The public perception is growing – that a “double standard” exists in applying laws, including the Fourth Amendment. One standard exists for Democrats, another for Republicans, including former President Trump. The impact is of that perception on public trust is devastating.
In cases like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s proven mishandling of classified documents, use of a secret server, intermingling of open and classified documents where susceptible to foreign espionage, foreign fundraising for her foundation while Secretary of State, destruction of tens of thousands of emails, “bleaching” of her hard drive, creating a false story to trigger an FBI investigation into her 2016 opponent – no legal consequences.
In the case of former President Donald Trump allegedly mishandling of documents – while making them available to Justice, keeping them under lock and key, and negotiating – the result has been unprecedented legal consequences, a massive FBI raid on his home.
What is publicly known suggests Trump held documents of importance to him at his home, some relating to decisions made, some tied to conversations with foreign leaders, some memorializing privileged attorney-client conversations, some subject to executive privilege, possibly all declassified.
What is also known – or should be – is that presidents ritually have conversations with National Archives on leaving office, are allowed to retain some documents. From George Washington through Jimmy Carter, presidential documents were the exclusive property of the president.
After 1978, following the Presidential Records Act of 1978, documents deemed official “presidential records” were considered “public,” with exceptions for personal retention. Conveniently, Carter signed that act in 1978 but it became effective January 20, 1981 – the day Carter left office and Reagan assumed office.
Notable, the act leaves questions unresolved. For example, under Section 2208, the Archivist can make documents public without a former president’s approval, if his successor permits it, which raises the question – what if the Archivist feels political pressure to disgorge private or untimely data? What if an outgoing president has concerns about potential unfairness or selective release?
Under Section 2201, which sets “official record” definitions, gaps are worked out between a former president and Archivist, such as what is the “segregable portion” of a document for retention purposes, and “direct effect upon” presidential duties.
A former president is allowed to retain “personal records,” including “documentary materials,” “diaries, journals, or other personal notes,…,” “materials relating to private political associations…,” “materials relating exclusively to the President’s own election…,” and “materials directly relating to the election of … “ lower officials.
Deciding what is difficult. Room for accommodation exists, built into the statute. Also note that a president can declassify documents. No Supreme Court precedent exists indicating a president cannot declassify absent typical procedures.
By contrast, a secretary of state is not a president. A secretary cannot declassify documents the State did not classify. A President can declassify anything.
Compounding public cynicism, some in the media want to compare Clinton’s obfuscation and alleged crimes with Trump’s actions. These arguments are laughable, the media reaction tragic.
The Washington Post says, for example, Trump’s possible mishandling under 18 USC 793, 2071, and 1519 is different because penalties are higher than for crimes Clinton might have faced under 18 USC 1924 for “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.”
They make much of ten-year versus five-year potential prison terms, a complete red herring. That has nothing to do with the Fourth Amendment. Liberal outlets try to distinguish the cases saying Trump is “under investigation” for not stopping rioters on January 6, another red herring.
They say Clinton’s egregious mishandling of classified material was cleared by the FBI’s James Comey – who had no legal authority to do so and was rushing his own anti-Trump agenda. Being cleared by Comey is more vilification than vindication, but liberals forget that.
Despite constant line-blurring, apparent deception, and intentional misinterpretation, like pretending she might have “wiped” her server with a “cloth,” Clinton is deemed “cooperative.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers allowed full access last May – more than a year after he left office, but he is accused of being uncooperative, as questions remain over a second subpoena. That was enough to bring the wrath of Biden, Justice, and the FBI down around him.
The disparate, unequal treatment of these two national leaders is breathtaking, Clinton and cronies getting a free pass, even after creating a false probe of Trump tied to “Russia collusion” that proved distracting, fictional, and remains under criminal investigation.
Bottom line? The public is losing confidence in Democrat leaders at Justice, the FBI, and White House. Polls show plummeting public trust, a sense that institutions are not acting fairly, are politically corrupt, and work under a politically motivated “double standard.”
The impact of this turn is serious. The recent raid on former President Trump’s home – an unprecedented, arguably unconstitutional turn – highlights and compounds the problem. Americans see it all and it gives them pause.
By way of a comparison, imagine fair turnabout. Imagine dozens of armed agents upending Speaker Pelosi’s home, Senator Feinstein’s home, or the 65 others suspected, for evidence of “insider trading,” as all 67 are suspected of abusing the public trust.
