Trump’s Careless Storage of Documents: A Reflection of His Character or a Criminal Offense?

Former President Donald Trump has been charged with illegally storing and concealing classified documents. Conservative radio host Steve Gruber describes this as another example of the degradation of our republic.

There are three reasons why every American, regardless of their support for Trump’s 2024 campaign, should find this new attack on the former president disturbing.

Firstly, it reinforces the perception, held by many conservatives, that our government administers a two-tiered justice system — one for those on the right and another for those on the left.

Donald Trump is not the only public official who has mishandled secret documents. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges, stated, “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.”

However, history suggests otherwise. Former President Bill Clinton, for instance, was discovered to have taken audio recordings of his conversations while in the White House and kept them in his sock drawer after leaving office.

Judicial Watch attempted to access these tapes, arguing that they should be considered part of the presidential archive. However, a judge ruled against the conservative group, stating that she lacked jurisdiction and that only the National Archives and Records Administration could make such requests. NARA chose not to pursue the tapes.

Former FBI Director James Comey concluded in 2016 that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” This information was stored on an unauthorized and vulnerable personal server.

Additionally, Clinton appears to have destroyed evidence related to this misconduct. Similar to Trump, Clinton did not fully comply when asked to provide all the emails sent; the FBI discovered tens of thousands of additional “work-related” messages on the unauthorized server, some of which contained classified information.

Clinton was not indicted for her misconduct. Comey explained that her actions were not linked to “disloyalty to the United States” or “efforts to obstruct justice.” He stated that his decisions were based on evaluating her “intent.”

Joe Biden also illegally held classified information. However, news of the secret documents found at the Penn Biden Center on November 2, 2022, was mysteriously withheld from the public until six days before the midterm elections when CBS News leaked the information in January.

The recent indictment of Trump focuses on his careless storage of documents in areas accessible to unauthorized individuals. Were the papers stacked in Biden’s Delaware home garage more secure?

To many Americans, the former president’s resistance to authorities regarding his presidential papers aligns with his typical behavior — authoritative, stubborn, disorganized, and lazy, but not criminal.

The indictment documents his half-hearted attempts to sort through hundreds of boxes containing his personal papers. It does not allege that his refusal to comply with a subpoena was part of a larger crime, such as betraying the United States.

Furthermore, it is quite possible that Trump declined to turn over his Oval Office papers out of fear that the FBI would exploit those records to find material that could embarrass him or be used against his candidacy. Given the findings of the report from Special Counsel John Durham, which exposed the politicization of the agency to target Trump, such paranoia would be justified.

Secondly, the timing of Trump’s indictment coinciding with the day members of Congress were shown an FBI document containing credible allegations of Biden accepting a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian company raises suspicion.

Instead of delving into claims made by a trusted whistleblower that Biden, as vice president, received payment from Burisma in exchange for helping remove Ukraine’s top prosecutor, Biden’s Justice Department created a significant distraction.

This is unacceptable. The allegations against Biden are not unfounded. It is a fact that Biden pressured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 to dismiss Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid