[t0mas88]

Legally speaking: Breaking and entering a federal government building, stealing information, conspiring with a foreign national to sell the information to a foreign state intelligence service.

I think life sentences have been handed out for smaller forms of treason...

[TheCoelacanth]

I think it would technically be espionage rather than treason, but still a very serious crime.

[tim333]

Yeah under US law I think you'd have to giving the info to a nation the US was at war with for it to be treason. That came up a bit in the whole Trump Russia collusion debate.

[taylorwc]

OP was making a reference to a recurring line in Arrested Development.