Espionage Act & Abuse of Power

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Many people have written in and asked how can Trump be charged under the Espionage Act. There is probably no other Act that has been so abused than this statute. It has been responsible for which hunts and the deliberate execution of people the prosecutor knew were innocent. This Act has silenced people, been used to imprison people for speaking against the government in times of war, and even imprisoned Japanese for simply being Japanese under nothing more than an executive order Public Proclamation No. 4, 7 Fed.Reg. 2601. And on May 19, 1942, eleven days before the time petitioner was charged with unlawfully remaining in the area, Civilian Restrictive Order No. 1, 8 Fed.Reg. 982, provided for the detention of those of Japanese ancestry in assembly or relocation centers. One of the top 5 worst decisions of the Supreme Court declaring Blacks were just property in Dred Scott v. Sandford 60 U.S. 393 (1856), was the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II solely based on their race –  Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944)

Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) dissented writing “Korematsu … has been convicted of an act not commonly thought a crime. It consists merely of being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived.” Jackson argued that the nation’s wartime security concerns did not justify stripping Korematsu and the other internees of their constitutionally protected civil rights. Nobody would listen to reason. He declared that the exclusion order was “the legalization of racism” that violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. He compared the exclusion order to the “abhorrent and despicable treatment of minority groups by the dictatorial tyrannies which this nation is now pledged to destroy.”  He concluded that the exclusion order violated the Fourteenth Amendment by “fall[ing] into the ugly abyss of racism.”

t has always been IMPOSSIBLE to hand ANY power to the government under the pretense that it is necessary for some good. Any regulation carries some penalty for noncompliance. Then this opens the door to abuse as we see with Trump. When Congress passes a law, prosecutors make a career out of twisting the words to fit whatever they can dream up. On top of that Congress always expands its power and never was there any “intent” behind the Espionage Act to be used in this manner against a former president. In its current incarnation, the section Trump is charged with reads:

18 USC #793(e)

(e) Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or

The abuse of this law is mindboggling and the real problem here is that prosecutors have discretion so they can openly deby Equal Protect of the Law for they decide if they want to prosecute Trump but not Biden or Pence or Hillary who did have classified documents on her server and did transmit them. I believe that Jack Smith as the prosecutor has violated not just Trump’s civil rights, but he has violated everyone’s civil rights for his selective prosecution with the intent of preventing Trump from running for president. The Supreme Court held in Armstrong v US, 517 U.S. 456 (1996) that to show selective prosecution, an individual must show that a prosecutorial policy had both a discriminatory purpose and a discriminatory effect. In other words, they must show that prosecutors did not charge similarly situated people and that can clearly be established with both Biden and Hillary Clinton. There should be a class action lawsuit brought against Jack Smith and the Attorney General for deliberating targeting Trump to interfere in the 2024 election which violates everyone’s civil rights denying us that the 2024 election will be free and fair. It is an acknowledged violation of our Civil Rights for what the entire world now knows they are doing – interfering in the 2024 election.

Of course, all of these RINOs and disgusting people pretending to care about the country or the rule of law, are out in full force driving their knives and stabbing Trump-like Julius Caesar 23 times. This will be the day that truly lives in infamy. Mike Pence, who I would not vote for even being a local dog catcher, has joined the choir of attacking Trump to save the SWAMP. John Kelly, Trump’s pretend chief of staff who the Neocons put in place since he was previously in the Marine Corps Liaison Office. Remember all their names and NEVER vote for any of them EVER in the future. When you see them in someone’s cabinet, know that the administration can never be trusted. They are against the people, and the constitution, and only support the corruption that is destroying our nation from the inside out.

The first Espionage Act was passed with the American Revolution. It was passed July 6, 1798, and this is all omitted from the Federal Criminal Code and Rules which are standard today. If Trump would declare he now identifies as a woman, or a lesbian because he enjoys women, then under the 1798 Act he could not be guilty. Congress at the time was engaged in writing laws for the PURPOSE (Intent) of protecting the Government, growing out of serious friction with France. Interestingly, it did NOT apply to women. It only applied specifically to natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of a hostile nation of Government, “being males of the age of 14 years and upwards.”

Curiously, it was World War I before they passed a new Espionage Act in 1917, yet they did not repeal no amend the 1798 Act. It addressed the loophole with women. It merely supplemented the 1798 Statue providing for punishments concerning a woman stating that she may then be interned or punished for violation of any of the espionage laws. The 1798 Act gave the president the executive power to restrict certain areas. It even then allows a woman to be executed if she was caught trying to transmit any information which has for one of its purposes visiting an area that is restricted like taking photos of defense ships etc. By 1917, they figured out that some of the very best spies were actually women. That is when Mata Hari, the dancer, was executed by firing squad in France.

On June 15, 1917, some two months after America’s formal entrance into World War I against Germany, the United States Congress passed the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act essentially made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces during the war effort or to promote the success of the country’s enemies. Anyone found guilty of such acts would be subject to a fine of $10,000 and a prison sentence of 20 years.

The Espionage Act was reinforced by the Sedition Act of the following year, which imposed similarly harsh penalties on anyone found guilty of making false statements that interfered with the prosecution of the war. That included insulting or abusing the U.S. government, the flag, the Constitution, or the military. Freedom of speech was restrained. It further included protesting and agitating against the production of necessary war materials as well as advocating, teaching, or defending any of these acts. These acts were intended to target socialists, pacifists, and other anti-war activists during World War I. They were used with a very punishing effect instantly. This became the great Red Scare with people justifying these laws claiming that communists sought to influence and to infiltrate into American society changing the country from within. This was the first Red Scare with the second unfolding during the 1940s and 1950s, associated largely with Senator Joseph McCarthy. This is when Alexander Mitchell Palmer (1872–1936), assumed the attorney general’s office during the Red Scare, and his right-hand man, J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972), liberally employed the Espionage and Sedition Acts to persecute left-wing political figures. It would be Hoover who would spy on members of Congress and strike fear in the hearts of everyone on Capital Hill.

