself is also in hot water legally, facing a litany of potential charges that could potentially send him to prison as well.

Giuliani’s legal liability is “profound,” says Norm Eisen, a senior fellow in governance studies at The Brookings Institution, who was counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment. Eisen led a team of legal experts at the Brookings Institution to examine what criminal acts may have been taken by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results.

In the Department of Justice investigation, special counsel Smith is charged with looking into who may have “unlawfully interfered” with the transfer of power after the 2020 election or the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. Eisen says that Giuliani may have broken federal law against being a part of a conspiracy to defraud the United States by spreading false election fraud claims and promoting slates of fake electors, as well as laws against obstructing an official proceeding in Congress.

“He has as serious criminal risk as anyone other than Donald Trump,” Eisen says.

Will President #Biden and the #Democrats go full Banana Republic and "lock them up" to stop their 2024 political rivals?

We also discuss the irony of Trump possibly being charged with the very same law he used to arrest, imprison, extradite and prosecute Julian #Assange.

Assange faces 175 years in prison for alleged violations of the Espionage Act.

Maybe Trump and Assange will wind up being cellmates in the same maximum security federal facility -- or maybe they'll both get Epsteined before they ever get to trial.

Don't laugh. We aren't kidding.

#FreeAssange #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners