Former FBI Assistant Director Tells Fox News Viewers Trump Could Be Facing Charges on ‘Heavyweight Statutes’

Chris Swecker, a former assistant director of the FBI, told Fox News on Friday the issues facing former President Donald Trump are serious, considering the statutes cited in the warrant for a search of his home.

Trump’s home was raided by the FBI on Monday reportedly to retrieve government documents he was supposed to turn over to the National Archives upon leaving office.

The former president is alleged to have been in possession of a dozen boxes of classified material. Trump has downplayed the severity of the matter while blasting the FBI and the pretext of the raid on his Mar-a-Lago resort.

On The Ingraham Angle Friday, Swecker told Fox’s audience there is something serious about the search of the south Florida estate.

Guest host Sean Duffy discussed the release of a warrant for the search, which cites one statute concerning the Espionage Act.

Mike Davis of the conservative Article III Project argued there is simply no way Trump made off from the White House with the country’s secrets in boxes.

“So as the president, he could take any record he wants But they’re in a box, paper records,” Davis said. “They’re photos, mementos in secure facilities in Mar-a-Lago. So, there’s no way that President Trump violated the espionage act by declassifying these records and taking them with him.”

Davis argued Trump, while president, had the authority to declassify any documents he saw fit.

Duffy asked Swecker for his view, and the former high-ranking FBI official had a different take.

Swecker said:

Sean, these are heavyweight statutes. The first, statute, [18 U.S.C. §§] 793, is basically the espionage statute. It talks about things that he may have done with the documents that would result in injury to this country and… he did these things willfully. That is serious enough that is a ten-year penalty if he’s convicted.

Now, the third statute, which is the obstruction-related statute, carries as 20-year penalty and it alleges that he somehow impeded an ongoing matter, which could have been the grand jury investigation of what we now know is an espionage case. So this is a much more serious case than just possession of classified documents.

Swecker concluded the DOJ is alleging “actions” by Trump, and echoed reporting by stating there is a mole at Mar-a-Lago.

Watch above, via Fox News.

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