Joseph Ferguson and Thomas A Durkin write:

The federal court-authorized search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate has brought renewed attention to the obscure but infamous law known as the Espionage Act of 1917. A section of the law was listed as one of three potential violations under Justice Department investigation.

The Espionage Act has historically been employed most often by law-and-order conservatives. But the biggest uptick in its use occurred during the Obama administration, which used it as the hammer of choice for national security leakers and whistleblowers. Regardless of whom it is used to prosecute, it unfailingly prompts consternation and outrage.

We are both attorneys who specialize in and teach national security law. While navigating the sound and fury over the Trump search, here are a few things to note about the Espionage Act.

Read on:

A new YouGov poll shows that Americans largely approve of the FBI’s search of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.

The poll surveyed 1,500 adult citizens of the United States between 13 August and 16 August 2022.

Eric Garcia reports from Washington, DC.

Jared Kushner’s memoir of his time as a senior adviser to Donald Trump has been labelled “earnest and soulless” in a brutal New York Times review.

Breaking History: A White House Memoir was derided as the self-serving, selective musings of a “cocky young real estate heir who happened to unwrap a lot of Big Macs beside his father-in-law” by the Times book critic Dwight Garner.

Mr Kushner talks up his deal-making shrewdness while rolling out a stream of cliches in the tone of a “college admissions essay”, Mr Garner writes.

Bevan Hurley has more:

Trump ally and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has requested a stay of the ruling requiring him to testify before the Fulton County grand jury regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

He is scheduled to appear on 23 August and requested a hearing tomorrow on the matter.

Judge Leigh Martin May has granted a hearing for 9am on Friday morning.

Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen has reacted to the news that Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s CFO, will reportedly give evidence against his employer if called to testify.

Mr Cohen tweeted: “It’s about time...”

Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of former president Donald Trump’s eponymous real estate and hotel company, will reportedly give evidence against his employer if called to testify in the company’s upcoming tax fraud trial and will say he conspired with the companies to commit tax fraud when he enters a plea of guilty on Thursday.

According to Rolling Stone, Mr Weisselberg, a veteran of Trumpworld who has worked for the Trump Organization since the days of the ex-president’s father, Fred Trump, “has agreed to testify against The Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation” when the two companies go on trial in October.

Andrew Feinberg has the latest for The Independent.

Skylar Baker-Jordan writes:

It was a speech for the ages. Standing amid the stark Wyoming prairie, Congresswoman Liz Cheney conceded her primary race to Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman. History will likely not remember Hageman. Her small victory will end up as just a footnote in the story of American patriot Liz Cheney – a woman who last night gave what will come to be considered one of the most important speeches in American history.

After six hours of testifying before the grand jury today, Rudy Giuliani has left the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta out of sight of TV cameras and reporters.

Here’s the background on today’s testimony:

Former vice president Mike Pence on Wednesday denounced the attacks on federal law enforcement that many of his Republican colleagues have unleashed since the FBI searched former president Donald Trump’s Florida home last week.

In the week since Mr Trump announced that federal agents had searched his home pursuant to a warrant issued as part of a long-running probe into whether he stole classified documents and retained them despite multiple requests for their return, numerous members of Congress allied with the ex-president have called for the FBI to have its funding cut by Congress in retaliation for the search of Mar-a-Lago.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

“We will not talk about this until it’s over,” Rudy Giuliani told reporters on his way into the Fulton County Courthouse this morning. He declined to comment on whether Donald Trump was the ultimate target of the investigation.