We’re going to link to two more stories on the Trump indictments in the next couple of days, and then we’ll have done our due diligence on the topic for now. 

Today’s link, by Eli Lake, is an argument against charging Trump in the documents case. Lake’s point isn’t that Trump is innocent, but that the 1917 Espionage Act — the law Trump is accused of violating — is deeply problematic. Ostensibly designed to prosecute spies, the Espionage Act has served as something of a catch-all through the years for administrations seeking to silence whistleblowers (Nixon) or stifle free speech (Wilson). As recently as the Obama administration, it was used to investigate journalists in an attempt to uncover their sources. Legal scholars disagree on many things, but the Espionage Act is rarely one of them. So, Lake says, to charge Trump with violating it is a mistake. 

It’s a compelling argument, one even Trump’s harshest critics would do well to consider. Because, like it or not, we are in uncharted territory… and the 1917 Espionage Act is a map very few trust.