The special counsel's conclusion that “criminal charges are not warranted'' against President Biden for possessing classified materials during his term in office is similar to the special counsel's conclusion that former President Donald J. Trump kept classified documents after taking office. This contrasts with another special prosecutor's decision to file criminal charges. he left the White House.
After the Justice Department released the special counsel's final report on the Biden documents investigation this week, Trump sought to portray the two issues as equivalent and suggested he was being treated differently for political reasons. I made it clear that I was.
“Look, it's up to them if he's not going to be indicted, but then I shouldn't be indicted,” Trump said at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “This is nothing but selective persecution of people.'' Biden's political opponent is me. ”
But despite the superficial similarities, the report of the Biden investigation's special counsel — Robert K. Hur, a Republican whom Trump previously appointed to two Justice Department positions — highlights the As can be seen, the facts of the two cases are very different. Let's take a closer look here.
How are the situations similar?
The investigation involved improperly accompanying documents containing classified information after Trump and Biden left office (Trump when he leaves office in 2021, Biden when he leaves office as vice president in 2017). This includes what was found to have been done. Items that have been improperly stored. In both cases, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed special prosecutors to investigate.
How did the two men's reactions differ?
Ho wrote in his report that “several important differences” between the two cases were clear, and that if the allegations against Trump were proven, unlike the evidence against Biden, “would pose a significant aggravation. ”, he pointed out. In particular, he said the two men reacted very differently to the situation.
“Most notably, despite being given multiple opportunities to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite,” Huh reported. I mentioned it in the book. “According to the indictment, he not only refused to return documents for months, but also obstructed justice by cooperating with others to destroy evidence and then lying.”
“By contrast, Mr. Biden has cooperated with the investigation by submitting classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consenting to searches of multiple locations, including his home, and agreeing to voluntary interviews.” added.
What are the biggest differences in evidence?
To prove a crime, you must prove whether the unauthorized retention of confidential files was “deliberate.”” Prosecutors would have to prove that Biden and Trump knew they had the materials after they left office, and there are significant gaps in the available evidence as staffers packed up their belongings. Ta.
As detailed in the indictment, Smith's investigation revealed that Trump was subpoenaed despite knowing he still had classified government documents in his possession. Despite this, substantial evidence has emerged to support the conclusion that not everything was returned. He is accused of actively conspiring to cover them up.
By contrast, while Mr. I concluded that no.
For example, the most important documents related to the Afghanistan war were found in a cardboard box in Biden's garage, jumbled with unrelated materials. But Biden denied any knowledge of the documents or how they were obtained, speculating that the people packing the vice president's residence must have thrown them together.
“We do not know why, how or by whom the documents were placed in the box,” Hoare wrote.
Another matter included notebooks in which Mr. Biden kept handwritten diaries and notes about both his private life and his official activities, including sensitive National Security Council records.
While Hoar criticized Biden for not keeping them safe, he cited precedents such as former President Ronald Reagan, and there is good reason to believe Biden has the authority to keep them as personal property. concluded.
What was the file in each case?
In Trump's case, hundreds of classified government files arrived at his Mar-a-Lago club and residence in Florida, along with thousands of unclassified documents and photos, after he left the White House. did.
As a result of a long-term effort, the National Archives and Records Administration was authorized to retrieve 15 boxes in early 2022, in which 197 classified files were discovered. In response to subpoenas for remaining such records, Mr. Trump returned other records. However, the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago uncovered 102 additional classified documents.
According to court filings, the agenda includes intelligence briefings on a variety of countries, including numerous briefings on military issues, a briefing on the country's nuclear capabilities, and a briefing on contingency plans for an attack on Iran. was included.
An appendix to Mr. Xu's report lists about 50 files recovered from Mr. Biden's time as vice president, most of them related to the Afghanistan war and marked as classified or classified. It includes files that investigators later determined contained sensitive information, as well as some files from overseas trips. Photographed by a senator in the 1970s.
Where was the file?
In Trump's case, files were found in a locked storage room and office drawer at Mar-a-Lago. The investigation also uncovered photos showing some piled up in the club's bathrooms and ballrooms.
In Mr. Biden's case, the files ended up in a vault in an office suite at the Penn Biden Center for Foreign Affairs and International Engagement, a think tank in Washington, where he lived after leaving the vice presidency and before running for president. It was used for. His home in Delaware. The most important Afghanistan war documents were in a folder in a cardboard box in his garage.
What about recording?
One similarity between the two cases is that their respective investigators learned that Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden had classified information while out of office and talking with a ghostwriter for a book. They obtained a recording that appears to have been made during the shooting. But while Trump's references were specific and investigators were able to link them to specific files, Biden's references were vague and he could not determine what he was talking about. Ta.
One of the charges against Mr. Trump relates to battle plans related to the Iran attack, which he is accused of showing to visitors at his golf club in Bedminster. In an audio recording of that meeting, Trump can be heard rustling paper and saying that “as president, I could have declassified it,” but it's still “secret.”
In the latest indictment, prosecutors allege that those very documents were among 15 boxes of files that Trump returned to the National Archives and Records Administration in January 2022, months after the agency requested its return. He said it was found. (Trump has maintained that there were no plans for war with Iran at that meeting and that he was talking about something else).
In Biden's case, Xu obtained audio recordings and transcripts of the former vice president's conversations with a ghostwriter who was helping Biden write a memoir about his late son Beau in 2017 after he left office and while he was still in office. did. He lives in a rented house in Virginia.
In one case, Biden read passages from his notes aloud to his ghostwriter, pointing out words he couldn't read and warning the writer that the content could be classified. “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,” Biden told this writer on another occasion. The background was a discussion about a memo that Mr. Biden sent to President Barack Obama in 2009 opposing Mr. Obama's decision to send troops to Afghanistan.
However, Mr. Hsu explored the possibility that Mr. Biden's casual remark was a reference to certain classified documents about the Afghanistan war that were later discovered in a garage in Delaware; This serves as evidence of intentional storage. — He found no evidence that those files were in Virginia's house.
Biden instead mentioned finding a copy of an unclassified memo to Obama, which he incorrectly characterized as sensitive and not something he wanted the author to talk about. Stated.
“I said 'classified.' I should have said 'private,' because it was a contact between the president and vice president about what was going on,” Biden said. He said this at a press conference Thursday night after his report was released. “That's what he's saying. There was no classified information in that document. It wasn't classified.”
Ho also said that the reading of Biden's notes does not prove that Biden intentionally disclosed anything particularly sensitive, and that overall the evidence on the matter is “not sufficient to satisfy the government's burden in a criminal prosecution.” concluded that it was insufficient.
