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RocktheHouse People are just presenting facts. If you are incapable of understanding them, that is on you.
Do try to pay attention.
The Espionage Act addresses releases of information detrimental to national security.
The part of the Espionage Act that is likely most relevant in this case is § 793(d). It applies to individuals who lawfully accessed material:
“relating to the national defense,” and who proceeded either willfully to convey it to “any person not entitled to receive it,” or willfully to “retain[] the same and fail[] to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.”
Trump retained national security information and refused to release it to the National Archives, which was and is entitled to possess it. Trump therefore violated the Espionage Act. Notice that it doesn't matter whether the material was classified or not.
Trump
HAD the power to declassify information while he was president. He did not retain that power after his presidency. Material produced by a particular agency has to have declassification agreed to by that agency, and there is a standard process that needs to be followed. Trump did not initiate that process while he was president, and cannot unilaterally declassify information. He is lying about the declassification.
The Presidential Records Act is a separate issue. That requires that
ALL records that constitute presidential records
MUST be turned over to the National Archives when the president leaves office. Trump did not do this. Notice that this also applies regardless of the classification status of the records. Trump has admitted he had records he was not entitled to have, at Mar-a-Lago. He has therefore admitted committing a crime in possessing those records.
