Rand Paul Calls for Espionage Act Repeal as Trump Fumes Over FBI Search
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
U.S.Donald TrumpRand PaulRepublicanGOP
Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, called for repealing the Espionage Act less than a week after the FBIexecuted a search warrant at former President Donald Trump's Florida residence, with the legal document citing a provision of the federal law that the federal agency suspected had been violated.
The FBI, with the approval of Attorney General Merrick Garland, carried out the Monday raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort home, searching for top secret and sensitive compartmentalized information, as well as other classified documents. Trump and his allies have condemned the raid, with the ex-president calling it part of a "hoax" and an ongoing "witch hunt" targeting him.
On Friday, the warrant for the search was unsealed, revealing that it cited potential violations of federal laws 18 USC 2071—Concealment, removal or mutilation, 18 USC 793—Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information, and 18 USC 1519—Destruction, alteration or falsification of records in Federal investigations. The federal statute 18 USC 793 is part of the Espionage Act.
Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, called for the repeal of the Espionage Act in a Saturday Twitter post. Above, Paul attends a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight on Capitol Hill on August 3 in Washington, D.C. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Paul, a supporter of the former president, took issue with the Espionage Act in a Saturday Twitter post.
"The espionage act was abused from the beginning to jail dissenters of WWI. It is long past time to repeal this egregious affront to the 1st Amendment," he wrote. The GOP senator included a link to a June 2019 article titled "Repeal the Espionage Act" published by The Future of Freedom Foundation.
The espionage act was abused from the beginning to jail dissenters of WWI. It is long past time to repeal this egregious affront to the 1st Amendment.
Repeal the Espionage Act - The Future of Freedom Foundation https://t.co/3KCgujpS9z — Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 13, 2022
Newsweek reached out to Paul's press representatives for comment.
The article shared by the senator, which was written by the foundation's founder and president, Jacob Hornberger, said that the World War I-era law should be repealed in connection to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Hornberger called the Espionage Act "a tyrannical law" that had been enacted and used to "punish" political dissidents.
"In fact, it is that World War I relic that U.S. officials are now relying on to secure the criminal indictment of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks head who released a mountain of evidence disclosing the inner workings and grave wrongdoing on the part of the U.S. national-security establishment, especially with respect to the manner in which it has waged it undeclared forever wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan," he wrote.
Paul has previously called for Assange to be granted immunity from prosecution.
"I think that he should be given immunity from prosecution in exchange for coming to the United States and testifying," the Kentucky Republican told The Gateway Pundit in August 2018. "I think he's been someone who has released a lot of information, and you can debate whether or not any of that has caused harm, but I think really he has information that is probably pertinent to the hacking of the Democratic emails that would be nice to hear."
Paul's Democratic opponent, former state Representative Charles Booker, slammed the GOP senator's call for repealing the federal law.
"Rand Paul is now calling to repeal the Espionage Act after the world learned Donald Trump is under investigation for violating it. When I am elected to the Senate, you will never have to question my loyalty to our country," Booker wrote in a Saturday tweet.
"Rand Paul's actions are shameful," the Democratic candidate added in a follow-up post.
Rand Paul is now calling to repeal the Espionage Act after the world learned Donald Trump is under investigation for violating it.
When I am elected to the Senate, you will never have to question my loyalty to our country. — Charles Booker (@Booker4KY) August 14, 2022
Paul also previously said, without any evidence, that the FBI may have planted classified information at Mar-a-Lago during the raid. "Do I know that the boxes of material they took from Mar-a-Lago, that they won't put things into those boxes to entrap him?" Paul asked during an interview with Fox News show Fox & Friends on Wednesday. "How do we know?"
News first broke in early February that the former president had improperly taken classified documents to his Florida home, with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) confirming that it had been searching for 15 boxes of records. The ex-president did not deny the story at the time, saying that it was a mix-up as his staff hastily moved him out of the White House.
After the boxes were returned to the NARA, the collection led to additional concern that the former president still had additional classified materials. Federal investigators began interviewing Trump staffers to determine what had been taken from the White House. The interviews, and a broader investigation overseen by a U.S. attorney, resulted in a grand jury subpoena served against Trump in late May to produce specific documents.
