Trump and the Espionage Act (with Bradley Moss)

Skullduggery

“I have finally seen enough. Donald Trump will be indicted by a federal grand jury.” So wrote national security lawyer Bradley Moss, our guest, in a column for the Daily Beast after release of a heavily redacted FBI affidavit detailing the justification for the extraordinary search of Donald Trump’s home in Mar A Largo to retrieve stacks of government documents that didn't belong to him. While many of the most pertinent portions were blacked out, the affidavit detailed how the FBI had retrieved 15 boxes from Mar A Largo earlier this year. What was in them—mixed in with newspaper clippings, personal correspondence and other items-- were “184 unique documents bearing classification markings,” including 67 marked “CONFIDENTIAL,” 92 marked “SECRET,” and 25 documents identified as “TOP SECRET”—where unauthorized disclosure could reasonably result in “exceptionally grave damage to the national security.” Moss suggests these findings along could be the basis for charging Trump with multiple federal crimes, including obstruction and unlawful retention of classified documents as well as even possibly a section of the Espionage Act dealing with gross negligence in the handling of national defense information. But is the evidence that has been made public so far enough for Merrick Garland’s Justice Department to bring the first criminal charges in history against a former president. We'll discuss with Moss.

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