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Did Donald Trump Commit Treason? Calls For Russia To Turn Over Clinton Emails Seen As Cheering On Foreign Power To Spy On U.S.

By Jonathan Vankin
Published on: 09:25 PST, Jul 27, 2016

Did Donald Trump actually commit an act of treason Wednesday morning at a press conference at a golf course owned by Trump in Doral, Florida? In the bizarre press conference, Trump made a series of incredible statements, including his claim the Russian President Vladimir Putin once used “the N-word” to refer to his United States counterpart, Barack Obama.

But the Trump statement that has brought accusations of treason was the Republican presidential nominee’s apparent call for Russia to spy on Trump’s political opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Since the release last week of nearly 30,000 emails stolen by hackers from Democratic National Committee, a scandal has erupted over whether the DNC hack was, in fact, carried out by agents of Putin and Russia. The growing consensus of United States intelligence services as well as private cybersecurity investigators is that Russia was indeed behind the cyber-attack.

If so, the hack has raised the alarming prospect that Russia may be attempting to tilt the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump. For more information and coverage of the Donald Trump and Russia scandal, see the links in the “Previous Coverage” box below on this page.

At the Wednesday morning press conference, according to the Independent newspaper and in a statement he later amplified on his Twitter account, Trump called for Russia to “find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” referring to emails that Hillary Clinton said she had deleted from her private email server because they were “personal.”

But the emails are not “missing.” In their lengthy investigation of Clinton’s private email server use while she was Secretary of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation recovered the deleted emails.

When a reporter followed up with Trump, according to the Independent, to ask if the candidate felt any qualms about asking a foreign power to spy on an American citizen, Donald Trump doubled down on his call for Russia to hack Clinton’s server.

“It gives me no pause… If Russia or China or any of those country gets those emails, I’ve got to be honest with you, I’d love to see them.”

In the following video, a panel of experts on CNN discusses whether Trump’s statements constituted treason.

But what is treason, exactly? According to the Cornell University Legal Information Institute, the United States Code defines treason, in a definition that became law in 1948, as follows.

“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”

If Trump’s statements were legally confirmed to be treason — which would need to happen via a trial conviction — Trump would be ruled out of holding the office of president, or any federal government position.

But while putting Donald Trump on trial for treason appears highly unlikely to occur, to say the least, the candidate’s evident affinity for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is reportedly starting to worry U.S. intelligence officers, because as a presidential nominee, Trump is scheduled to begin receiving classified national security briefings next week — as is Hillary Clinton.

At his golf course press conference, Trump said that Clinton should be denied the classified briefings, due to her email server use.

“Why are they giving her briefings?” Trump inveighed. “Why are these people with great knowledge of the inner workings of our country and our security, why are they giving Hillary Clinton briefings? Because it’s going to get revealed.”

He also claimed that Clinton posed a security risk because her chief aide, Huma Abedin, is married to former New York representative Anthony Weiner, who Trump labeled “a sleazeball and a pervert,” according to an account in the Daily Beast online magazine.

But it is Trump, not Clinton, who troubles intelligence professionals, a report Tuesday in the Huffington Post revealed.

PREVIOUS TRUMP-RUSSIA SCANDAL COVERAGE FROM THE INQUISITR:

“Never have we had a candidate so tied to a foreign power, especially one that is so hostile to the U.S. in many ways, and one that is actively messing with our election,” an unnamed former intelligence official told HuffPo political reporter Ryan Grim. “Many [in the intelligence community] don’t care about U.S. politics and pride themselves on being nonpartisan, but the ties to Russia are deeply disturbing.”

Philip Reiner, a former National Security Council official under President Obama, also called the Donald Trump call for Russia to spy on Hillary Clinton “a national security threat,” while ex-CIA Director Leon Panetta called Trump’s remarks “beyond the pale,” the online magazine Politico reported. But both former officials stopped short of labeling the Donald Trump comments treason.

[Photo By Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images]

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