FBI Investigating Whether Trump Violated These 3 Statutes

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FBI investigators are focusing on whether former President Donald Trump violated three federal statutes as part of their probe that led to Monday’s raid on his home Mar-A-Lago, according to the search warrant unsealed Friday—laws that broadly prohibit the destruction, removal or mishandling of government documents and could result in prison time.

Former President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower on August 10 in New York City.

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An attachment to the search warrant the FBI used to raid Mar-A-Lago states investigators seized any property “illegally possessed in violation” of federal statutes 18 U.S.C. §§ 793, 2071 or 1519.

The most notable federal statute is 18 U.S. Code § 793, also known as the Espionage Act, which deals with the possession of documents and materials related to national security, particularly information that could be used to harm the U.S. or benefit a foreign country.

The statute broadly prohibits copying, transmitting or having unauthorized possession of such national security material, as well as “[removing it] from its proper place of custody,” and carries a punishment of a fine or up to 10 years of prison time.

18 U.S. Code § 1519 bars the destruction or falsification of any documents or materials “with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence” governmental matters or investigations, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years or a fine.

The final statute prohibits “willfully and unlawfully conceal[ing], remov[ing], mutilat[ing], obliterat[ing], or destroy[ing]” any government property, and carries a fine or prison sentence of up to three years.

That statute also states anyone who violates it should be disqualified from holding public office, but while the issue would likely get litigated in court, legal scholars broadly believe it couldn’t be used to stop Trump from running for president again in 2024.

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Trump has defended himself by claiming he declassified any sensitive documents and thus can’t be found guilty of mishandling them, claiming on Truth Social on Friday “it was all declassified.” While presidents do have the power to broadly declassify materials, legal experts cited by NBC News note that there’s a formal process to do so and that declassified materials have to be marked as such before they can be viewed—which it reportedly appears did not happen with documents recovered from Mar-A-Lago. “We’ve told him there’s a process and not following it could be a problem but he didn’t care because he thinks this stuff is dumb,” an anonymous source who had spoken with Trump about declassifying documents told NBC.

Key Background

The federal search warrant and related documents were unsealed in court Friday following days of speculation as to the reasons and targets for the FBI’s Monday raid on Mar-A-Lago. The raid was conducted in connection with an investigation into documents that Trump brought back to Mar-A-Lago with him from the White House, after the National Archives first retrieved 15 boxes from the Florida resort in February which it said included classified documents. According to the search warrant, FBI investigators seized an additional 20 boxes of materials on Monday, along with “various” classified materials and documents labeled “secret,” “top secret” and “confidential,” reportedly after a source tipped off federal agents that there were additional materials that weren’t initially turned over.

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