When the documents were not turned over, the FBI and the Justice Department chose to take the unprecedented step of carrying out a search warrant against a former president. A federal judge, as is required due process, approved the warrant—believing that the FBI had demonstrated probable cause.
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Rand's logic is that if Trump engages in espionage, make it legal...
It worked for drugs.
Are Trump and Rand Paul on drugs? Is that the gop's excuse today? I cannot keep up. First there were no secret documents. Then the FBI planted them. Next Trump declassified them. Now we should change to law to make espionage, selling our top secrets, legal?
Alcohol, weed - liberals would embrace their misery rather than fight them. Just lower the bar.
republicans have been lowering the bar for years. Do keep up.
Clueless plus nothing but deflection
Just the mention of lowbar brings 'em screamin.
Rand is a fucking moron like his hero trumpturd
Mos Eisley is Disneyland compared to Mar-a-lardo
Alleged Libertarian Rand Paul has been spending every waking moment defending the Trump. Why? About time to follow the money. Remember the Russian Butina lady, her connections to the NRA and various GOP funding mechanisms? What ever happened with that?
According to wiki - In December of 2018 Maria Butina pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She served 9 months in prison while waiting for trial and after sentencing served an additional 5 months before she was released and deported back to Russia. In 2021 she was elected to the Lower House of the Federal Assembly of Russia as a member of United Russia.
Beginning by at least 2014 and continuing right up to election day in 2016 Trump was in secret negotiations with Vlad Putin to build a new Trump Tower in Moscow. The documents taken from Mara Lago were probably going to be used by Trump to finally close the Putin deal...
ontinuing right up to election day in 2016 Trump was in secret negotiations with Vlad Putin to build a new Trump Tower in Moscow.
That's the fantasy. The reality, as explained by Robert Mueller, is that Michael Cohen exchanged some emails with property owners in Russia to license the name "Trump Tower."
The military secrets in Trump's basement are worth billion$...
To Vlad Putin!
Removed for context
Good grief, I was sure this was satire.
Nope, ridiculous no?
If Trump cannot be stopped from selling our Nation's top secrets to our enemies then the obvious solution is to make it legal to do so...
That is an example of satire but Rand Paul seriously wants to do it!
Yet the judge who signed the warrent saw enough evidence to predicate searching Trump's hime on The Espionage Act!
Are you really still unaware of the fact that the judge used The Espionage Act as a predicate for the search warrant?
Ol Rand has become a stooge.
Wonder if his neighbor beating the shit out of him impacted his brain.
Lol, the GOp answer when trump breaks the law? Change the law. So much for law and order, of course that was always a line of total bullshit from them in the first place.
Rand Paul is so out of touch with reality maybe he's using psychedelic drugs for his PTSD.
Repealing the Espionage Act and/or calling it unconstitutional was a standard talking point on the left in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was under investigation.
It makes these responses doubly funny.
Trump advocated for and signed the law he is suspected of breaking!
Trump did not sign the Espionage Act.
Wrongo! Trump signed the current Espionage Act in 2017.
Lol. Try again.
Can you see a pyramid from your vantage point on that river?
Who was President in 2017 when the current law was signed?
The current Espionage Act of 2017 was enacted in 2017.
The CIA and FBI and MI6 and Interpol did not start out to spy on Trump. They were just doing their thing spying on other spies when Trump and Co were seeking out and meeting with and establishing long term relationships with Russian spies.
If you or I did that too we would be charged with espionage.
Now, Trump has been busted hiding reams of highly secret classified documents that are worth billions to our enemies.
The law the judge used as predicate for the warrent he authorized against Trump was updated and signed by Trump because he was infuriated Hillary had not been charged.
Do you know what the espionage act is?
lol. This is one of the funnier things that has happened on this site in a while.
now you are just making things up again.
For starters. What day was the “espionage act of 2017” signed into law by president Trump? For some reason, your link is missing that information
This is just the tip of the iceberg of that lifelong thugs' criminal acts
When was this signed by trump? What statute from this supposed law did the judge cite?
You and your little buddies have CDS and HBDS yet you accuse us constantly of having tds