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The volume of classified documents is very different, the conditions of discovery are different.
But the revelation that lawyers for US President Joe Biden had found what the White House said were “a small number” of classified documents in a locked cabinet was an unexpected wrinkle for the Justice Department, which has been investigating Donald Trump over the retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. , Florida estate.
Despite the factual and legal differences in the situation, Trump seized on the news in hopes of neutralizing his own vulnerability — at least in the court of public opinion.
“Surely give him a talking point. There is no need for something that has actually stopped him before,” said Tim Miller, a former Republican strategist-turned-Trump critic who worked for Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign.
Already, the top Republican in the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, has been asked to assess the damage of classified documents from the director of national intelligence. His colleague Jim Jordan, now chairing the House judiciary committee, was among those who complained about a “double standard” in the handling of the case.
WATCH | The number of documents may be small, but it’s still a headache for Biden:
The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing a trove of classified documents found in an office formerly used by U.S. President Joe Biden. While the situation is bad, some analysts say it doesn’t compare to Donald Trump’s handling of classified material.
Meanwhile, the White House is now trying to distinguish between the Mar-a-Lago case and the discovery of classified records in the Washington office of the former Biden institute.
The president’s adviser, Richard Sauber, said that “a small number of documents with a classification mark” from the Obama-Biden administration were found on November 2 by the president’s personal lawyer while packing files in a locked cabinet to free up space in the. Penn Biden Center.
Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota:
President Biden’s failure to properly protect classified documents in a secure facility deserves the same level of attention from the Justice Department and the media as other recent cases involving the mishandling of classified documents.
The statement said that the White House contacted the Archives that day, that the Archives retrieved the documents that morning and that there was no prior request for the records by the Archives — representing a stark contrast to how the Trump team handled the Archives’ requests. .
Key questions remain, including the exact content and quantity of Biden’s notes, how they got to the center, why they remain there, and why the administration waited more than two months to acknowledge the discovery.
Republicans are asking for a special counsel
Biden’s development is unlikely to affect the Justice Department’s decision to impeach Trump, and the investigation is being handled by a separate team.
The Mar-a-Lago investigation is being handled by a special counsel, while the Justice Department assigned the top federal prosecutor in Chicago, the Trump administration, to look into the Biden matter. Sen. Josh Hawley is among the Republicans who have called for a special counsel to oversee the Biden case.
All this comes as Republicans have taken control of the House, with plans to target the department with complaints about politicized law enforcement and portraying Biden as corrupt despite investigating his son Hunter’s international business dealings.
“I don’t think it’s going to affect Trump’s legal calculus, but it’s definitely going to affect the political narrative that he’s going to have,” said Jay Town, who served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama during the Trump administration.
There are significant differences between Trump and Biden’s situation, including the gravity of the grand jury investigation into the Mar-a-Lago matter.
The search of Trump’s properties is the culmination of months of back-and-forth between government officials and Trump representatives over the retention of presidential records.
Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee:
I applaud POTUS & amp; AG for professional, nonpartisan handling of this situation. Unlike Trump, who allegedly blocked efforts to recover hundreds of classified documents, some of the classified documents reportedly found at the Biden Center were immediately sent to the Natl Archives. https://t.co/l4n2rum6AM
The National Archives and Records Administration obtained 15 boxes from the Palm Beach, Florida, property last January, and contacted the FBI after discovering classified records. But Trump’s representatives for months refused the Archives’ request to return all the documents.
Even after Justice Department officials last spring issued subpoenas for classified records and visits to Mar-a-Lago, friends of the former president failed to provide all the documents, officials said.
Trump’s series of mistakes: analysts
FBI agents returned to Trump’s home in August with a warrant signed by a federal judge indicating they were investigating crimes including the retention of national defense information and attempts to obstruct the investigation. They said they found classified documents in storage rooms and office desk drawers and in total have recovered about 300 such records from the property.
“They’re hiding the documents, denying that they’re there, the lawyers are misrepresenting what’s there,” Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told the CBC’s Katie Simpson. “It’s very clear that they’re not going to get the document back if they don’t send it to the FBI.”
It’s unclear whether Trump or anyone else could be indicted, or when a decision will be made.
WATCH | The Fifth Estate: The Trump Files:
Secret documents found in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-lago home are the subject of a criminal investigation in the United States. The Fifth Estate’s disclosure of its findings also set off alarm bells with intelligence sources in Ottawa about whether important Canadian secrets were not being protected.
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