When two national news outlets reported last month that President Joe Biden isn’t likely to be charged in an investigation into classified documents found at his office and home, former President Donald Trump, who has been indicted for improperly keeping documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago, predictably expressed his unhappiness about that prospect.
It makes sense that Trump, but not Biden, would be charged.
“Wow! Fake news CNN, through a leak from the Department of Injustice, has just reported that no charges will be filed in the (much bigger than mine!!!) Crooked Joe Biden documents case,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform at 6 a.m. on Nov. 17. “We are living in a very corrupt country!” Minutes later, the GOP presidential front-runner asserted, “Selective prosecution.”
The day before, The Wall Street Journal had reported that sources familiar with special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into documents discovered at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home and at his office in the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, said Hur’s report would sharply criticize Biden, but not accuse him of criminality. Later that same day, CNN, citing two sources, also reported that Biden was not expected to face charges.
NBC News has not confirmed that reporting, but it makes sense that Trump, but not Biden, would be charged. If the WSJ and CNN sources are right about Biden not being charged, then we’ll likely be hearing a lot more from Trump and his ilk accusing the justice system of unfair, biased treatment. Yet, just about the only commonality between Biden’s and Trump’s document cases is that both involve paper with classified markings. That’s where the similarity ends.
To understand why Biden probably won’t be charged, it may be helpful to remember why Trump was. The former president is accused of unlawfully storing hundreds of classified U.S. government documents in closets, ballrooms and bathrooms at his Mar-a-Lago resort where employees, club members and their guests, some who are foreign nationals, routinely work, vacation and attend weddings, parties and myriad other events.
According to email communications that have now been made public, the National Archives began asking Trump and his team to return all unaccounted-for government records in May 2021. Trump didn’t comply. It wasn’t until eight months later, January 2022, that Trump’s staff returned 15 boxes of documents. The National Archives observed that 14 of the boxes contained classified documents, and it called in the Justice Department.
In March 2022, the FBI opened an investigation, and in May, a grand jury subpoena was issued to Trump demanding the return of all classified documents in his possession. Again, Trump didn’t comply. The special counsel’s office alleges Trump conspired to obstruct the investigation by providing only a portion of the demanded documents while he claimed he was fully cooperating.