DOJ ready to ask for Trump indictment on obstruction and Espionage Act charges: report

The Department of Justice is readying to ask a Washington D.C. grand jury to indict Donald Trump on obstruction and Espionage Act charges, which could happen as soon as Thursday, The Independent reports.

Prosecutors are prepared to ask the grand jury hearing evidence to approve an indictment that the former president violated a federal criminal code that prohibits “gathering, transmitting or losing” any “information respecting the national defense,” the report said.

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg writes that “The use of Section 793, which does not make reference to classified information, is understood to be a strategic decision by prosecutors that has been made to short-circuit Mr Trump’s ability to claim that he used his authority as president to declassify documents he removed from the White House and kept at his Palm Beach, Florida property long after his term expired on 20 January 2021.”

A far-right activist on Wednesday claimed in a tweet that Donald Trump wouldn’t be indicted if he wasn’t running for president in 2024, but Benny Johnson’s assertion that the ongoing investigations of the former president are a form of “election interference” is at odds with what many legal experts are saying.

Civil rights attorney Andrew Laufer in a direct response to Johnson tweeted:

“DOJ will indict him if a grand jury determines he committed a crime. What if it is demonstrated that Trump sold our secrets to Saudi Arabia? Would you still support him?”

Read the full article here.