He’s defiant as always but can Donald Trump come back from this?

An investigation into the former president under the Espionage Act comes on top of inquiries into his finances and the Capitol riot.

Donald Trump raises his fist to supporters in New York. Picture: AFP.

Faced with an FBI raid on their home over possible violations of espionage laws other past presidents might have shown caution, or at least some wariness.

Donald Trump is not like other past presidents. Hours after it was revealed on Friday night that agents sent by the Department of Justice had seized 11 sets of documents from his Florida residence, some marked “top secret” and some reportedly relating to nuclear weapons, Trump’s team went on the offensive.

They accused the “Deep State” of a conspiracy that undermines the principles of American democracy, an attempt to keep the Democrats in power against the will of the people.

“The FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago was a DISGRACE. In fact, it’s UNFATHOMABLE – nothing like this has happened to a President of the United States,” wrote Don Trump Jr, the former president’s son, in an email to supporters yesterday.

A local law enforcement officer in front of Mar a Lago. Picture: AFP.

It is indeed the first time a former commander-in-chief has been investigated under the Espionage Act. While it remains unclear whether Trump will face charges in connection with the raid, which took place on Monday, the escalation of his battle with federal law enforcement authorities has added to a growing sense of crisis engulfing him.

On Thursday Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment of the constitution and refused to testify to a separate investigation into alleged financial malpractice at the Trump Organisation, led by the New York state attorney-general. There is also mounting anticipation ahead of the congressional January 6 committee report on Trump’s actions on the day the US Capitol was sacked by his supporters last year.

The mounting pressure has, once again, led to questions about whether the twice-impeached former president can again survive the sort of scandal that would crush most politicians.

Trump himself alluded to the multitude of investigations in an email to supporters yesterday, portraying himself as a martyr for the rights of ordinary Americans, and referring to previous allegations that his 2016 election victory benefited from interference by Moscow.

“What recently took place at my Mar-a-Lago home was an unprecedented infringement of the rights of every American citizen,” he claimed. “Scam after Scam, year after year. This POLITICAL PROSECUTION is merely a continuation of Russia, Russia, Russia, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax # 2, the no collusion Mueller Report, and more.”

The email ended with a request for donations, to finance what the former president and property tycoon described as the “official Trump defence fund”.

Many Republican leaders had hoped Trump’s grip on the party would have begun to loosen by now but not even the FBI search has dented the party faithful’s appetite for the former president.

A poll for Politico/Morning Consult taken on Wednesday – after the FBI search, but before it was revealed what agents were looking for – showed that just 16 per cent of Republicans thought it was a “very big problem” that Trump might have stolen classified documents.

Much of the party appears willing to amplify Trump’s claim that the FBI search is part of a conspiracy.

Marjorie Taylor Greeneis one of Donald Trump’s most loyal backers. Picture: Getty Images.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia who is one of Trump’s most loyal backers in Washington, on Friday introduced articles of impeachment against attorney-general Merrick Garland, who signed off the Mar-a-Lago search. She has also led a campaign to “defund the FBI” and is selling T-shirts carrying the slogan.

Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who has since become a Trump follower, said the FBI’s search bore the “hallmarks of a dictatorship”.

“There’s no denying that the unprecedented raid on [Trump’s] Palm Beach home earlier this week has set our country on a dangerous new course, and there’s no turning back,” she said on Fox News. “The FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago changed the country that we grew up in. We grew up believing that … our government will apply the law equally to all Americans, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat. We’re seeing more and more that that country no longer exists.”

Eric Trump, another of Trump’s sons, has also emailed supporters, saying that the FBI signalled that America was now “a third world country”.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland announcing the Justice Department had filed a motion to unseal the search warrant. Picture: Getty Images.

The standard of evidence the Justice Department produces will determine how credible such claims appear. To get permission to search anyone’s private property, the government must show a judge that it has a reasonable belief that a crime has been committed.

It was reported by the New York Times yesterday (Saturday) that one of Trump’s lawyers had signed a written statement in June asserting that all classified material that had been moved to Mar-a-Lago had been returned to the government. Trump said on Friday that he had declassified all the documents taken to his Florida home before he left office in January 2021.

Of the 11 sets of documents taken by agents marked as classified, four were “top secret”, the highest security classification level. “These are the types of documents that would make most of us quiver to hold,” Barbara McQuade, a former US lawyer told The Washington Post, “let alone retain unlawfully.”

Even though some of the documents are believed to relate to the US’s nuclear capabilities, it is unclear what the government is specifically concerned about, and that may determine how much trouble Trump is in.

“The issue is probably less that Trump was about to sell nuclear secrets to Vladimir Putin, and probably more a concern of: has he retained material that is classified that he should not have?” Jack Sharman, who served as special counsel to Congress during the Whitewater investigation into the Clintons, told the Post.

Any attempt to prevent another White House run would fuel accusations that the judiciary was waging a politically motivated campaign against Trump.

US law states that anyone convicted of retaining classified documents “shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States”. Yet, the US constitution also lays down the criteria for anyone wanting to be president, and nowhere does it preclude someone with a criminal record.

There is speculation that Trump could declare his candidature for 2024 in the coming weeks, about a year before most serious contenders show their hand.

The Sunday Times