The Justice Department's Double Standards on Classified Documents
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The White House can't be happy that its document scandal has landed President Biden a special-counsel investigation. At the same time, the Justice Department has handled the affair in a way that's proved convenient for the president.
It's convenient that the White House was able to keep quiet for nearly 70 days the revelation that Mr. Biden inappropriately retained classified information. The media reported almost immediately in 2022 that the National Archives had asked the Justice Department to examine Donald Trump's handling of documents and later that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had opened a probe. These unsourced stories contained details only department personnel would know—despite a strict prohibition on discussing or disclosing investigations. In the Biden case, officials managed to keep their mouths shut for months.
It’s convenient that the Biden news didn’t break prior to the midterm elections. In the Trump case, a torrent of leaks and the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago inspired Attorney General Merrick Garland to break the policy of confidentiality. He publicly confirmed the investigation. The first Biden document was found Nov. 2 and the Justice Department knew about it by Nov. 4—four days before voters went to the polls. This time, Mr. Garland scrupulously followed policy and kept silent, allowing Team Biden more than two months to perfect the tidy story of “inadvertent” handling and “full cooperation” it later rolled out.
It’s convenient that the FBI immediately declined to engage in the Biden probe. The Journal reported Tuesday that, soon after the discovery, the Biden team “discussed with the Justice Department the prospect of having FBI agents present while Mr. Biden’s lawyers conducted the additional searches. Instead, the two sides agreed that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys would inspect the homes.” Nice.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy says this decision “boggles the mind.” The initial documents, including some classified at the highest security level, were discovered in an office that didn’t open until 2018—meaning they were moved there from yet another unauthorized location and heightening the likelihood of more document finds. Mr. McCarthy says the Justice Department is “duty bound” to ensure searches are “done by federal law enforcement agents—in this case, the FBI—when there are grounds to believe evidence, especially classified evidence, will be recovered.” Only agents “with high security clearances” could “ensure that the evidence was preserved for investigative purposes, and that national security was thus protected.”
Instead, the process was left entirely to Mr. Biden’s private lawyers, who didn’t have security clearances—allowing them access to national secrets and the potential to glean the nature of the material found (which might be useful in a later Biden defense). It also allowed them to craft the circumstances of the discovery—where they were, their condition, whether they were easily observable. The department allowed this process to continue even after the first tranche of additional documents was discovered—even though this confirmed the potential for yet more.
Biden attorney Bob Bauer in a recent memo laid out the “protocols” the attorneys followed in each instance of a document find, and assured that nobody saw or did anything improper. But this is an extraordinary level of trust—one the Justice Department doesn’t afford others suspected of mishandling classified information. Mr. Trump’s lawyers weren’t allowed to be present when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago.
Putting the Biden legal team in charge also conveniently meant there would be no public FBI display to equate the Biden document mess to the Trump one. Biden defenders, including the media, continue to insist that what makes this case different is the Biden team’s dedication to discovering and returning classified information. That’s a hard case to make when the FBI takes over the process.
Finally, a little too convenient is the White House’s argument that it can’t speak to any of this given the investigation. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre remained mum even when informed by an NBC reporter that the Justice Department said it hadn’t told the White House it couldn’t speak to the underlying facts.
Mr. Garland is getting praise from the usual quarters for handling the Biden case with discretion, restraint and professionalism. The problem is that these supposed qualities seem to arise depending on partisan circumstances—and the unequal treatment predates Mr. Garland’s tenure. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are handled with kid gloves. Carter Page and Donald Trump—not to mention low-profile suspects—face the bluntest federal law-enforcement tools.
Despite all these advantages, Mr. Biden nonetheless faces a special counsel investigation. Yet the history here requires that probe receive extra scrutiny. The Justice Department seems unlikely to be done bestowing conveniences on this president.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
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A real "critical thinker" would know that the difference was in the treatment.
Here's a question for our critical thinkers:
After nearly three months after the first reported discovery of classified documents in a place they should never have been, the White House still can't explain how they got there. Why not?
Some one put them there.
A conspiracy?
Yeah joe Biden.
For weeks we have been trying to educate a poster on here that claims to be an independent, but show they are truly a far leftist, that although what both Trump and Biden did by taking classified information to their personal space, Biden's infraction was worse because he had no legal right to remove classified information as VP, and Trump did as POTUS. This [poster would constantly bleat the opposite.
Now we find that even more classified documents were found in Biden's Delaware home, some that date back to his Senate days, where he REALLY did not have any legal right to remove the documents. More than likely there are other closets, buildings, cars, etc where documents will be found.
Let's see this poster try and spin this that somehow it is far worse, STILL, for what Trump did over what Biden did.
Gonna be funny as hell.
I know what you mean.
There is a long way to go on the Biden documents. It will be in the news for a good part of 2023.
Probably by design.
My guess is Biden and/or his son/ lackeys have "storage" spaces scattered throughout the US, much of them that the administration will sure as hell try and keep secret from the public.
Well both Joe and Hunter are under investigation. I believe it's the first president and son to both be under investigation in US history.
trump and his spawn were (are) under investigation during his entire "presidency".
Many investigations over the past decade. All of them with democrats controlling them.
You forgot to add "by TDS riddled liberals who could not get over the fact that he beat Hillary".
Biden's own DOJ is investigating him.
And they never found anything.
I bet Hillary had something to do with it!
/s
Why, were the documents soggy and showed signs of being hit with a hammer?