In a self-own for the ages, Donald Trump could be facing five years in prison for a bill he signed in an effort to stick it to Hillary Clinton over her email scandal, which turned out to be nothing. According to reports, Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified information is the focus of the recent FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, which prior to 2018, might not have been that big of a deal. However, thanks to Trump imposing harsher punishments through a national security bill that broadened the scope of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, he potentially screwed himself.
Via Business Insider:
It upgraded the seriousness of wrongly moving classified material, turning it from a misdemeanor into a felony — and increasing the maximum punishment from one year to five.
[National Security attorney Bradley P.] Moss noted that it was passed in the wake of Trump’s relentless attacks during the 2016 presidential campaign on Hillary Clinton for allegedly mishandling classified information.
Hilarious. To add insult to self-injury, Newsweek recently reported that the Mar-a-Lago investigationwas sparked after a confidential source informed the FBI that Trump was still holding on to classified documents. Not only that, but the informant reportedly know the exact location of said documents, which prompted the Department of Justice to plan the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Unfortunately, the plan was to also avoid a “media circus” by conducting the search while Trump was away, but that blew up immediately when the former president took it upon himself to announce to the world that Mar-a-Lago has been raided. Like clockwork, Republican politicians and Fox News pundits lined up to defend Trump. Russia even got in on the act, which is exactly what the former president needs right now. Thanks, Putin!
(Via Business Insider)