18 USCodes
From the search warrant: alleged violations of 793 and 2071.
793 is pretty much all encompassing, and can get him as much as 10 years. Even if he had the papers legally, causing them to be removed from their proper custodial places is illegal.
2071 has to do with concealment and removal of said documents, enough to get him another 3 years. But, it also takes away his right to ever hold office again. This is what we want.
So, if they counted each doc as a single instance or violation of these two codes, they might each be worth as much as 13 years apiece. So, he could potentially get 3,900 years in prison. This would be a life sentence. Of course, that was from the first 15 boxes. There are another 11 boxes which have even more docs. If they counted each page as a separate violation, he could get as much as 9,100 years in prison. Or more, based on the boxes removed by warrant.
His defense is flimsy at best. Just having those docs in his basement after he was (and probably before, but let's not quibble) a private citizen is enough to wrap him up. His basement is not a proper place of custody. Just waiving his magic mushroom over nuclear secrets is not enough to declassify them. His wishful thinking is not enough to declassify them. If I were Trump, I'd pack up and leave before indictment.
The key wordage is "gross negligence" and "wilfully and unlawfully" and "relating to the national defense." Just thinking he had some Trumpian right to possess the documents is not enough to get him out of it.
I wouldn't mind a listing of all such documents by title. I've been thinking about this. How much would it hurt? I am in particularly wishing to know for sure whether he had nuclear classified docs in his basement. That would be real bad.
When some Judge is deciding how much time to give him, I hope they don't hand down some tiny sentence or house arrest, not if he purloined nuclear data, not unless the documents are treated singularly.
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