LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Difference between Trump, Biden documents

The Real Differences Between the Biden and Trump Document Troves: Former President Donald Trump for now certainly seems to have had more documents labeled “classified” at Mara-lago in Florida than did President Joe Biden at his various homes in Delaware. First, a stranger would face a far greater challenge entering a post-presidential Mar-a-lago than a pre-presidential Biden home, office, or garage — or who knows where?

Secret service agents and private security were stationed at Mar-a-lago. Prior to the 2020 presidential election they were not at citizen Biden’s various troves for most of 2017-2020, much less prior to 2009.

Second, we seem to forget that for much of the developing controversy, Biden’s own team was investigating Biden. On the other hand, the Biden Administration’s Justice Department and the FBI were not just investigating Trump as an outside party, but as a former president — and possible 2024 presidential candidate and opponent of Biden himself. Third, no one in a position of government authority had passed judgment on Biden’s alleged security violations. Fourth, Trump is certainly right that as president he had a far more substantial claim of declassification rights than did Biden, who took the papers out either as a senator or vice president. Fifth, the FBI was not merely asymmetrical in melodramatically raiding the Trump home while allowing Biden lawyers to inspect various Biden stashes. Six, Biden did not “self-report.” Biden’s team did not call the relevant government authorities the minute they discovered the classified documents in Biden’s office and home and garage. Seventh, Trump’s documents were stored only at one place — Mar-alago, Biden’s were stashed at various locations for nearly seven years, or perhaps over a decade. Eighth, the press has exhaustively speculated, usually wrongly, about how the documents reached Mar-a-lago and what they contained. no one knows or even asks why Biden took classified documents, Ninth, Trump’s documents did not expose other liabilities. Tenth, Trump possessed contested documents as a private citizen. Biden’s files under contention involve the current behavior of the president of the United States. Differences Between Biden and Trump! Charles Wierzbicki Porterville