The Espionage Act was passed by Congress in 1917, two months after the US entered World War One. The law broadly criminalises the mishandling of government records “relating to the national defense” of the US. It is not strictly used to punish spies seeking to harm the US and in recent years has more often been used to punish whistle-blowers who expose government secrets to journalists. Mr Trump, whose presidency ended on 20 January 2020, was not allowed to hold or possess classified documents as a private citizen, much less in an unauthorised place, after leaving office. But prosecutors say he held on to hundreds of pages of sensitive information one year later at two of his resorts - even after he was asked repeatedly to hand everything over to the National Archives.

He may not be a “spy” but he’s still sharing / selling government secrets to their enemies