The judge has released Trump’s search warrant and the inventory of items seized. You can read it HERE. As I stated it would, the warrant enumerates the crimes that form the probable cause foundation. As I also predicted might happen, the Espionage Act is invoked as one of the listed crimes, 18 U.S.C. § 973, is part of the Espionage Act.
The probable cause finding for this statute should shock America. At its core it involves gathering national defense information with the intent or belief that the information will be “used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation.” Put simply, Donald Trump is a traitor.
Such injury to the United States is what a judge found probable cause a former President of the United States was up to. This statute carries a maximum ten year prison sentence.
As appalling as this is, it may not represent the Big Kahuna of offenses included in the search warrant. Another that I previously predicted would appear is 18 U.S.C. § 2071, for unlawful removal or destruction of government documents. While carrying only a three year prison term this statute provides that anyone convicted under it is “disqualified from holding any office under the United States.” Trump would be ineligible for the Presidency, or any other federal job.
The final statute mentioned is 18 U.S.C. § 1519, an obstruction of justice related statute that carries a maximum 20 year sentence. It applies to altering, destroying or hiding documents “with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence” an investigation.
The specific evidence supporting these allegations is not known. It would be in the affidavit presented to the judge outlining the probable cause basis for these crimes. As I have otherwise made clear, you can be sure that this search warrant had a lot more than probable cause to bolster it. That affidavit will likely not be released until Trump is indicted. At that time it will have to be given to his attorneys as part of discovery.
Further, the search clearly hit pay dirt. The list of items seized strongly suggests that Trump’s theft of these documents could have resulted in grievous harm to the national security of the nation. While the list descriptions are rather generic it does include “various classified TS/SCI documents.” The TS stands for “Top Secret.” The SCI stands for “Sensitive Compartmentalized Information,” and is an enhanced designation representing among the very highest security classifications. Such documents are not supposed to leave their secure location in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). When needed they can be checked out to look at in the SCIF but should never leave the SCIF. Trump had this highly sensitive material in his house.
Several other boxes are labeled as having Top Secret documents, and others labeled as having Secret or Confidential documents.
The FBI conducted this search and seizure because Donald Trump is a national security risk. The inclusion of the Espionage Act in this probable cause warrant strongly suggests he is not loyal to America.
