Upon reports that former President Donald Trump may have broken the law by taking home documents marked “top secret” in the 15 boxes he removed to his private Mar-a-Lago home, Levy Firestone Muse partner Daren H. Firestone authored an opinion for Law360 to discuss the likelihood of prosecution under the Espionage Act:
We don’t know why Trump took the documents to Mar-a-Lago. Was it a mistake? Were the documents mementos of his time in office? If the classified Mar-a-Lago documents turn out to implicate Trump in a crime — related to Jan. 6 or otherwise — and there are multiple reliable witnesses to testify that Trump intended to hide them from investigations into his criminality, then a prosecution may be warranted, and conviction may be sufficiently likely to overcome political and legal liabilities.
Read the full opinion, “DOJ Unlikely To Charge Trump For Taking Top Secret Docs,” on Law360 (account required) or download a PDF here.