Imagine the White House itself or homes of President and Hunter Biden raided, turned upside down, boxes taken out – or the homes of both Clintons and their daughter, all ransacked.
Who knows what else might happen, homes of former Presidents, Attorneys General, FBI directors, IRS leaders, governors and mayors could be stormed, sacked, boxes taken.
Main point? We do not do that in America. We have a Fourth Amendment. Politics should not interfere with equal administration of the laws. A “double standard” for Democrats and Republicans is not just dishonest. It is illegal, unconstitutional, and killing public trust.
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MOST CERTAINLY A DOUBLE STD AND IF YOU DON’T SEE IT (double std) I FEEL BAD FOR YOU
“Killing” is the wrong tense here. Public trust is already dead. The actions of the farcical FBI would be funny if they weren’t so dangerous to all of us… including the deluded buffoons who support current actions because… TWUUUMP!!!
Excuse me, but could any sane person not realize that flooding EVERY & ONLY White countries with MILLIONS of non-Whites and telling everyone to “assimilate” to create a blended humanity is White GENOCIDE?
Africa will still be full of Africans.
Asia will still be full of Asians.
Only White children will suffer from this insanity.
It’s White Genocide.
Except they don’t call it GENOCIDE when it’s done to White children.
They call it “diversity”
Diversity means the final solution to the White problem.
Really Gross stuff here, should be removed by the moderator?
This is NOT about republicans, it is about people who tend to be conservative standing up to the unequal application of laws and the coddling by our government of the anti-American leftists.
For instance, if you are against an open border run over by illegal immigrants you are the enemy of the government and all its tentacles.
If you voice a reality based opinion that is contrary to the lies the vermin in the media repeatedly regurgitate, you are the enemy of all anti-American leftists.
If you are an enemy to the abhorrent and near total corruption of our federal government YOU are a special danger to the corrupted in BOTH PARTIES.
This has nothing to do with party affiliation.
Malignantly labeled “whataboutism” is, in fact, the principle of equal justice under the law, a principle the political class, the Left, and the media are willing to drop like a hot rock in order to get to a political rival. Those three are “the greatest threat to our Democracy,” not DJT, not his supporters, and certainly not the menace of the mythical white supremacist domestic terrorist.
Well, Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about a completely personal affair that had no bearing on the running of the nation. Most Republicans didn’t dare to impeach Trump even for fomenting and then failing to do anything for more than three hours while the mob attacked the Capitol. Sorry, did I hear “double standard”?
He was impeached for lying under oath. What about is immaterial. That is the whole point of being under oath.
There is something terribly distorted in the arguably most powerful man on the planet (POTUS) using one of the most defenseless people in the world (a White House intern) as a sex toy.
WJC was impeached in an era in which supervisors from line managers to CEOs and generals and college professors were routinely fired or otherwise removed from their positions for inappropriate, unbalanced power relationships in their sexual liaisons with employees or students.
The specific charge may have been lying under oath (quite disappointing when a POTUS does it, but maybe a sitting POTUS should never be put under oath by a grand jury or a judge), but the issue was far more important and graver. That WJC was not convicted by the Senate is due simply to party politics, not the merits of the case.
Bubba had many liaisons that are disgusting to even think about but Lewinsky could have said no. She might have been young but it’s no excuse for the behavior.
Clinton LIED UNDER OATH, was impeached and although giulty as can be was acquitted in the Senate even though democrat senator robert bird, you remember him from your days together in the klan, said by the letter of the law clinton was guilty but he voted to acquit anyhow.
Were you their?! Most likely not. Just keep spewing the Demonrat Party doctrine.
Democrats are democracy hating fascist pigs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
VOTE OUT ALL DEMOC RATS AND RINOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This article is jumping the gun & should wait until more information on Maralago raid is available. And if Hilliary Clinton did something illegal, then that does not give Trump or any other POTUS to ignore our laws. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Oh baloney, it’s not “if” hillary violated several laws, it’s been proven that she DID and nothing was done!! The article does not advocate giving President Trump a pass on our laws!!
Crazy assumption to say they were “declassified.” The double standard is the GOP’s lack of respect for the law
Agree, to say all boxes are declassified without any paperwork or witnesses is a major travesty . There is more to the story of why the FBI went in like they did & I suspect someone was not cooperating with FBI.
