In pleading guilty to one count under the US Espionage Act as part of a plea deal, the WikiLeaks founder’s case has left some large legal concepts unresolved.
Boxes containing classified documents are stored in a bathroom of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.
Department of Justice
Former President Donald Trump was indicted on further charges over his hoarding of classified documents – and he has a new co-defendant in the case.
Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to reporters on June 9, 2023, in Washington about the investigation of Trump’s retention of classified records.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File
A former national security staffer, now a scholar of secrecy law, says criticisms of Trump’s federal indictment for hoarding classified documents are unfounded.
Police walk around the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. federal courthouse in Miami before Donald Trump’s arraignment on June 12, 2023.
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The Constitution says that a trial must be held where an alleged crime happened – while Trump’s indictment mentions Washington, D.C. and Florida, there are a few reasons why Florida was the pick.
Boxes containing classified documents are stored in a bathroom of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.
Department of Justice
The indictment identifies categories of risk to the United States and its allies due to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. A scholar of intelligence studies examines four of them.
A judge bench and a jury box are seen in a U.S. courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Like all criminal defendants, Trump will enjoy the protection that a jury will offer from abuse by government prosecutors.
Former President Donald Trump on his airplane on June 10, 2023, two days after his federal indictment.
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If you were Trump’s lawyer, what would you advise him to do now? Two national security specialists have some words for and about the former president after his federal indictment.
Special counsel Jack Smith prepares to talk to reporters on June 9, 2023, after the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
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There are 38 felony charges against former President Donald Trump, and while it’s unlikely, he could potentially be sentenced to serve 400 years if found guilty on all of them.
Former President Donald Trump was on the campaign trail in early June 2023, as an investigation continued that led to his indictment on federal charges.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Spy cases are rare. More typically, as in the Trump indictment, the act applies to the unauthorized gathering, possessing or transmitting of certain sensitive government information.
Daniel Ellsberg addresses supporters during an anti-war protest in 2010 in front of the White House.
Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images
The Vietnam War whistleblower, who died on June 16, 2023, wrestled with his decision to leak thousands of pages of government documents.
Eugene Debs, center, imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Prison, was notified of his nomination for the presidency on the socialist ticket by a delegation of leading socialists who came from New York to Atlanta.
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The handling of US classified information received another stain as a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman stands accused of mishandling secret documents on US allies and the war in Ukraine.
Former President Donald Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury will test his legal and political power.
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Two national security law experts explain how the Espionage Act isn’t only about international intrigue, and share other important points about the law that was invoked in a search of Trump’s estate.