Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that President Joe Biden is getting a “free pass” in his classified documents probe while the former president is getting clobbered—but he’s “still fighting.”
President Biden “had many times more documents, including classified documents, than I, or any other president, had,” President Trump said in the post. “He had them all over the place, with ZERO supervision or security.”
The 45th president argued that, unlike his own case, President Biden’s doesn’t fall under the Presidential Records Act, hinting that there are therefore more grounds for prosecuting the president for mishandling the documents than in his own case.
“He does NOT come under the Presidential Records Act, I DO. He had many docs in CHINATOWN, and they were moved all over the place, and heavily used. My boxes were moved by GSA, were secure, most carried clothing, shoes, sporting equipment, kitchen ’stuff,' newspapers, pictures, magazines, awards, etc.” President Trump continued.
“The DOJ gave Biden, and virtually every other person and President, a free pass. Me, I’m still fighting!!!” he added.
President Trump’s remarks came before Mr. Hur began to testify on Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers argued that the decision not to charge President Biden is proof of a two-tiered justice system.
“Joe Biden broke the law. But because he’s a ‘forgetful old man who would appear sympathetic to a jury,’ Mr. Hur chose not to bring charges,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said at the outset of the hearing.
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said Mr. Hur’s decision crossed a “very bright line” and betrays a “glaring double standard” in the application of justice.
“The fact that the only person being prosecuted for this offense happens to be the president’s political opponent makes this an unprecedented assault on our democracy,” Mr. McClintock said.
Democrats came to President Biden’s defense, highlighting his cooperation with Mr. Hur’s probe in a bid to contrast his behavior with that of President Trump’s, while seeking to portray Mr. Hur’s remarks about President Biden’s poor memory as irrelevant.
“I believe, as is his habit, that President Biden probably committed a verbal slip or two during the interview,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said during the hearing. “And I’m not sure any of that matters, because when the interview was over, Mr. Hur completely exonerated President Biden.”
“And then there is Donald Trump,” Mr. Nadler continued. “What kind of man bungles not one, but dozens of opportunities to avoid criminal liability? What does that say about his mental state?”
For his part, Mr. Hur defended his descriptions of President Biden’s memory and its relevance in his report as “necessary, accurate, and fair.”
“Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe,” he said in opening remarks. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”
The Report
In February, Mr. Hur released a 388-page report that found President Biden “wilfully retained and disclosed classified materials” when he was a private citizen after the end of his term as vice president during the Obama administration.The documents President Biden kept include classified materials related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and notebooks with handwritten notes about matters of national security that implicated sensitive intelligence sources and methods, according to Mr. Hur’s report.
Unlike President Trump, who faces a bevy of charges in connection with sensitive documents he kept at his Florida home, President Biden has not been charged with any crimes.
The decision not to charge President Biden stands in stark contrast to the charges leveled against President Trump by special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly mishandling sensitive documents.
President Trump is facing 40 federal charges for alleged mishandling of sensitive and classified materials that were obtained from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he left the White House in 2021. Officials have also accused him for obstructing attempts to get them returned to the federal government.
Contrast
In his report, Mr. Hur drew a contrast between President Biden and President Trump in terms of their respective handling of sensitive documents and the degree of cooperation with investigators.Citing the indictment against President Trump, Mr. Hur said that the former president allegedly refused to return classified materials after being asked to do so, and that some documents were even destroyed.
By contrast, Mr. Hur wrote that President Biden alerted authorities and turned in classified documents to officials, consented to searches of multiple locations, and “in numerous other ways cooperated with the investigation.”
President Trump said following Mr. Hur’s decision not to bring charges against the President Biden that charges against him should be dropped.
“I am covered by the Presidential Records Act—he wasn’t,” he told the outlet, with his remarks expressing much the same perspective as his social media post on March 12.
“He had many, many times more documents—totally unguarded. Mine were always surrounded by Secret Service and in locked rooms,” he added.
Republicans have generally echoed President Trump’s claims of a two-tiered justice system while Democrats have come out in support of President Biden.
