So Much for Prosecuting Trump

A tale of two classified documents scandals.

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U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a Cabinet meeting in at the White House January 5, 2023. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Between November’s midterm debacle, casual dinners with neo-Nazis, a 2024 campaign that launched to zero fanfare, and a “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT” that embarrassed even diehard fans, it’s been a rough go lately for Florida’s most famous semi-retiree. 

But everyone’s luck changes eventually. And Donald Trump is, after all, the luckiest man alive.

So we all should have anticipated that classified documents would eventually turn up at a private office Joe Biden maintained after leaving the vice presidency and before launching his 2020 campaign.

For months the reporting on Trump’s possession of classified material grew increasingly damning, shifting from a story about improperly retaining documents to a story about improperly concealing documents to a story about improperly obstructing the recovery of documents. Even some reliable Trump allies, presented with the facts alleged by the Justice Department, concede that there’s enough to indict him. No prosecutor wants to try a former president, knowing how they’ll be accused of politicizing criminal law, but at some point the malfeasance becomes so overt that declining to try him would itself amount to politicization.

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  1. Frankwhobbs

    Biden didn’t tell us for two months about the classified documents his attorneys discovered and immediately returned. So whst? Trump didn’t disclose for a YEAR he had classified documents the Archives had been demanding he return and that he wss refusing to do so. Let’s at least get the parallels right.

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  2. BPhillips

    A lot of conjecture there. How are you sure the classified documents were deliberately put in that storage closet? I haven't read anything that makes me think it was a deliberate thing (not saying it wasn't, just nothing definitive that made me think that). The rest sounds like conspiracy theory stuff to be honest. I think there is a process to have documents put into a presidential library, it isn't the NA "looking the other way" . I listened to an Advisory Opinion podcast the other day - he's of the opinion civilians don't take the "classified" thing nearly as serious as the military side does. Interesting take, I hadn't heard that before.

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  3. Jgwadman

    This would be a lot simpler if DOJ had indicted Hillary, then Trump would have not have had "but Hillary" and he would already be indicted and now Biden would be winding his way to impeachment and then his own indictment. But to wish for that much intellectual consistency is currently 'beyond the pale'. If any normal person did what those three have done there would be no mercy and they would already be wearing orange and viewing the world through striped sunlight. Hard not to think there is 'two tiered' justice.

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    Stephanie

    At this point I am not particularly concerned about election-denying Republicans “not respecting” the actual facts of the situation.

    The very idea of facts mattering to that crowd is hilarious.

    No—act without regard to “political” guesswork.

    Indict if you have enough evidence for the evidentiary standard. Roll with the punches. This is very familiar territory.

    Of COURSE we know Fox News and social media will distort and do their best to whip up hysteria and succeed.

    The rest of us don’t need to quake on our shoes about it.

    We already know that House Republicans will howl about the stuff they howl about.

    They might be underrating the intellligence of the voting public. When we look at their first acts in power, we see they completely failed to address any of the issues voter polls highlighted, in favor of issues voters don’t trust Republicans on.

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  5. Cparlato

    Taking a little step back, there seems to be a gap or two in the procedures to control classified materials (some highly sensitive, if the reporting is accurate.) The problems are unfortunately not isolated to Mr’s Trump and Biden either. Serious people in Congress and the executive branch -and media, policy circles, hell- us regular citizens- should be very concerned about that, no?

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  6. JPG

    While Biden should be called out for sitting on this story (and investigated for his mishandling of classified information), it is important to note that the Trump/DOJ classified document dance has been going on literally since he left office.

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  8. BPhillips

    Do you trust American voters to grasp that distinction, particularly those who are motivated for political reasons to see no distinction at all? Why would that matter?? Do I need the drunk MAGA hat wearer at the local bar to understand the distinction? If Biden did what Trump did, prosecute him too. But so far it seems more of a serious clerical error. Fix the systems problem that allows that to happen.

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  9. Charley

    But, as we found out in tedious detail during the Trump administration, Biden can't be charged as a sitting President... "We're charging Trump, and we would charge Biden if we could, but we can't" would be a totally self-consistent outcome.

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    Michael Dan Martin

    What may be a scandal, if there is one in this affair, is the difference in the way the National Archives handled the two situations. There seemed to be a lackadaisical, even indifferent, approach to securing government documents after the Obama/Biden administration, whereas they checked all the silverware after crazy uncle Trump left the premises. You may argue that Obama/Biden were considered more trustworthy and NA personnel were disposed to wink at a "misplacement" of documents because they knew Biden would not keep anything dangerous. You could also argue that from the start of the Trump presidency official and unofficial Washington were like an autoimmune system, working assiduously to expel this foreign object, and this is another symptom of that effort. You may argue that what Trump did was by far worse than Biden's sloppy housekeeping, or you may think they are equivalent. But the bottom line is that in none of those judgements should the National Archives be free to do anything but assiduously safeguard the nation's vital documents. Whatever the reason, that they did not apply the same level of scrutiny to Biden as they did to Trump (if that is indeed the case) is wrong.

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      Stephanie

      The National Archives doesn’t take a pro-active role in the way you seem to be implying. I’ve seen the same question on Twitter.

      My understanding is that they receive and store what is given to them. They do not start out with an inventory and check off item by item what they’re given.

      They obviously didn’t follow one procedure for Trump and another for Biden.

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        Michael Dan Martin

        Obviously? What makes it obvious? I know that you use disdain as a weapon, but that doesn’t make you more accurate or me more knowledgeable. Good day.

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          Stephanie

          It’s on each of us to be well-informed.

          I see you have internet access, so all that’s keeping you from learning as much as you need to know, rather than continually questioning the information people here have given you, is your willingness to do your own homework.

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            Michael Dan Martin

            I have been searching for some while and have found no information on the process of classification, ie, what happens and what is supposed to be done in the event a president marks a document classified. Since you give no details, I am sure you don’t know, either.

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    2. Charley

      > There seemed to be a lackadaisical, even indifferent, approach to securing government documents after the Obama/Biden administration, whereas they checked all the silverware after crazy uncle Trump left the premises.

      This doesn't seem like an accurate description to me, if I'm remembering what happened right. They weren't "checking the silverware" on Trump... they received information that Trump had documents at Mar a Lago, and of course they had to act on that information once they had it.

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        Michael Dan Martin

        So then, the National Archives is so poor at keeping track of their documents they don't know what is missing?

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        1. Charley

          This seems like a misunderstanding of presidential records. These aren't "their records" until administrations leave office. They rely on those administrations to hand documents over when they leave. So no, these are not tracked by the archives in some database where their location is marked. The archives don't know of their existence until they are made aware of them.

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            Michael Dan Martin

            Could be. Is that what you know or what you think? That question is not meant to be insulting, I just want to know. I assume there has to be paperwork when a document is classified, so it would be strange to me if a copy of that didn’t make it to the NA.

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        2. BPhillips

          Apparently. I haven't read anything that backs up your comment to be honest.

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            Michael Dan Martin

            I have been wrong before, and maybe I overstated the case with the silverware comparison. But doesn't the story seem kind of weird to you?

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