Early experiences that the F.B.I. search of former President Donald J. Trump’s residence in Florida associated to an investigation into whether or not he had unlawfully taken authorities recordsdata when he left the White Home centered consideration on an obscure legal legislation barring elimination of official information. The penalties for breaking that legislation embody disqualification from holding any federal workplace.

As a result of Mr. Trump is broadly believed to be getting ready to run for president once more in 2024, that uncommon penalty raised the prospect that he is perhaps legally barred from returning to the White Home.

Particularly, the legislation in query — Part 2071 of Title 18 of the USA Code — makes it against the law if somebody who has custody of presidency paperwork or information “willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies or destroys” them.

If convicted, defendants might be fined or sentenced to jail for as much as three years. As well as, the statute says, if they’re presently in a federal workplace, they “shall forfeit” that workplace, they usually shall “be disqualified from holding any workplace beneath the USA.”

On its face, then, if Mr. Trump had been to be charged and convicted of eradicating, concealing or destroying authorities information beneath that legislation, he would appear to be ineligible to change into president once more.

However there was purpose for warning: The legislation briefly acquired a detailed look in 2015, after it got here to mild that Hillary Clinton, then broadly anticipated to be the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, had used a personal e mail server to conduct authorities enterprise whereas secretary of state.

Some Republicans had been briefly entranced with whether or not the legislation may preserve Mrs. Clinton out of the White Home, together with Michael Mukasey, a former legal professional normal within the administration of George W. Bush. So was at the very least one conservative suppose tank.

However in contemplating that state of affairs, a number of authorized students — together with Seth B. Tillman of Maynouth College in Eire and Eugene Volokh of the College of California, Los Angeles — famous that the Structure units eligibility standards for who might be president, and argued that Supreme Courtroom rulings recommend Congress can’t alter them. The Structure permits Congress to disqualify folks from holding workplace in impeachment proceedings, however grants no such energy for atypical legal legislation.

Mr. Volokh later reported on his weblog that Mr. Mukasey — who can be a former federal decide — wrote that “upon reflection,” Mr. Mukasey had been mistaken and Mr. Tillman’s evaluation was “spot on.” (Mrs. Clinton was by no means charged with any crime associated to her use of the server.)

On Monday, one of the vital distinguished voices pointing to Part 2071, the Democratic lawyer Marc Elias — who served as normal counsel for Mrs. Clinton’s marketing campaign — initially cited the legislation’s disqualification provision in a Twitter put up as “the actually, actually large purpose why the raid immediately is a possible blockbuster in American politics.”

He adopted up with one other Twitter put up acknowledging that any conviction beneath Part 2071 won’t in the end bar Mr. Trump from searching for the presidency once more — however arguing {that a} authorized struggle over it might nonetheless be essential.

“Sure, I acknowledge the authorized problem that utility of this legislation to a president would garner (since {qualifications} are set in Structure),” he wrote. “However the concept that a candidate must litigate that is throughout a marketing campaign is in my opinion a ‘blockbuster in American politics.’”