For context, you might remember Reality Winner (her real name), an NSA translator who saw and leaked a classified NSA report detailing Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election through attacks on the voting software supplier and phishing emails aimed at local election officials. Winner was punished for the leak — to the tune of 5 years for ONE classified document.
Arguably, that report is something Americans probably should know about, but Trump and the GOP don’t want Russian election interference exposed. Trump applauded the Espionage Act prosecution of Winner at the time, and the GOP response to the leak was to enact stricter sentences for whistleblowers, which Trump signed into law. That update to FISA statute increased the penalty for unauthorized removal and retention from 1 year to 5 years.
Trump has now been indicted for. . . 37 counts of document mishandling. Though, to be fair, the specific statute updated isn’t part of the Trump indictment, it’s only adjacent to it.
- Counts 1-31, Willful Retention of National Defense information, 18 USC 793e – 10 year penalty
- Count 32, Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice, 18 USC 1512k – 20 year penalty
- Count 33, Withholding a Document or Record, 18 USC 1512b2A – 20 year penalty
- Count 34, Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record, 18 USC 1512c1 – 20 year penalty
- Count 35, Concealing a Document in Federal Investigation, 18 USC 1519 – 20 year penalty
- Count 36, Scheme to Conceal, 18 USC 1001a1 – 5 year penalty
- Count 37, False Statements and Representations, USC 18 USC 1001a2 – 5 year penalty
Oh, lordy. Imagine becoming a felon because of a law you yourself signed in an attempt to own the libs. 😭😭
Update: Reality Winner calls the case against Trump “incredibly ironic.”
Photo by MicheleAroundTheWorld on Unsplash
