Daniel Hale is an air force veteran and former intelligence analyst for the US government. In March 2021 he pleaded guilty to unauthorised retention and disclosure of classified national defence information. He was sentenced to 45 months in prison.
Terry Albury is a former agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In April 2018 he pleaded guilty to unauthorised retention and disclosure of classified national defence information. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
Reality Winner is also an air force veteran and former intelligence analyst for the US government. In June 2016 she pleaded guilty to unauthorised retention and disclosure of classified national defence information. This related to a single-page document. She was sentenced to 63 months in prison.
None of these people were spies. They did not seek personal gain or advantage. They did not sell secrets to foreign powers. They were whistleblowers. They gave information to journalists that they believed the American people had a right to know.
This did not help their legal defence. The laws designed to protect US national security allow no good faith exceptions. If a person wilfully or knowingly violates them, they have no defence in the eyes of the law.
On Friday, the Mar-a-Lago search warrant and property receipt were unsealed by the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The warrant lists three potential violations of the US code:
- 18 U.S.C. § 793: gathering, transmitting or losing defence information (the Espionage Act)
- 18 U.S.C. § 1519: destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations and bankruptcy
- 18 U.S.C. § 2071: concealment, removal or mutilation generally.
In plain English it means that the FBI and the Department of Justice established probable cause that Donald Trump may have stolen sensitive government files, and then obstructed efforts to retrieve them.
Over the past week Trump and his allies have floated numerous lies to rebut these allegations:
- The boxes contained personal items such as newspaper clippings, letters, and other mementos. (Perhaps. However, they also contained thousands of official government documents)
- Why send the FBI? Trump would have returned any documents if requested. (No, he did not. The National Archives asked for the documents soon after Trump left the White House. They were stonewalled for more than a year)
- Why didn’t they subpoena the documents? (They did. A subpoena was issued in May 2022. Some documents were returned, but not all. Trump’s lawyer claimed in June 2022 that no more classified information was stored at Mar-a-Lago)
- The FBI planted the documents. (No. They did not)
- Short of a document containing the nuclear codes, the search was unwarranted. (The Washington Post reported on Thursday that nuclear documents were among the missing items)
- Trump declassified the documents. (He has no proof of this. And it doesn’t matter anyway, because classification is irrelevant to the crimes alleged)
- What about Hillary Clinton? But her emails! Benghazi! (Same old broken record)
- What about Obama? He kept 33 million pages of documents! (Another lie. The National Archives has custody of 30 million pages of documents from the Obama administration)
- If the documents are so important, what took them so long? (The former president was treated with extraordinary deference. That’s why it took so long)
- Plenty of classified documents aren’t “truly classified”. You can find them on your phone. (Try this on your phone)
- Only one box was classified/TS/SCI. It’s not like they have voluminous boxes of this most classified material. (That’s not how this works. Reality Winner went to prison for one page)
- The documents should never have been classified in the first place. (See above)
- The boxes were packed in a hurry. They only had two days to clear out. (They had 11 weeks to pack, but spent two months planning an attempted coup)
- They just want to stop him running for president again. (Democrats would be delighted to face Trump again)
We don’t know what secrets the boxes contain. We may never know. That’s the point about sensitive materials. They stay secret.
We don’t know why Trump had the documents. We may never know that either. It doesn’t matter. Taking them and keeping is enough to send him to prison for many years.
A bank manager has keys to the vault. When he leaves his job, he doesn’t get to take any of the contents home. They don’t belong to him. A police chief doesn’t keep evidence when he surrenders his badge. A health insurance boss doesn’t pocket patient records when he retires. When their job ends, it ends. The same applies to ex-presidents.
Of all the crimes Trump has been accused of throughout his life, this case against him is the least complicated to make. He will claim he had the authority to retain the documents. He did not. He didn’t act alone, which means he will try to throw his underlings under the bus to save himself. It won’t work. Several face serious legal jeopardy of their own. It’s hard to imagine they will all be willing to take the fall for him.
The feds have the goods. Trump is trapped. Now we wait.