Oh there’s more to the story alright. You must be a CNN or MSNBC watcher. You sound as ridiculous as they do. Funny that it’s the DOJ and FBI that don’t want American Citizens to see the actual Affidavit. Wonder why? Because they’re up to their eyeballs in corruption. You know, like the FISA court submissions based on Hillary Clinton’s Steele Dossier or the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax or the impeachments based on pure fantasy and hatred and no evidence. At one time, these were respectful agencies. No more! Just for the record, the President has the right to declassify anything. President Trump would never intentionally put this country and it’s citizens in danger. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for these agencies, the Demonrats, and most of all, the so-called news media!
I back Law and Order from Both sides. I don’t change based on who’s in power. I have friends who are cops and FBI and they’re not corrupt. Shame on the GOP
And yet a lawyer for the FBI changed documents to get a warrant to investigate those close to none other than the Bad Orange Man. And then the cabal of lovers sending notes back and forth talking about how they were going to take their new boss down (which is not their job and they did not know the man other than what they were told to think by the media). How much more? Comey conveniently “forgot” a lot of things that were relevant.
I have no doubt that some members of the FBI are honest. Whether that is 5% or 95% I don’t know.
That’s the same rhetoric that is used to kill cops on the streets. Sorry, wont do it. You can be unpatriotic but I wont.
It’s amazing how a big patriot like you is OK with ignoring big pieces of the Constitution, like the Bill of Rights. The search warrant allows seizure of any “government and/or Presidential Record created between January 20, 2017 and January 20, 2021.” This is an unconstitutional general warrant because it doesn’t “particularly describ[e] the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” However, as you say, we’re supposed to trust the DOJ and FBI while they ignore the 4th Amendment.
Next you’ll be telling me that nobody can shout “fire in a crowded theater.” That decision, Schenk vs US (1919), sent a draft protester to jail for printing leaflets advocating that men should refuse induction, if drafted for World War I. It’s not the law anymore, obviously. Free speech prevails, unless it’s hate speech as defined by the woke. Then it’s canceled.
“Demonrats” is always hilarious. Almost as funny as when trump lost to an actual corpse in the election.
Speaking to you from suburban Chicago, I think it’s funny that no matter how you voted in life, once you’re dead in Chicago, you vote straight Democrat. It’s an unexplained paranormal phenomenon. Perhaps the ghost of Hizzonner Da Mayr, Richard J. Daley, has organized a patronage machine to work the dead vote?
I call them Demonrats because they are the closest relative to both species. DEMONS and RATS!
MJB you are soooo full of crap. Every time and I mean every time things don’t go as you FRUMP Republicans want, its back to the same old crap,,, Hillary, Bill, Border, Russia, Wall. Trump is a grifter, HE HAD NO RIGHT TO TAKE THOSE DOCUMENTS!!!!! ,, get your facts straight before you write BULLSHIT and quit making excuses for his illegal behavior. First you wanted a list of the items he stole for which Trump said he didn’t have when he was asked politely for them. Trump then had to be subpoenaed and Trump still said he didn’t have those stolen documents and that’s why his home got searched,, and guess what??? the lying bastard had all those documents and them some. Trump is and will always be a threat to our Nation.
Now you want the Affidavit cause you couldn’t find problems with the property inventory, so lets try another path. It almost made me want to cry that poor Donald had is passports taken, that probably put you into hysteria. WAKE UP and GET A LIFE!!
Wonder what declassified materials they found in Melania’s closet!?! Bill, I’m sorry about the confusion your lobotomy caused. The only people disrespecting the rule of law in the U. S. is the party represented using a jackass!
Yes, they made sure we knew they did that. That was purposeful and spiteful.
Obama signed an executive order declassified any document a president is in possession of outside the Oval Office. If you have a complaint it is with Obama.
And the most we ever get is ‘molasses in January’, meaning durham slow walking the so called probe into dem treason. Every so often he pops up with peanuts but hints at filet mignon. Meanwhile the clock ticks and the calendar moves us steadily away from any accounting.
We project the filet. Keep in mind the entire deep state is against him. As is the Attorney General and the President. So who would stick their necks out to help him??
Wonder what the next item is on the ‘lefts’ list?Maybe they need to stay in town and address the issues they were elected to tackle. They forget who pays their over the top saleries.
