L.J. Schaffnit: Conservatives want to overlook differences in classified docs cases

To The Daily Sun,

The truth is in the details, but a conservative contributor to this forum would like us to ignore the details, thereby ignoring the facts — details create the big picture and the truth.

Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were found to have classified documents in their possession. With Trump, U.S. officials tried for 18 months to recover hundreds of pages of sensitive documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Trump repeatedly resisted turning them over, ignoring a grand jury subpoena when they turned over some, but not all, of the classified records. It wasn’t until after the FBI was forced to execute a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago that a large bulk of the remaining documents were recovered. 

The “details” in Biden’s case are significantly different; his lawyers uncovered about 10 documents bearing classification markings and voluntarily notified the National Archives and Records Administration as soon as they discovered the materials. NARA collected the records the next day — there was no need for the FBI to execute a search warrant.

The DOJ typically doesn’t prosecute cases involving mishandling of classified documents, but it appears that two aggravating factors, obstruction of justice and willful violation, are present in the Trump case, but not in the case of Biden.

Obstruction of justice and willful violation — two important details that conservatives and the party of the big lie would like us to overlook. 

L.J. Schaffnit

Gilmanton