A Law Trump Signed On Classified Documents Could Put Him In Prison

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump signed a law that could be used against him in the Justice Department’s investigation into the classified White House documents he allegedly took with him to his Mar-a-Lago residence at the end of his term.

Trump signed off on changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in January 2018, making the punishment greater for wrongly moving classified material. Before, the punishment was a maximum sentence of one year. Now, it’s five, but it remains unclear if the law would apply to former presidents.

The Justice Department executed a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago on Monday evening as a part of their investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified White House documents.

In February, the National Archives called on the Justice Department to look into whether or not Trump violated the law after finding that 15 boxes of records had been taken to his Palm Beach, Florida, estate.

Under the Presidential Records Act, presidents are required to preserve and turn in all memos, letters, emails and papers that they touched to the National Archives at the end of their term. The 15 boxes have since been returned, but it was reported on Wednesday that the FBI searched Trump’s residence after an informant told them Trump was still in possession of numerous classified records.