Trump Under Investigation for Violating Espionage Act

Facts

• The warrant authorizing the FBI to search Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this week, which was unsealed on Fri., has revealed that the former president is being investigated for a possible breach of the Espionage Act, obstruction of an investigation, and removal or destruction of records.
• If convicted of violating any of these statutes, Trump could potentially face severe penalties. Destroying records could prevent him from running for public office, while violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice sentence him to up to 10 and 20 years in federal prison, respectively.
• This comes after AG Merrick Garland decided on Thurs. to publicize the authorization given to the FBI to inspect Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, claiming the search was approved after "less intrusive" attempts failed. In response, Trump encouraged the release on his social media platform, Truth Social.
• On Fri., Trump denounced reports claiming that he was in possession of documents with sensitive information at his Mar-a-Lago home. He suggested that the Dept. of Justice investigation was another "hoax."
• This comes after The Washington Post reported that classified documents related to nuclear weapons and other sensitive intelligence were among those sought by FBI agents on the Mon. search in Florida.
• FBI agents reportedly seized 11 sets of classified documents during the inspection, including four top secret sets which should only be stored in special government facilities. No further detail about the content of each document was included in the inventory.

Sources: Politico, Guardian, New York Times, Independent, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by The Daily Beast. It's no surprise that Trump remains a tremendous threat to US national security even after leaving the White House, and the Mar-a-Lago search is there to remind us of it. Despite knowing he had removed classified documents from the White House and destroyed some of them, his supporters have irresponsibly attacked the operation and attempted to politicize the FBI and the DOJ. This is an exceptionally serious situation.
• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by Breitbart. The DOJ and the FBI are only playing politics as Trump would have transparently given them anything they wanted. It's evident that there was no serious risk to national security as they waited days to execute the search warrant, which didn't request immediate action. On top of that, Trump had absolute authority to declassify documents when he was in office.

Predictions