"Treasonous acts may be criminal, but criminal acts are almost never treason. As Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution specifies, 'Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.' The Founders went out of their way to define treason narrowly because they knew how it had been repeatedly abused in the past."
"Thus, to ensure that treason could not likewise be co-opted for political or personal purposes, the Constitution’s drafters not only defined it precisely (it’s the only offense specifically defined in that document), but also specified that 'No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.' (Article III also limits the punishment that can be inflicted, even with a conviction.)"
"As a federal appeals court explained in 1986: '[t]he reason for the restrictive definition is apparent from the historical backdrop of the treason clause. The framers of the Constitution were reluctant to facilitate such prosecutions because they were well aware of abuses, and they themselves were traitors in the eyes of England.' As a result, treason is, in some respects, the most specific crime in our legal system — and certainly among the hardest to prove. It’s also the only crime that can be used as the basis for expatriating a natural-born American citizen."
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/americans-have-forgotten-what-treason-actually-means-how-it-can-ncna848651
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