Trump faces 33 years in prison
Former president Donald Trump faces 33 years in prison if convicted of violating the Espionage act and two other criminal statutes. The ongoing investigation began in February of 2022 when classified information on White House records was found in 15 boxes at Trump’s mansion, Mar-A-Lago. Federal laws do not permit removing classified documents to unauthorized locations. This led to a search revealing that Trump had stored 11 sets of classified documents, which were removed without the permission of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Some folders were empty, and some of the documents recovered had top secret information relating to nuclear weapons.
Trump has claimed his innocence throughout this investigation and maintains that his rights were breached. The Trump team claimed there was nothing to find, going as far as saying Obama did the same thing. “President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!” said Trump. On August 22, he filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) demanding the seized documents be reviewed by a special master. Four days later, a redacted version of the search warrant affidavit was released to the public revealing 184 classified documents including 25 marked “top secret” found in the boxes at Mar-A-Lago.
On August 30, the DOJ responded to Trump’s request for a special master, calling it “unnecessary” as its “filter team” had already gone through the documents. Trump’s legal team claims the FBI took documents that were protected by the executive government as they came from during his presidency and therefore could not be used against him in an investigation. On September 2, Trump appointed judge Aileen Cannon approved Trump’s request for a special master temporarily pausing the FBI’s investigation.
On September 8, the DOJ appealed the order for a special master arguing that it put US National Security at risk as the investigation had been halted and asked for Cannon to allow for the investigation to continue. Cannon however confirmed Trump nominee Raymond Dearie as special master, denying the DOJ’s appeal. Dearie is a senior district judge for the eastern district of New York. The DOJ has said it does not oppose Dearie, who has until November 30 to review the documents. The Trump team will be covering the costs of the special master.
The outcome of this case may prove pivotal to the trajectory of American politics. If Trump were to get convicted, he would become the first American President to get indicted for a crime and serve prison time and if not, he will have once again escaped from trouble like he has before.
