(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Why Biden’s classified files are not as problematic as Trump's [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-01-15 US President Joe Biden. (Getty Images) The United States Justice Department is currently investigating the discovery of allegedly classified documents held by President Joe Biden since the end of his vice presidency in 2017 in at least two locations. Republican politicians, commentators, and pundits are up in arms over this seeming hypocrisy, as they view this as equal to, if not worse than, former US President Donald Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida home. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia even called for Biden’s impeachment. But there is room to believe this is different and Biden’s documents are not as problematic. The Trump and Biden cases differ in several important ways, including in what we know so far about the quantity and content of the documents. First, only a few pages of documents were in Biden’s possession as opposed to the numerous boxes Trump had. Second, the documents were not nearly as sensitive in nature as the ones Trump was holding onto. Third, the main difference lies in how Trump and Biden surrendered the documents following their discovery. Trump refused to cooperate with the FBI and the Justice Department and had to be subpoenaed before turning over numerous boxes of material. In Trump’s case, the FBI had to obtain a search warrant to retrieve a cache of classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after the National Archives tried for months to retrieve the presidential records Trump had taken. The Washington Post reported that the agency emailed Trump’s lawyers in May 2021, notifying that some two dozen boxes of original presidential records had not been turned over per protocol. In contrast to Trump’s insubordination, Biden has said he is cooperating fully from the start. When asked about that first set of materials during his recent trip to Mexico on Jan. 10, Biden said he was unaware of the contents of the documents and that he was “surprised to learn there were any government records that were taken there to that office.” He noted that his team was “cooperating fully” and “immediately” turned the material over to the National Archives and Records Administration. “I take classified documents, classified information, seriously,” Biden said. Notably, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the assistant Democratic leader, said during an MSNBC interview that he would like to see the White House cooperate with House Republicans’ investigation into Biden, but only insofar as House Republicans investigate Trump. He said that investigating Biden and ignoring Trump is “laughable.” “I think that everybody can see the stark differences between what Joe Biden is being looked at for and what Donald Trump was being investigated for,” Clyburn said, adding, “There’s nothing analogous about these two incidents.” Under the Presidential Records Act, official documents of the president and his staff—including the Vice President—must be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their term. According to the law, unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is illegal. However, several experts have decried the problem of “overclassification,” claiming the government’s addiction to excessive document classification undermines American democracy and national security. According to Zachary Karabell at Politico Magazine, “It wasn’t always this way, and it doesn’t have to be this way.” When and where were these documents discovered? Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, said in a statement that the initial documents were discovered on Nov. 2, “when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.” The discovery took place less than a week before Election Day for the U.S. midterms and just about two weeks before the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/15/2147459/-Why-Biden-s-classified-files-are-not-as-problematic-as-Trump-s Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/