TiredofBS wrote:I remember Amorette posting something like Whoo Hoo they raided Mara-Logo and Orange man had classified documents and all the usual talking heads here were saying things like impeach and jail. Even our wonderful current president said "How could anyone be so irresponsible." Well fast forward and low and behold we have a similar situation, albeit with astounding differences. Trump was a sitting "President" with the constitutional authority to declassify and remove said files from the White House and his were in a safe. Joe Biden, on the other hand, was a "Vice President" and had absolutely no legal authority to declassify or remove the files from the WH and he had them spread over half of DC. He seems to think they're only as sensitive as his Corvette because he had them stored in a locked garage. When they raided Mara-Lago there were news crews and some thirty or so agents. When they found Biden's documents it was hidden for two months, not a word released to the public. I'll bet that someone here will attempt to explain how our "Justice System" is fair and equal. This ought to prove interesting.
Nice revisionist history. Let us compare the two situations. Trump had the authority to declassify the over 300 classified documents found at his roach motel in Mar-a-Lago before he lost a free and fair election to President Joe Biden. He failed to do so. And his lawyers did not try and argue that point because they couldn't. There was no proof that he tried to declassify any documents. He knowingly stole them for his own benefit and showed them to an unknown number of people at his pathetic golf resort. The documents were not securely stored and were easily visible.
When the National Archives requested that he return the classified document, Trump did return some. Under Trump's direction, the rest of the documents were hidden, and his lawyers lied about the fact that they still had even more. Trump then ignored a subpoena from the FBI to return the remainder. The FBI was forced to legally search Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the rest of the highly classified documents. Trump committed criminal obstruction of justice, again.
In contrast, as soon as 15-20 documents at the Biden locations were discovered, the National Archives was immediately informed and the documents were returned. Biden never claimed he tried to declassify the documents. Not even "just by thinking about it" as Trump claimed.
If Trump had done what Biden had done, this whole situation could have been avoided. Unfortunately, Trump is a pathological narcissist, and incapable of complying with any order from any authority.
In an effort to maintain complete transparency, Attorney General Merrick Garland has named Trump-appointed attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate what happened with the Biden documents. The Whitehouse will comply with the investigation. If Biden is found guilty of any wrongdoing after the investigation, then he should be charged (a Trump supporter would never say that about the Cheeto Jesus). But, thanks to former AG Bill Barr, a sitting president cannot be indicted.
What I would like to know is how classified documents given to a president or vice president are not cataloged and tracked. And how they go missing after the person in possession of those documents no longer has the authority to possess them. That is what we should all be worried about.
[Edited by tom regan (1/15/2023 9:33:51 AM)]