The Double Standard
The “Double Standard” practiced by the Department of Justice is alive and well in the DC swamp, as demonstrated by the indictment and subsequent appearance of the 45th President of the United ‘States, Donald J. Trump in a Miami Federal Court. Special Prosecutor Jack “the Ripper” Smith concocted 37 felony charges against the former President. His indictment is largely based on the Espionage Act of 1917 which states that obtaining information relating to national defense to be used “to the injury of the United States”, or “to the advantage of any foreign nation”, is illegal.
Harm to the Nation is an essential element of espionage, yet there is nothing in the charges that states “harm” to the nation has occurred, nor was it a motive when Trump’s aides packed up boxes to be reviewed in Mar-a-Lago by the former President and staff. Carelessness or ignorance are not sufficient reasons to indict anyone with a felony crime. The stuff about moving boxes, that's all covered by the Presidential Records Act and is probably not criminal at all. Nevertheless, there is that well-worn saying that “any good prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.” Donald J. Trump is Jack Smith’s ham sandwich.
The Presidential Records Act (PRA) allows access to secured documents by a former President. When Bill Clinton left office, he moved his boxes/records to Chappaqua to separate his personal records from national ones. That Act allows the President to decide what records to return and what records to keep at the end of his presidency. Furthermore, it was discovered that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) can’t do anything about it. A freedom of information action was instigated by Judicial Watch to secure certain taped records that Clinton had. They sued NARA for the records and lost.
The Justice Department (the same one hammering Trump) defended the lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, stating that NARA doesn’t have “a duty to engage in a never-ending search for potential presidential records” that weren’t provided to NARA by the President at the end of his term. Also the PRA cannot allow NARA to appropriate potential presidential records forcibly. The legislation passed by Congress defined that the President, and the President alone decides what is a presidential record and what isn’t. He may take with him whatever records he chooses at the end of his term.
The Judge presiding over the case, Amy Berman Jackson agreed, ruling, “Since the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of Presidential records during his time in office, it would be difficult for this Court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal records.”
Late last year it was discovered that President Biden had multiple confidential records in his possession, from his years as a Senator and Vice President, in multiple locations. There is no Senatorial or Vice-Presidential Records Act that allowed Joe to take any sensitive documents. Furthermore, he kept some of them in his unsecured garage where his son Hunter came to borrow Dad’s Corvette for joy rides with nubile young women. Unlike Mar-a-Lago, Biden’s garage was not guarded by the Secret Service after he left office as Vice President.
The cold hard facts are that Joe apparently got these the confidential and secret documents from what is known as a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility). This where Senators and Congressmen go to view confidential material. They must check cell phones, note pads and the like at the door, and it is absolutely forbidden to remove anything from the facility.
All the material that has been found in Joe’s garage, the Washington office he shared with Hunter, were for lack of a better description, purloined by Joe. Where’s his indictment? The Special Prosecutor appointed to his document scandal, Robert Hur, no relation to Ben Hur, has been absent and missing from the news. Perhaps he’s been assigned to a galley ship that’s somewhere in the Mediterranean.
Hillary Clinton got a pass from James Comey, former FBI Director, and the Justice Department for destroying 33,000 emails she kept on her home-brew server. Those emails were under subpoena, but she had the data removed from her private server using a bleach bit program. The ruling was that there was no malicious intent by her or her staff to obstruct an investigation. Right.
The bottom line is simply this. The matter of Trump returning records could have been handled through negotiation, not by by an FBI raid. Nobody raided the Biden or Clinton home. The hullabaloo over Trumps boxes when compared to how the Clinton’s or Joe Biden were treated regarding sensitive materials, is ample evidence that there is a very real double standard when it comes to equal application of justice.
It is quite possible that Trump’s real crime is simply being Donald J. Trump.