The Espionage Act of 1917 most often used against spies, whistleblowers, and government employees who leak documents to journalists, the Espionage Act carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. It has never been used against a President or a former president who has top secret security classification.

The United States does not have a British-style Official Secrets Act. Instead, several laws protect classified information, including the Espionage Act of 1917, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. A 2013 report to Congress noted that the relevant laws have been mostly used to prosecute foreign agents, or those passing classified information to them, and that leaks to the press have rarely been prosecuted. The legislative and executive branches of government, including US presidents, have frequently leaked classified information to journalists. Congress has repeatedly resisted or failed to pass a law that generally outlaws disclosing classified information. Most espionage law criminalizes only national defense information; only a jury can decide if a given document meets that criterion, and judges have repeatedly said that being "classified" does not necessarily make information become related to the "national defense". Furthermore, by law, information may not be classified merely because it would be embarrassing or to cover illegal activity; information may be classified only to protect national security objectives.

The United States over the past decades under the Obama and Clinton administrations has released classified information to foreign governments for diplomatic goodwill, known as declassification diplomacy.

Read It: Mar-a-Lago Affidavit Released With Redactions

After days of waiting and a flurry of motions from the Department of Justice attempting to keep the affidavit used in the FBI's raid of Mar-a-Lago sealed indefinitely, a redacted affidavit was finally released on Friday afternoon just before the 12:00 p.m. ET deadline set by federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart. There was such a rush to view the affidavit, however, that the government's website where federal court records are posted completely crashed for nearly 30 minutes.

Once the site recovered, the affidavit was revealed to be a 38-page document that is heavily redacted — despite Judge Reinhart saying that the FBI's redactions are "narrowly tailored" — leaving even more questions still unanswered. In all, 20+ pages are entirely or significantly redacted.

What remains un-redacted is a narrative of what most already knew: the government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records that began after the National Archives and Records Administration referred the matter to the Justice Department on February 9, 2022.

The affidavit also mentions a CBS Miami news article about moving trucks being "Spotted at Mar-a-Lago," a statement by Trump about the Archives' requests for documents, and significant chunks of text and presumably images that the government's case is based on entirely blacked-out.

In a memorandum that was also unsealed Friday, the government's case for its redactions to the affidavit is *also* heavily redacted. The government cited witness information, a road map for its investigation into Trump, potential disclosure of a matter before a grand jury, law enforcement safety, and broad "privacy interests" as its basis for redacting the affidavit. "In short, the government has well-founded concerns that steps may be taken to frustrate or otherwise interfere with this investigation if facts in the affidavit were prematurely disclosed," the memo explains

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2022/08/26/read-it-maralago-affidavit-released-with-redactions-n2612226?utm_source=breakingemail