What Are the Differences Between the Trump and Biden Cases?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the constitutional right to equal rights before the law. The treatment by the FBI and the Department of Justice of former President Donald Trump was much different than that of current President Joe Biden.

In August 2022, the FBI, part of the Department of Justice and under the direction of the Biden administration, raided the resort home of former President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, searching for classified materials. In early November 2022, classified materials were located in the Penn Biden Center. More classified materials were found in the Joe Biden garage in December 2022, and even more were found inside the home in January 2023.

Numerous talking heads claim that the Biden situation is not as bad as that of Trump. According to Victor Davis Hanson, we should not be so quick to jump to conclusions. Yes, it appears that there were more documents at Mar-a-Lago that were labeled “classified” than were found at Biden’s home and office. Otherwise, Hanson wrote, the comparisons between the two cases, do not favor Biden and gave the following reasons. 

First, a stranger would face a far greater challenge entering a post-presidential Mar-a-Lago than a pre-presidential Biden home, office, or garage….

Secret service agents and private security were stationed at Mar-a-Lago. Prior to the 2020 presidential election, they were not at citizen Biden’s various troves for most of 2017-2020, much less prior to 2009.

Second, we seem to forget that for much of the developing controversy, Biden’s own team was investigating Biden…. [Remember, the FBI raided Trump’s home.]

Third, no one in a position of government authority had passed judgment on Biden’s alleged security violations.

That was not the case of the still alleged violations of Trump….

Fourth, Trump is certainly right that as president he had a far more substantial claim of declassification rights than did Biden who took the papers out either as a senator or vice president.

Fifth, the FBI was not merely asymmetrical in melodramatically raiding the Trump home while allowing Biden lawyers to inspect various Biden stashes. The FBI also leaked the purported contents of the subjects of the Trump classified documents (falsely spreading the lie of “nuclear codes” and “nuclear secrets”) in a way it has not with the Biden cache.

The FBI went so far as to scatter the documents on the floor for a fake news photo-op as if the papers were so messily arrayed when they arrived.

So far, the FBI has come lightly and belatedly to the Biden case without the SWAT team get-up and only under pressure from the public and the Republican opposition.

Sixth, Biden did not “self-report.” Biden’s team did not call the relevant government authorities the minute they discovered the classified documents in Biden’s office and home and garage.

In truth, Biden, or someone close to Biden, certainly knew that he or someone close to him had illegally removed classified documents when he left the vice presidency in 2017 – or years earlier as a senator.

For at least the last six years – at least – Biden has felt no compunction to confess to authorities he illegally was in possession of classified documents….

Worse, Biden and his staff knew classified documents were in his possession before the midterms but deliberately suppressed that information until after the elections were over.

Seventh, Trump’s documents were stored only at one place, Mar-a-Lago, and only for about 19 months. Biden’s were stashed at various locations for nearly seven years, or perhaps over a decade. There were far more opportunities of time and space for those without security clearances to have access to the Biden documents than to the Trump files.

Eighth, the press has exhaustively speculated, usually wrongly, about how the documents reached Mar-a-Lago and what they contained. In contrast, no one knows or even asks why Biden took classified documents, what they concerned, or who, if any, in his family circle had access to them.

Ninth, Trump’s documents did not expose other liabilities of the constantly investigated Trump. The Biden files so far have directed attention to the mysterious tens of millions of dollars in Communist Chines money that poured into Biden’s think tank at the University of Pennsylvania, the proximity of members of the quid pro quo Biden consortium to these classified papers, and the files’ relevance, if any, to the Biden family’s overseas businesses…. [The Biden presidency could be finished if Hunter accessed any of the classified material.]

Tenth, Trump possessed contested documents as a private citizen. Biden’s files under contention involve the current behavior of the president of the United States. Biden ran for office, was elected, and serves as president with the full knowledge that all this time, he unlawfully possessed classified documents.

Questions still remain about the fate of Trump, Biden, and now former Vice President Mike Pence who recently found classified materials in his files at his home in Indiana. Will all three men be exonerated, or will all three men be charged, or will Trump and Pence be charged and Biden be exonerated by the corrupt FBI and Department of Justice? No matter the final decision, we can understand that Attorney General Merrick Garland has a big problem!