The Espionage Act of 1917 is a federal law that prohibits obtaining or disclosing information related to national defense that could harm the United States or aid its enemies. The act was enacted during World War I to prevent spying and sabotage, and it remains in effect today. The act imposes severe penalties for those who violate it, including fines of up to $10,000 and 20 years in prison. In some cases, the act allows for the death penalty for giving information to the enemy during wartime.
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Right, but the determination of harmful is set by policy under the authority of the president, so presidents are pretty much by definition immune from the requirements of the act.
It basically says people can't do things counter to the president's wishes. The president himself will never be in a position of doing something counter to his own wishes.
@volkris @stanstallman Except Trump stoped being President and may have illegally shared information with third parties as a private citizen so he can run afoul with the Espionage Act. His disregard for declassification procedures reinforced by the National Archives during his administration doesn’t help his situation. He likely cannot plead, “I didn’t know better.” Finally, we’re likely to see a young Air Force airman. “burned at the stake“ for a similar offense.
Believe it or not, young airmen and presidents have different authority in the US system of government.
@volkris @stanstallman Donald Trump‘s authority as a President ended on January 20, 2021. Until that time, he could move those classified documents around. But as of noon on the 20th, he shouldn’t have been in possession of them. He made no effort to return them, and lied, and obfuscated efforts to catalog what documents he had in his possession. He was already facing obstruction of justice charges, now may face the Espionage Act. https://youtu.be/VqSNl8BXhwQ
Isn't there a counterclaim that the documents weren't classified at the time?
I know that was the argument over some documents, but I really don't care enough about Trump to follow all of the drama.
@volkris @stanstallman Good point. Trump claims that he magically declassified documents. Having a security clearance once in my life, I can tell you that declassification is a process, and it has to go through lots of layers of government (for example, to notify and ensure the safety of US intelligence assets overseas soon to be exposed .) None of that happened because declassification didn’t happen. If Trump thought it, that’s not declassification, just surly attitude.
It's not magic. It's official authority under the US system of government.
With executive authority constitutionally vested in the president, the president is the one setting such internal executive branch policy in the first place.
There are many reasons for this, including making sure presidents can be held responsible and impeached for the deeds of their branches, but it would be a tail wagging the dog situation for the president to be so constrained by his own underlings.
