The indictment of former President Donald Trump for holding military documents and obstructing the government from taking them is built on a novel legal theory, according to several lawyers and other experts. The theory has multiple weaknesses that, if scrutinized in court, could collapse the entire case.
The case has been portrayed in the media as being about Trump’s retaining classified documents from his presidency. The charges, however, sidestep that issue and instead use a clause in the Espionage Act that criminalizes a failure to hand over national defense information. The indictment further alleges that Trump and staffer Waltine Nauta hid some documents when the government demanded them through a subpoena….