Basic: “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.” Just like that, the indictment of Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents may be up in smoke. In a remarkable turnabout, President Biden secreted classified documents in his home, office, and garage. Why?
Biden’s “who me” response, after grandstanding about Trump having a handful of classified documents, is a disgrace. Biden and his Attorney General violated the 4th Amendment, swarmed the former president’s home with guns’ drawn – and now appear complicit in covering something worse.
The Presidential Records Act (PRA) was never intended – look at the legislative history – to allow any administration, let alone a resentful Attorney General or political FBI, to attack their political opposition. But that happened.
Of course, the purpose of the 4th Amendment is to protect Americans from exactly that kind of outrage – never mind preserve our political process from intimidation. What Biden did to Trump is still … breathtaking.
Biden harpooned Trump for having documents he had made available to Justice, kept under lock and key, and never made accessible to anyone. Stunning was the blasé way in which Democrats defended the armed raid, placing those in the former president’s home in palpable fear.
When in American history has a sitting president or attorney general used the power of law enforcement to destroy political opponents, insinuate their criminality, and place them in fear? Never.
Worse, Justice – apparently finding nothing of importance – issued no apology and simply returned the former first family’s passports and medical records. The outrage by Americans was proper.
Now, we get a remarkable turnabout. Unlike the former president, the former vice president had no power to declassify. He did not invite the FBI, DOJ, or then-President Trump to inspect his secreted caches of highly classified documents, hidden in a closet, garage, and “library” with no books. More incredibly, Biden’s secreted documents relate to Ukraine and Iran, adversaries – one of which was investigating his son, until the vice president halted that with a threat.
Not only was the election-year raid on President Trump’s home improper, but we know the FBI in 2020 sought to downplay and suppress coverage of what the Biden family was doing in Ukraine and China. And now we see the White House and Justice Department downplaying recent discoveries in the Biden offices and home. Why?
What is to be made of this? Discovery of Ukraine-related classified documents in the former vice president’s office should be investigated by the FBI and Congress, not just a liberal Maryland former US attorney formerly supported by Maryland’s two Democrat Senators.
Why has this whole inquiry been downplayed? Why no FBI investigation? Were other venues where the former vice president may have hidden documents searched, given the Biden family laptop and Twitter revelations – which imply a financial connection between the Bidens China and Ukraine? We hear no indication of this. Why?
A serious look at what is just and unjust with respect to the former president should be conducted. If the current president, a former vice president who mishandled classified documents, is not aggressively investigated, a great deal is wrong – and Trump cannot be prosecuted for a lesser, purely administrative offense.
For starters, “what is good for the goose is good for the gander,” which means Biden needs to be scrutinized. Something is very wrong about all this. Where is rule of law? Biden’s strange actions – and weak excuses for those actions – cannot be ignored. If Justice and the FBI will not act, Congress must. Biden… and his hidden documents look increasingly odd.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
