Any intentional act that furthers the enemy's hostile designs or weakens the United States gives aid and comfort to, and "adheres to," the enemy. Sympathy alone. Sympathy for the enemy by itself doesn't constitute aiding or comforting.
Rather, the actor must take some kind of action to provide aid or comfort. Time of war. Treason by aiding the enemy can't be committed during peacetime; there must be an actual enemy for the traitor to aid. The requisite enemy designation typically requires a formal declaration of war.
Someone can be convicted of treason even if the attempt to aid isn't successful or the enemy's goal isn't achieved. In order to prove treason, the prosecution needs either a confession or two witnesses testifying to the same "overt act" by the defendant. An overt act is an act that shows criminal intent and furthers the accomplishment of a crime.
But, the overt act doesn't have to be a crime itself. A wide range of actions can qualify as overt treasonous acts, from making online posts to providing weapons and ammunition. The key consideration is whether the defendant took the action with the intention of carrying out or furthering treason.
Treason charges must specify the relevant overt acts, including where they took place. It isn't necessary that all the participants commit the same overt act; different participants can commit different overt acts as part of one treasonous plan.
If the government alleges multiple overt acts, it need prove only one of them by two witnesses. While testimony from two witnesses is required to prove the overt act, the intent to betray can be proved in the same way as intent for any other crime. Treason is related and similar to several crimes.
More than one criminal statute can apply to the same conduct, meaning that something falling short of treason may constitute another offense. Sedition called seditious conspiracy in the law involves conspiring to overthrow or destroy the government by force. Unlike treason, seditious conspiracy doesn't require that the defendant owe allegiance to the United States. For more on conspiracy generally, see Conspiracy: Laws and Penalties.
Insurrection or rebellion. Insurrection involves inciting , assisting, or engaging in an act of open resistance against the authority, laws, or operations of the government. Misprision of treason. This crime involves someone knowing a person has committed an act of treason, failing to report it to a proper authority, and taking some action to conceal it.
For a detailed discussion of a related topic, see Misprision of Felony. Espionage is obtaining classified information pertaining to national defense for use by a foreign nation. Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States. Word "moreover" was deleted as surplusage and minor changes were made in phraseology.
If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
Act July 24, , ch. Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or.
Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or.
Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof—.
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction. If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
As used in this section, the terms "organizes" and "organize", with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes, and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons. Section consolidates sections 10, 11, and 13 of title 18 , U. Section 13 of title 18 , U. In first paragraph, words "the Government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein" were substituted for "any government in the United States".
In second and third paragraphs, word "such" was inserted after "any" and before "government", and words "in the United States" which followed "government" were omitted. In view of these changes, the provisions of subsection b of section 10 of title 18 , U. Reference to conspiracy to commit any of the prohibited acts was omitted as covered by the general conspiracy provision, incorporated in section of this title.
See reviser's note under that section. Words "upon conviction thereof" which preceded "be fined" were omitted as surplusage, as punishment cannot be imposed until a conviction is secured. The phraseology was considerably changed to effect consolidation but without any change of substance.
Amendment by act July 24, , as applicable only with respect to offenses committed on and after July 24, , see section 3 of act July 24, , set out as a note under section of this title. B 1 The following organizations shall be required to register with the Attorney General:.
Every organization subject to foreign control which engages in political activity;. Every organization which engages both in civilian military activity and in political activity;. The Framers correctly believed there was a crucial distinction between traitorous actions and treasonous thought. Departing from English common law, which at the time recognized constructive treason, the Constitution required some sort of action before a person could be convicted of treason.
That line between conduct and conscience dovetails with First Amendment values, and is one that should be respected beyond the narrow confines of treason. In addition, the Framers recognized that national security offenses are more likely to inflame public passions, and therefore deserve heightened procedural protections. This insight also extends beyond treason cases, and is one Congress, federal courts, and the public would do well to remember.
The Treason Clause is in this sense among the stronger pieces of textual evidence that the courts were to have as much a role in evaluating the existence of certain individual threats to national security as they would in adjudicating any other kind of crime.
Yet while the Treason Clause includes special rules of evidence to help guard against the danger that otherwise peaceful opponents of our government would face false accusations of supporting our enemies, neither the material support statute, nor other comparable federal offenses, contain any such safeguards.
Is it really consistent with the Treason Clause for there to be such a ready way to avoid its protections? For government to be able to achieve the same ends—prosecution for aiding the enemy—without having to encounter any of the hurdles designed to guard against the abuses of such a charge that so concerned the Framers?
Lower courts have for the most part been able to avoid answering the question directly by concluding that other crimes, however similar, do not contain all of the same elements required to prove treason itself.
Unlike treason, the crime of material support, for example, carries no requirement that defendants have breached an allegiance owed to the United States; citizens and non-citizens alike can be charged with the offense. At the same time, there is at least some reason to worry that material support prosecutions of Americans and American organizations could involve forms of expressive activity—translating enemy statements into English, or producing training material on international law that an enemy organization could use to peacefully resolve disputes—that the Framers would have expected to be prosecuted, if at all, only under heightened procedural protection.
Where a prosecution amounting to a charge that an American has aided an enemy of the United States implicates such basic freedoms, the Treason Clause may provide an additional constitutional basis for arguing that the courts must take special care in protecting against prosecutorial abuse.
It was on this day in that former Vice President Aaron Burr was acquitted of treason charges. Treason Clause by Paul T. Crane U. Does the Treason Clause Still Matter? Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. Read the full discussion here.
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