![]() One particular law makes it a felony for someone in possession of government records to willfully mutilate, obliterate or destroy them. There are other statutes that could come into play that don’t explicitly concern classified information. But even if that’s the case, he would still have had a legal obligation once he learned of the presence of classified information to return it, Laufman said. His son Eric told Fox News that boxes were among items that got moved out of the White House during “six hours” on Inauguration Day. It is also possible he might say he was unaware of the content of the boxes as they were being packed. The declassification process does not exist in Donald Trump’s head. Another makes it illegal to mishandle national defense information, including maps, photographs and documents, or transmit it to a person not authorized to receive it.īut if past is any precedent, the mere mishandling of classified information isn’t always enough for a felony conviction - or any charges at all.Īnd, Laufman said, “The fact that he has legal authority doesn’t mean.that anything he might have chosen to take from the White House and squirrel away at Mar-a-Lago is declassified. One potentially relevant statute makes it a crime to remove classified information and retain it an unauthorized location. Multiple federal laws require the safekeeping of government secrets. ![]() To obtain a search warrant, the Justice Department would have had to persuade a judge that probable cause existed that a crime was committed, though what statute officials think may have been violated is unclear. But people familiar with the matter say it relates to an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the discovery of classified material in boxes of White House records the National Archives and Records Administration recovered from Mar-A-Lago earlier this year. Much remains uncertain about Monday’s search, including precisely what documents the FBI was looking for - Trump says agents opened a safe - or why it acted when it did. “These are statutes that have historically not been enforced to the fullest extent,” said University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck. The action Monday nonetheless focuses attention on the thicket of statutes that govern the handling of government records, though the department’s own history of prosecutorial discretion - some high-profile investigations have ended without charges or in misdemeanor plea deals - makes it hard to forecast with certainty what might happen this time. Whether an FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence is a prelude to criminal charges is unknown. WASHINGTON (AP) - The year was 2016, the presidential candidate under investigation was Hillary Clinton and the FBI director at the time, James Comey, laid out the factors the Justice Department weighs in deciding whether to charge someone with mishandling classified records.įast forward to 2022 and that tutorial proves instructive as another candidate from that election, Donald Trump, is entangled in an FBI probe related to sensitive government documents.
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