But the warrant presented to the former president’s lawyers to justify raiding his Florida home to retrieve boxes of classified documents he has kept since leaving the White House — and was unsealed Friday night — showed authorities US law enforcement officials believe he may have committed crimes related to national security, mismanagement of government property and obstruction of justice. “These potential charges are ultimately very real and very serious. They are felonies with potential prison sentences of many years,” said Bradley Moss, a national security attorney at the Mark Zaid law firm in Washington. One of the legal sections cited by the Justice Department as a reason for the search — which was upheld by a federal judge — involves a possible violation of the Espionage Act, which was enacted by Woodrow Wilson in 1917 as America entered World War I. Over the years, it has been used to prosecute spies such as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 as Soviet agents, and more recently, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning for leaking classified documents. But it has never been invoked before in the case of a former president — putting America in uncharted waters from a legal standpoint. “It is inexcusable that the former president put the country in this position. They’re not just pieces of paper, but pieces of paper that are actually inherently dangerous,” said Harry Littman, an attorney at Constantine Cannon and a former federal prosecutor. “For example, maybe there are people out there who would get a flash that it’s there and try to steal it. It is a completely intolerable situation based on his willful, aggressive and completely reckless behavior.” Specifically, the search warrant states that Trump may have violated Section 793 – which relates to the “collection, transmission or loss of defense information” – as opposed to Section 794, which refers to the “gathering or delivery of defense information to assist [a] foreign government”. During the investigation at Mar-a-Lago, the FBI discovered a trove of classified documents, including some marked “top secret” and supposed to be handled with special care in government facilities. Despite repeated attempts by the Justice Department to get them back from Trump in recent months, including issuing a subpoena, the former president has resisted, setting up a standoff with law enforcement. It is unclear what information the documents contained that are valuable to both Trump and the US government. But law enforcement agencies also cited violations of two other statutes — one related to obstruction of justice and the other related to the mismanagement of government property — that are also serious and could put Trump in serious legal trouble risk as he continues to debate whether to run for the White House again in 2024.

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Sandy Berger, then-President Bill Clinton’s national security adviser, and David Petraeus, the former general and director of the CIA, faced legal scrutiny for mishandling classified information and pleaded guilty to avoid prosecution. It’s still unclear whether Trump will ultimately be charged with a crime — and what. “You can make a straightforward argument, and clearly the government has, that every one of these statutes has been violated. But that in no way means that there is a plan or even the possibility of pursuing charges in a criminal case down the road,” said Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School. “Not only would any decision on prosecution turn on the seriousness and national security significance of the material, but you would need real clarity as to Trump’s intent and knowledge of the material,” he added. Trump insisted the material was declassified before he left office — something that would have been his prerogative while president. But that usually involves a long process, and the authorities don’t think that’s happening. “This abstract constitutional bar to prosecution is Trump’s best defense right now, and it’s something the Justice Department needs to plan for as it considers charging and ultimately overcoming in pretrial motions if it prosecutes the former president,” he said. Moss to Marc Zaid. .

But even as the evidence appears to be piling up in favor of a federal prosecution, Merrick Garland, the attorney general, who on Thursday vowed to uphold the law “without fear or favor,” will have to decide whether a step would be justified and appropriate. “The Justice Department may find itself with a pattern of events that certainly fits the evidence and the law in terms of a criminal prosecution, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s serious enough to cross the Rubicon of charging a former president,” Litman said. in Constantine Cannon. . “It’s not so much because they’re worried about Trump — and even more because they’re worried about his violent supporters who have been on such a despicable display this week. But more than that, you know, there has to be an overall calculus, as in [Richard] Nixon case, for the good of the country.”