One of the most famous activists arrested during this period, labor leader Eugene V. Debs, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a speech he made in 1918 in Canton, Ohio, criticizing the Espionage Act. Debs appealed the decision, and the case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where the court upheld his conviction. Though Debs’ sentence was commuted in 1921 when the Sedition Act was repealed by Congress, major portions of the Espionage Act remain part of United States law to the present day.

It was April 5th, 1951 when Julius Rosenberg and his 35-year-old wife Ethel were sentenced to death. Today, everyone concedes that his wife’s crime was simply being married to Julius. The prosecutors charged her thinking it would force him to give up his contacts which he never did most likely because he had none.

A co-defendant of Julius and Ethel  Rosenberg, Morton Sobell, admitted for the first time that he was a Soviet spy on his deathbed at 91 after serving 30 years in prison but also made it clear that Ethel was innocent. Sobell passed military secrets to the Communists in World War II when the nations were still allies, he told the New York Times. Sobell, who served 18 years for espionage, said Julius did pass secrets but Ethel, executed with her husband in 1953, was guilty of nothing more than being Mrs. Rosenberg.

Under our legal system, the Jury can nullify the conviction using common sense based on their own sense of justice. They can refuse to follow the corrupt law and acquit a defendant even when the evidence presented seems to point to an incontrovertible verdict of guilty. Personally, I think the Jury should have the power to reprimand the prosecutor in such a case as this of abuse of power.

Just like Ponus Pilate tried washing his hands after sentencing Christ to death, these prosecutors and judges have so much blood on their hands that it takes a really different kind of person to take pleasure in inflicting pain on others. The injustices of so many people who have been executed under our law only to be found that they were innocent are disgusting.

Only an idiot accepts government allegations as fact in any case. The entire problem stems from ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY! The US government cannot be sued, only the agents of the government. Consequently, those in the Justice Department are not forthcoming about admitting a mistake. I do not believe that a prosecutor should be able to bring charges. There should be a panel set up where every prosecutor presents his case to them and they are the ones who bring an indictment. That would remove personal liabilities.

Edwin Paul Wilson (1928 – 2012) was a former CIA and U.S. Naval Intelligence officer who was convicted in 1983 of illegally selling weapons to Libya. When one agency caught him, the CIA denied he worked for them. He was tried and convicted. His daughter fought to get documents to prove he worked for the government which they denied. What they did to Wilson should give anyone pause why they would work for the government.

You can tell Wilson was innocent because they kept him in solitary confinement – the ultimate torture. They did that to prevent him from having free communication outside the prison. It was later proven that the United States Department of Justice and the CIA had covered up evidence in the case. Wilson’s convictions were overturned in 2003 and he was freed the following year.

Wilson filed a civil suit against seven former federal prosecutors, two of whom are now federal judges, and a past executive director of the CIA. On March 29th, 2007, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal dismissed his case on the grounds that all eight had immunity covering their actions. They can kill you, rob you, and even rape your family. NO court will ever take your word over a prosecutor. That is why there is no longer any Justice in America. They read it as “JUST US” to always further their own self-interest.

The Supreme Court committed the worst crime against humanity ever recorded demonstrating its bias. They declared that those who are prosecutors or judges have ABSOLUTE immunity from being prosecuted for wrongful prosecution even if they know they are abusing their authority or committing a crime because they might be afraid to prosecute someone if they could be prosecuted in return.

The Supreme Court’s most anti-Constitutional decision ever rendered implemented a nationwide policy declaring prosecutors must have absolute immunity for acts committed in their prosecutorial role. This decision has unleashed the most abusive legal system ever on the face of this Earth. The most notorious court in history had been that of Hitler which had a 90% conviction rate. The Supreme Court has stripped every possible human right we have fought for since the dawn of civilization with that decision.

The conviction rate now exceeds 98% in the US federal courts. Lawyers tell you to just plea because you cannot win! Federal Judge Jed Rakof’s review of a book – Why Innocent People Plead Guilty. Judge Rakof wrote in the New York Review of Books, “Over the past few decades, ordinary US citizens have increasingly been denied effective access to their courts.” Nobody pays attention and at least one-third of the people in prison are innocent charged with conspiracy so the government does not have to prove you actually did something, you just intended it somehow. Nobody reforms the judicial system so police just kill people without consequence.

Nobody will hold prosecutors accountable and then most judges are former prosecutors so good luck with pleading your case. There is not a vein of morality in most of these people. Even an honest judge is just overruled by the corrupt courts of appeal. When you stare into the eyes of a prosecutor or most judges, all you see is the coldness of evil stripped of all human emotion. They lose all humanity in order to do the job.

The Supreme Court has unleashed the total destruction of the Constitution upon all of us and there is a growing call to acknowledge and address an epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct in the United States, but nobody will listen. The case was Imbler v. Pachtman and its perverse holding is uncivilized in any democratic state for it is the decision of a totalitarian regime.

Shakespeare’s famous line “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” referred to the king’s lawyers we call prosecutors today. The question is when will the people stand up and say enough is enough! Thomas Jefferson included in the Declaration of Independence about injustice and how the government protected its agents as they do today: “For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:”

History repeats because those in power will always act in their self-interest. Nothing has ever changed since Thrasymachus warned Socrates who imposed the death penalty and Plota fled Athens saying he would not allow a second crime against Philosophy.

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