Yes, President Donald J Trump has been indicted on espionage charges in the handling of documents he took possession of when leaving the office of the Presidency. The bottom line is this indictment is a blatant case of political persecution.
As President, Donald Trump had the total and absolute authority to declassify any and all documents he wished. No one else in government had that authority. And he did not have to make some formal declaration about classification when possessing documents. By taking documents with him to Mar-a-Lago, all documents were automatically declassified by implication. And what did he do with those personal Presidential papers? He reportedly secured them in a locked area that was patrolled by assigned Secret Service agents.
The content of any documents the then departing President matters not. They were declassified and declared personal. The claim by President Trump is they were and are his.
There is disagreement about what are personal papers and what are not. This seems to be the lynch pin to any legal issues. One cannot question the authority to declassify. That is the President’s only. The claim is that President Trump violated the Presidential Records Act. That is in debate, but even if true there is no criminal penalty and Trump was communicating and working with the National Archives and Records Administration concerning what papers are personal and what should be possessed by the NARA. Then the raid on Mar-a-Lago by the FBI took place without notice. Even Trump’s on site lawyers were frozen out of the property while the FBI agents searched through the property even reportedly to the point of searching Melania Trump’s dresser drawers.
Now since there is no criminal action possible under the National Records Act, the Biden Administration has decided to charge Trump with espionage, a criminal charge. My prediction is this will eventually go nowhere even if it has to get to the Supreme Court before being thrown out.
Political pundits now say that what the Biden administration has done virtually assures that Donald J Trump will be the Republican nominee for President for the 2024 election. This is the opposite of what they hoped for. In truth, Democrats are scared to death that Trump will become President again in January 2025. If he does, the political bloodbath then will begin. The excising of the corrupt and criminal and deep state will be quick.
One has to say something about President Joe Biden. When Vice President and a Senator, Biden had no authority to declassify anything yet he took all sorts of official classified and government papers according to reports. Reports are many were stored openly in a car garage and many more in a library at the University of Pennsylvania. Has the Justice Department, the FBI, and the National Archives and Records Administration done a damned thing about Biden’s violations. Of course not. Or how about Sec. Hillary Clinton violations of classified materials. Nothing there either.
Americans see through all of this and more and more are angry about the injustice being perpetrated. The 2024 election cannot come soon enough.