Employees take boxes from the White House on the last day of Donald Trump's term, January 20, 2021.MANDEL NGAN (AFP)
Donald Trump has made history again by becoming the first former president indicted for federal crimes in the history of the United States (no president has been in office). The tycoon himself has announced this Thursday through his social network, but without specifying the crimes of which he is accused. The specific charges are not yet known in detail, but there are some concrete indications in this regard from his legal team. Lawyers have discussed seven charges and cited crimes with potentially serious prison sentences such as obstruction of justice or violating the Espionage Act. Some of these crimes correspond to those already investigated in the registry of Mar-A-lago, his mansion in Palm Beach (Florida). Others were not known until now.
Jim Trusty, Trump's lawyer, explained in an interview on CNN that he does not yet have the indictment with the specific accusations: "Now we have not been provided with the accusation. What we have now is essentially a subpoena, which is a substitute for an order, right? Typically, charges are accompanied by a warrant when there is an arrest. Here we have received a summons from the Department of Justice asking us to be in court on Tuesday at three," he said.
Trusty has briefly explained what content that subpoena has and how many crimes it refers to. "Again, it doesn't perfectly reflect an allegation, but it has some language that suggests what the seven counts would be." "It's not 100% clear that all of them are separate charges, but they basically split into one Espionage Act charge, which is ridiculous in the facts of this case, and I can certainly explain it and several obstruction charges based on the type, and then the false statement charges that are actually again, a kind of crazy exaggeration of the facts we know," in his opinion.
Is there one about intentional retention of documents? "That's it. We are talking about 18 USC 793. And then there are several 18 USC 1512 1519, great television cite these numbers. But the bottom line is that it boils down to the charges of retention, as you call them, obstruction and false statements," he said, admitting that there is also apparently some conspiracy charge. "Again, this is not the Bible, because I'm not looking at an indictment. I'm looking at a summary sheet. So there's language there that could actually be reflecting a single charge which is two, but I think there was a conspiracy charge as well."
Different crimes
Those codes and figures so little television to which Trusty has referred were already known on the occasion of the search warrant of the mansion of Mar-A-Lago, where some of them were indicated. Numbers are articles of the United States Code (USC), the United States Code or Federal Code, which is a compilation of the federal laws in force in the country. The precepts of the Code come, therefore, from different laws passed by Congress even in very distant times. The articles cited are from Title 18 of the USC, which lists the crimes. It is equivalent to the Penal Code.
793 is a long article with eight paragraphs ranging from letter a) to h) and that is part of the Espionage Act. Its casuistry is broad and punishes, for example, those who steal secrets from the United States to deliver them to another country. Trusty has not specified which section is suspected of violating Trump, but letter d) punishes "who, having lawful possession, access or control of any document (...) or information relating to national defense the information that the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the detriment of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign nation (...) intentionally withholds it and does not release it at the request of the official or employee of the United States entitled to receive it." It would therefore be the intentional retention of national security documents. For any of the paragraphs of article 793, the penalties provided for are a fine and/or imprisonment for a maximum of 10 years.
The Espionage Act was passed in 1917, during World War I, decades before the current document classification system existed (top secret/sensitive, top secret, secret, confidential...). So while Trump claims he had declassified the documents, that doesn't automatically free him from having committed that possible crime.
Obstruction of justice
Article 1.519 of the Criminal Code, on the other hand, punishes the "destruction, alteration or falsification of documents in federal investigations and bankruptcies", which comes to be known as obstruction of justice. It has a single paragraph, which reads: "Whoever, knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, conceals, falsifies or makes a false annotation in any record, document or tangible object with the intent to prevent, obstruct or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case brought under title 11, or in connection with or in contemplation of any matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both." It also appeared on the search warrant.
The one that did not appear is another article that Trump's lawyer has cited, 1.512 of title 18 of the USC. It is within the group of obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence, but it is a very long article. It punishes as a crime from killing a witness to other less drastic ways of trying to hinder an investigation. For example, in one of its sections, it punishes with sentences of up to 20 years "any person who knowingly uses intimidation, threatens or corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so, or adopts deceptive conduct towards another person, with the intention of (1) influencing, delaying or preventing the testimony of any person in an official proceeding; (2) cause or induce any person to (A) conceal testimony, or conceal a record, document or other object, in an official proceeding; (B) alters, destroys, mutilates or conceals an object with the intent to impair the integrity of the object or its availability for use in an official proceeding; (C) circumvents legal process by which he or she is summoned to appear as a witness or to produce a record, document or other object in an official proceeding; or (D) is absent from an official proceeding to which such person has been summoned through legal process; or (3) hinders, delays, or prevents the communication to a law enforcement officer or judge of the United States of information concerning the commission or possible commission of a federal crime."
A police vehicle at the gate of the Mar-A-Lago mansion in a recent image. GIORGIO VIERA (AFP)
Without citing the article, Trusty has acknowledged that Trump is also accused of conspiracy. According to section 371 of the Code, "if two or more persons conspire to commit any crime against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof, in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more such persons perform any act to carry out the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both." The peculiarity of this crime is that Trump cannot commit it alone, but must have participated in the conspiracy with someone else. The lawyer of the former president has indicated that he does not know anyone else who is charged. It is another new charge that was not listed on the search warrant.
Another crime of which the former president is accused, as his lawyers have recognized, is that of falsehood, regulated in section 1001 of title 18 of the USC: "Except as otherwise provided in this section, any person who, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and deliberately- (1) falsifies, conceals or conceals by any trick, ruse or artifice a material fact; (2) makes any statement or representation that is materially false, fictitious or fraudulent; or (3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing that it contains any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or annotation; shall be sentenced to a fine under this Title, to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 5 years," it states.
Although the lawyers have not now referred to this crime, at the time the search warrant also contained article 2.071 of title 18 of the Federal Code. Subparagraph (b) states that "whoever, having custody of any record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper or otherwise, intentionally and unlawfully conceals, deletes, mutilates, erases, forges or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than three years, or both; and shall lose his office and be disqualified from holding any office in the United States."
With the statements of Trump's lawyers, it is not clear whether they are referring to different crimes, for each of which several charges can be filed, or to seven counts, with a number of misdemeanors. Apparently, even they don't know for sure. We will have to wait until Tuesday to know the specific accusations and much more, perhaps even beyond the presidential elections of 2024, so that Trump sits on the bench to be tried and it is known what penalty the prosecutor asks for and what verdict the jury sentences.
Follow all the international information on Facebook and Twitter, or in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Read more
I'm already a subscriber
