We spent a lot of time last year calling out how dangerous it was that Elon Musk and his inexperienced 4chan-loving DOGE boys were gaining access to some of the most secure government systems. We a…
If they had good reason to suspect that some of the election denying groups they communicated with contained foreign nationals (especially Iran, Russia, or China as they’re officially listed ‘US Foreign Adversaries’ under the Code of Federal Regulations), and then shared the data with them anyway, it could well be prosecuted as treason.
Won’t happen regardless though, because King Treason is the president.
You’re conflating the term adversary with the term enemy - enemy has an extremely specific definition in US law, and it means someone (or a group, ally, nation, etc) the US is explicitly at war with (or in limited scope in 2204 “engaged in hostilities with” which is itself a whole legal rabbit hole). The constitution is extremely specific with it’s language in defining treason as “[…] adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” These people, should they be found to have foreign ties, should be rightly tried under the Espionage act, but not for treason.
Fair enough, but that does make the treason laws pretty damn pointless as the US hasn’t technically declared war with any nation since the Axis-allied nations in World War 2. They’re all just ‘special military operations’ made by executive order or congressional resolutions. And seeing as The Constitution explicitly states that Congress has the ‘sole power to declare war’, I’d say the rules are quite flexible, rather that legally rigid - and there’s been a lot more Constitutional flexibility lately than rigidity.
Yep, which is why there’s only ever been ~40 treason cases in the history of the US. It was very intentionally made nearly impossible to prove, to prevent it being abused for political reasons. It was considered extremely important to have a strict definition to prevent accusations of treason being casually used to describe an act by a political opponent. Also this is a decent example of why the US hasn’t formally declared war in so long - many things are only possible under a declaration of war, almost all of them both politically and socially horrible. It’s been in everyone’s best interests to not open that particular avenue of abuse as a result.
If they had good reason to suspect that some of the election denying groups they communicated with contained foreign nationals (especially Iran, Russia, or China as they’re officially listed ‘US Foreign Adversaries’ under the Code of Federal Regulations), and then shared the data with them anyway, it could well be prosecuted as treason.
Won’t happen regardless though, because King Treason is the president.
You’re conflating the term adversary with the term enemy - enemy has an extremely specific definition in US law, and it means someone (or a group, ally, nation, etc) the US is explicitly at war with (or in limited scope in 2204 “engaged in hostilities with” which is itself a whole legal rabbit hole). The constitution is extremely specific with it’s language in defining treason as “[…] adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” These people, should they be found to have foreign ties, should be rightly tried under the Espionage act, but not for treason.
Fair enough, but that does make the treason laws pretty damn pointless as the US hasn’t technically declared war with any nation since the Axis-allied nations in World War 2. They’re all just ‘special military operations’ made by executive order or congressional resolutions. And seeing as The Constitution explicitly states that Congress has the ‘sole power to declare war’, I’d say the rules are quite flexible, rather that legally rigid - and there’s been a lot more Constitutional flexibility lately than rigidity.
Yep, which is why there’s only ever been ~40 treason cases in the history of the US. It was very intentionally made nearly impossible to prove, to prevent it being abused for political reasons. It was considered extremely important to have a strict definition to prevent accusations of treason being casually used to describe an act by a political opponent. Also this is a decent example of why the US hasn’t formally declared war in so long - many things are only possible under a declaration of war, almost all of them both politically and socially horrible. It’s been in everyone’s best interests to not open that particular avenue of abuse as a result.
Which is of course abused for political reasons to shield evil doers from ever facing consequences.
Enemies are foreign and domestic.
Yes, sorry if that was unclear. You can “levy war” as a domestic group too.