Trump Mar-a-Lago search warrant, property receipt show agents found trove of classified docs
NBCDec 26, 2022
The Facts
The warrant authorizing the FBI to search Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this week, which was unsealed on Fri., has revealed that the former president is being investigated for a possible breach of the Espionage Act, obstruction of an investigation, and removal or destruction of records.
If convicted of violating any of these statutes, Trump could potentially face severe penalties. Destroying records could prevent him from running for public office, while violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice sentence him to up to 10 and 20 years in federal prison, respectively.
The Spin
Democratic narrative
It's no surprise that Trump remains a tremendous threat to US national security even after leaving the White House, and the Mar-a-Lago search is there to remind us of it. Despite knowing he had removed classified documents from the White House and destroyed some of them, his supporters have irresponsibly attacked the operation and attempted to politicize the FBI and the DOJ. This is an exceptionally serious situation.
Pro-Trump narrative
The DOJ and the FBI are only playing politics as Trump would have transparently given them anything they wanted. It's evident that there was no serious risk to national security as they waited days to execute the search warrant, which didn't request immediate action. On top of that, Trump had absolute authority to declassify documents when he was in office.
