• Donald Trump, indicted on 37 counts, hid the secret documents he took from the White House in sinks, showers and the Mar-a-Lago ballroom

The Prosecutor's Office has requested a maximum of one hundred years in prison for Donald Trump and 90 for his camera assistant, Waltine Nauta, for stealing state secrets from the White House, refusing to return them, lying to the authorities, hiding them, and obstructing the action of justice. This is stated in the indictment that was delivered to Trump's lawyers on Thursday and made public on Friday.

On Tuesday, the former U.S. president will be officially arrested — though that doesn't mean he will be locked in a cell — in Miami. Trump has asked his supporters to come to the city, a call that has been repeated by many of the leaders who support him, which has raised fears of incidents. At the moment, it is not known if the trial, which in all likelihood will take place in the election year, 2024, will be held in the city.

In total, Trump faces 38 charges for 7 crimes. Of the former, 31 are for voluntary withholding of information relating to national defence. The commission of this alleged crime carries a maximum of 10 years in prison plus 3 years on probation. Count number 32 is for obstruction of justice, and carries a cap of 20 years in prison plus 3 years of probation.

The voluntary withholding of U.S. defense information is a crime established by the Espionage Act, established in 1917 to prevent the delivery of sensitive information to the Central Powers – Germany and Austria – during World War I. This rule has been the main legal tool used by the United States to fight against espionage carried out by its citizens.

Among his most famous cases is that of the marriage Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were sentenced to death and executed in 1953 for passing all kinds of military information to Stalin's Soviet Union. There is also that of Israel spy Jason Pollard, whose life sentence was shortened after 28 years in prison. Not so lucky was Robert Hanssen, a member of Opus Dei who died this week in prison, where he had been for 22 years after being convicted of decades of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union, first, and Russia, later.

The same maximum penalties are applicable to the three charges against Trump for concealing documents, one of them with the aggravating circumstance that he did it to obstruct an investigation of the federal state and another with the added accusation of corruption. So, we have already spent 90 years in prison and 15 years of probation. The last two charges correspond to the crimes of conspiracy to conceal and false testimony, each with 5 years in prison and 3 years of probation maximum. The total is thus 100 years in prison and 31 years of probation.

In addition, Trump could be sentenced to pay a fine that, in the worst case, would reach an amount of two million dollars (1,860,000 euros). That is a tiny amount for Trump who, according to the financial magazine Forbes, has a net worth of 2,500 million dollars (2,300 million euros). The year 2022 was very bad for the pocket of the former president, who saw his wealth fall by 700 million dollars, that is, 22%, due to the collapse of the value of his social network, Truth, which has gone from having a valuation of 700 million dollars to only between 5 and 25 million, according to the documentation presented by Trump himself.

These penalties are the maximum that carry the crimes of which Trump is accused. But the final decision rests with the jury in the case - which must decide whether he is guilty or not - and the judge, who will decide the number of years and the amount of the financial penalty. The former president is not, either, the only defendant. Almost forgotten by the media and public opinion in general is his camera assistant, Waltine Nauta, who is exposed to 90 years in prison, 18 years on probation, and 1.5 million dollars (1.4 million euros) in fines.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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