A Fair Comparison of Two Classified Documents Cases
It shouldn't be too much to ask for from professional journalists
Questions from the patrons:
Answers from your server: Yes, I know religion isn’t a laughing matter in your religion. I, perhaps, put too much faith in humor. Because I can feel it healing. If I could pick a profession better than writing (which I feel requires a regularly exercised sense of humor), I’d be a musician because music seems even more healing. But I have yet to figure out how to do anything so performative. I feel shy and awkward around crowds.
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As the GOP will make hay out of the disclosure that Biden had classified documents, it’s important to understand there are considerable differences between those documents and the ones stored at Mar A Lago.
It took 15 months, a legal search warrant and a search by the FBI to get at least 323 classified documents back from Trump, with sufficient interference and dishonesty to justify the warrant the judge approved. With Biden, the first discovery found 10 or 11 classified documents which were collected by the National Archives the same day. They were returned with no delay.
It took Attorney General Garland 18-1/2 months from the time the National Archives first requested them to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Trump. For Biden, it was a mere 10 weeks to get a Special Counsel on board.
I think it’s perfectly justified to have those appointees on each case.
We don’t yet know the number of documents discovered in the second batch from Biden’s vacation home in Wilmington, when the documents were first moved to the property or how secure the property was since. We don’t know the level of security classification for anything Biden’s returned.
So far there’s no evidence of any criminal intent on the part of Biden. Without the initial notification by Biden nobody would even know the documents existed. Contrast that with Trump, who - in addition to obstructing the document retrieval - kicked out the standard minutes takers during secretive meetings with Putin and Jong Un. And he has this compulsive habit of trying to make money off everything he can.
The Trump document record:
And the Biden document record:
Republicans will complain that the first batch should have been revealed 5 days before the midterms but that would violate longstanding DOJ policy not to discuss investigations within 60 days of an election. The only time that rule was broken was when Republican FBI Director James Comey announced the reopening of the 2016 investigation of Hilary Clinton just 11 days before Election Day. Clinton won more popular votes than any candidate in history, but lost, and Comey’s interference may have caused that loss.
The DOJ could not make the same mistake twice without provoking considerable civil turmoil.
I’m content to let both Special Counsels investigate and make recommendations based on what they find.
But I don’t trust the national media to get the story right about the distinct differences, thus giving strength to the bothsidesdoit claims the GOP will make to keep defending one of the three worst presidents in history.
Have a chill evening with this nice cover of a classic Townes Van Zandt song.