Charges levelled against Donald Trump 'are not going to hold'

Curtin University Professor Joseph Siracusa says former Donald Trump’s problems are “fairly significant” after the FBI raid on his Florida property saw the former president accused of espionage.

Professor Siracusa said he was “having some trouble” understanding why some charges and lines were on the search warrant provided by the FBI and declassification of documents typically occurs 20 years after a presidency ends or due to a presidential order.

“To suggest that he's hiding documents of vital importance to the United States, that doesn’t make any sense,” he told Sky News Australia.

“What I think is the president was playing chicken with the Biden government and that is he wanted them to overreach.”

Professor Siracusa said the Biden administration had attempted to reach Mr Trump on several occasions and visited him about returning the documents found in the raid.

“These charges, particularly the espionage act and mutilating documents, I find slightly ridiculous and are not going to hold,” he said.