Identity voting is designed to separate elections from the performance of politicians. Your identity never changes. If your identity says you vote for Democrats, then you vote for Democrats no matter how bad a job they do. If your neighborhood is full of crime and trash, and your schools don’t educate your kids, so what? Your identity hasn’t changed, so you vote for the Democrats that are destroying your city.
RBC,
I recall Donald Trump was registered as a Democrat and changed his political affiliation to Republican a few years ago. Am I correct or wrong?
If correct, that is an extra reason why the Dems are out of Trump’s blood because he knows too well how they operate!
I’m ashamed to admit it but I too, was a Demonrat. Obama cured me of that malady. Had nothing to do do with his bi-racial status, but just by doing research about this man before he was elected. I refuse to vote for Marxists! I’m so much more aligned with conservative principles and I’m able to sleep at night because I know good will defeat evil!
“I too, was a Demonrat” I’m howling on the floor.
You’re “howling on the floor,” because you still are a Democrat, and don’t know any better.
Remember, only the government can protect pregnant men from climate change. To do that, they need more taxes. If you don’t like being audited, you’re part of the problem. Vote progressive! Open our jails, open our borders and close our schools!
Better watch out, someone might step on you.
Trump’s home was and is under protection and surveillance of the Secret Servive, ergo so were the documents.
Definition of fascism
1
often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition….
Do you thinks the shoe fits! And nothing is being done to address this fall of our Republic…
Hillary Clinton is treated as if she is privileged royalty, while President Trump is mistreated and bullied as if he is an enemy of the state. In our Constitutional Republic, Lady Justice supposedly is politically blind and treats all Americans with the presumption of innocence.
However, the tyrannical Democrats have hounded and abused President Trump for years. The ugliness of the double standard is so disgusting that every American should be outraged. What’s more, President Trump is an America first patriot, while the likes of Clinton is a corrupt globalist. How horrible that an efficient and capable man such as President Trump is treated worse than a criminal, while Hillary is treated like a rock star.
Just wait till Chelsey gets involved!
Chelsea Hubbel is way too dim to walk in her mother’s flats. She is literally the stupidest “PhD” I’ve ever heard or read.
I believe in Equal Justice, now the “gloves can come off” . . . Revenge will be sweet! And you’d better believe the Commies FEAR Revenge! . . . That’s why this is REALLY about trying to “ban” Trump from even being able to run again! We the People MUST Not Allow them to succeed in doing this! . . . Anybody with half a brain should question how these so-called “Democrats” could have possibly beat a “very successful” incumbent from being Re-elected! . . . Biden STILL CAN’T fill a room, what does that REALLY show you? . . . If you know you CAN’T BEAT him, find an excuse to DISQUALIFY him! . . . And they’re CERTAINLY TRYING!
But knowing some of the people involved in all this corruption, they may want to keep Joe so they can continue moving their destructive plans forward.
He could be on death row and still run for President. Our founders knew that the State would try and “disqualify” people by charging them and specifically made it clear that anyone meeting the requirements can run. That said, they are trying to poison him to the low information voters who don’t understand the power of the State and the willingness of our sociopathic leaders to use it. Keep in mind the reigns of $8T in spending every year are on the line (used to be $4T but we are building back broke) when you can find someone to do almost anything for $500.
“a Double Standard”….
That’s simply “been” the Democrat way! Rules & laws do not apply to them. They only apply to “everyone else”.
Most Democrats today, particularly those in Socialist states, are “AlNOs”, American in Name Only.
Moral of story: Neither party is above the law & therefore should not do anything that is illegal.
Surely you jest! Where are you living?
Why can’t charges still be brought against Hilary & all the law-breakers? It is time to stand up to them & do unto them as they are doing. Republicans are too nice & it is time to rebel!!!!!!
Not rebel, do their job! Do not sit by with a few words and be taken on a ride by these criminals.
Hilary is part od the Old guard untouchable and she knows it.If she is touched the whole house of cards will come down , that will not be happening
Another good article reflecting misgivings many of my family, friends and associates have concerning our nation’s government employees. And make no mistake, whether elected, hired and/or appointed “all are” employees of the American citizenry. Most of the people I’m acquainted with have “NO TRUST” of any of these employees & don’t even mention media! It is a very sad state of affairs. It surely does make a body wonder where it will all end. In God I trust.
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