I don't even think it's arguable. He intended to deceive a Secret Service officer with fake federal government credentials, and apparently succeeded in doing so. I believe that is a felony. The judge may reduce the charge or throw it out later though because of the obvious wackiness of it.

Yeah, the ID itself might be judged confusing enough to be legally a counterfeit (which is a crime in itself) while the intentional intent to deceive lawful authorities adds another case to the table.

He’s Woz. A household name. I suspect the secret service agent also noticed it being a fake ID but didn’t want to deal with the litany of paperwork in arresting woz for the crime. Maybe the agent also got a chuckle out of it as well.

Hate to break it to you, but if "Tim Apple" isn't a household name, Wozniak certainly isn't. Steve Jobs _maybe_ is, but even that is likely overestimating the public's knowledge.

Not a lawyer either, but this doesn't appear to statutorily require intent. This is the relevant law[1].

I think the easiest way to prosecute this would be under the "authentication features" section:

(1) the term “authentication feature” means any hologram, watermark, certification, symbol, code, image, sequence of numbers or letters, or other feature that either individually or in combination with another feature is used by the issuing authority on an identification document, document-making implement, or means of identification to determine if the document is counterfeit, altered, or otherwise falsified

If he had replicated any of those things, he committed a crime just by making the ID. Using the ID likely has additional penalties, but just making it is a felony by itself. It seems likely he did, because I think missing seals and watermarks (if those existed at the time) would stand out as obvious to a secret service agent or the TSA.

1: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1028

If Sara was 12 when this happened then this occurred around 1998 or so. At that time the "authentication features" provisions of the law didn't exist, as they were added in 2003. (See the "Notes" tab in your link).

Good catch, I stand corrected!