This constitutes espionage by the Daily Mail. This paper is foreign owned. There should be repercussions of some kind.
It was a staged photo. No espionage going on.
So that leaves one or two conclusions:
1. DHS director made a mistake
2. It was an intentional ‘leak’ to the press
Lastly, it only shows they are about executing the laws already on the books. This is news? This is super secret? Trump campaigned on that ideal and soon will take an oath to FAITHFULLY execute the laws of the United States. And, yes this shows Trump and his administration does mean it. It is rather comforting don’t you think.
“This constitutes espionage by the Daily Mail. “
In industrial information gathering, the person with the sensitive information must take “reasonable steps” to protect the information.
So if the information is not “reasonably protected” it is not espionage if I collect it using non-clandestine means. If someone is holding a paper and I see it and photograph it, it’s not espionage because that information was not “reasonably protected.” An envelope will do.
Let’s say I’m signing in somewhere and the receptionist hands me the sign-in book then turns away. I take my camera and photograph the last five pages, to see who has signed in, when, and what company they represent. Not espionage. Now let’s say the receptionist has placed a rubber band around the left side of the booklet, so that I can’t see the filled-in pages without removing the band. If I remove the band and photo the pages, that’ espionage, because he took reasonable precautions against me seeing the pages.
So this target was openly holding readable text in an open place where people with cameras were allowed (including agents of a foreign newspaper), and one of those cameras photographed the open text. Not espionage even if Putin himself snapped the pix.