What are the differences between the Joe Biden and Donald Trump classified documents incidents?
Both Trump and Biden are being investigated for having held onto classified documents that they shouldn’t’ve. However, the two cases are starkly different.
The recent revelation that classified documents were found at an office Joe Biden used to occupy before running for president and then at his Delaware residence as well has sparked comparisons with the ongoing saga of classified documents found in former President Trump’s possession. While neither of them should’ve been in possession of the classified material, the two cases are strikingly different.
However, to avoid the appearance of bias, after US Attorney General Merrick Garland had appointed a special counsel to independently investigate Trump’s retention of classified documents, he decided to do the same in the case of Biden. The main difference between the two is the willfulness to keep from turning over the documents in question.
Differences between the Biden and Trump classified documents incidents
Almost immediately after the documents from his time as Vice-President in the Obama administration were uncovered by Biden’s lawyers in his former office at the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington DC, steps were taken to return them. Additionally, a search was conducted for any more possible documents. That resulted in more documents being uncovered at his Delaware residence on two separate occasions which were also promptly handed over.
In the case of Trump, the National Archives tried for over a year to recover White House documents that he took with him upon leaving office. Finally, in January 2022, when the former president turned over 15 boxes of documents it was discovered that they contained classified materials. Believing that Trump was holding onto more documents, the matter was referred to the Justice Department and a criminal inquiry was started.
That began a series of stall tactics by Trump’s lawyers to prevent the FBI from having access to the material and made a “protective assertion of executive privilege” over all the documents even though Trump was no longer president. Those claims of protective executive privilege were rejected by the acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall who runs National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
In May, the Justice Department issued Trump with a subpoena for any other classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The following month investigators visit the seaside resort where they received more documents and were later assured by the lawyers that there are no more documents to be found.
However, that statement was turned out to be untrue and agents executed a search warrant which turned up around 13,000 more documents, over 100 were marked classified, and 18 top secret. Trump’s team once again made legal maneuvers to prevent the FBI from gaining access to the documents which had even his former Attorney General Bill Barr saying that the ex-president was “jerking around” the authorities.
For comparison of quantities, while exact details have not been released yet, it’s been reported that less than a dozen classified documents were found at Biden’s former office. The later searches of his home only turned up a small number as well. However, the substance of the documents is more important than the number. Also in the case of legal jeopardy, the willingness of the parties to return the documents will determine if there was criminal obstruction or the retention was just accidental.