Gadolha-dorah: The matter of the extent the president has authority to declassify and transfer papers is the subject of civil litigation. Trump certainly believed, and has a respectable legal argument that he was within his rights, meaning the papers in question are his personal property, and not the governments. Trump was the first non-president with no background in government service, and it is to be expect that he did, and continues to bring, new perspectives and with them new legal issues that have never been litigated. Unless you consider Trump himself to be an alien power, there is no basis to threaten to bring charges for espionage. And under the 4th amendment, the government has no business using a criminal search warrant to seize property that whose status is being litigated. If the Supreme Court had already ruled against an ex-president in a similar situation, Trump would have no basis – but this is a new legal issue. If the American people in their infinite wisdom elect someone with no experience in government, politics or the military – they have expect such issues, since what is conventional wisdom among the political elites is neither reasonable to everyone else, nor necessarily even lawful.
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