Will Trump be convicted of violating the Espionage Act in the United States?

CBS has collected some of these cases, like that of Kendra Kingsbury, a former FBI intelligence analyst.

Before she was sentenced to prison last month, she pleaded with the judge for clemency after pleading guilty to the same count of espionage that Trump was accused of violating.

The expert was sentenced to 46 months in prison for willfully concealing national security secrets, as she illegally kept 386 classified documents at her personal residence in Kansas.

Kingsbury pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the Espionage Act involving 20 documents.

Her lawyer wrote when asking for her client’s parole: “Her situation has been publicized both locally and nationally, being mentioned alongside such prominent political figures whose behavior seems strangely similar to that of Mrs. Kingsbury.”

Robert Birchum, a former Air Force officer, was sentenced in June to three years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge related to the legislation.

According to the shipping filing, he removed more than 300 confidential documents and files, including top-secret information, from secure locations and stored them at his home in Florida.

Prosecutors alleged that he was in possession of files containing information about National Security Agency (NSA) capabilities that, if disclosed, could “cause exceptionally severe harm”.

While Harold Martin, a former National Security Agency contractor, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to one count of willful abuse of detainees in what was said to be the largest such robbery for the US government.

Among the 50 terabytes of data he was accused of stealing and storing in his Maryland home and car were top secret documents that could reveal sensitive sources, methods and capabilities.

The former president (2017-2021) was indicted by a federal grand jury in June on 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified files and obstruction of government efforts to retrieve them from his luxury residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Of those charges, 31 are related to alleged violations of the Espionage Act.

On June 24, Trump told his supporters that the removal of a former president of the United States under the Espionage Act of 1917 is one of the most outrageous and draconian legal theories ever presented in a US court.

He stressed that “the law of espionage was used to persecute traitors and spies.”

The billionaire is not being charged with being a spy, but with violating 18 USC 793(e), a provision in the law that criminalizes “unauthorized possession” of documents “relevant to national defense,” but he pleaded not guilty.

Trump’s indictment alleges that the former president kept top secret documents in boxes stored at Mar-a-Lago, including in his bathroom, shower, ballroom and bedroom.

It was alleged that the newspapers contained information about US nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies in the face of military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to an attack.

A guilty plea increases the likelihood of a lighter sentence and reduced charges, while going to trial can end in acquittal, but if convicted, the defendant is likely to receive a longer sentence.

The report indicated that for Trump, who is running for president, the issue has political implications.

“There’s the spectacle, the fundraising opportunities, all the ways that it’s a unique animal when it comes to the criminal justice system,” Emily Berman, associate professor at the University of California Law Center, told CBS News. University of Houston.

But Trump’s best legal strategy is to delay the case as long as possible and wait for a presumptive victory in the upcoming presidential election.

If that happens, “this federal case will go away because he’ll have the authority to take it down,” said Mark Zaid, a national security attorney.

On Monday, Trump’s legal team asked the judge overseeing the case to delay his trial, possibly until after the 2024 election.

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