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Jack Smith Wants You to Know That Joe Biden's Classified Docs Issue Is WAY Different Than Donald Trump's: It has to do with Trump's and Biden's post-retention behavior.
Red State ^ | 02/28/2024 | Susie Moore

Posted on 02/28/2024 8:47:24 PM PST by SeekAndFind

One of the key facets of presenting legal arguments involves drawing parallels and distinctions between circumstances and parties. In large part, this is due to the significant role played by legal precedent in our justice system.

Precedent refers to a court decision that is considered as authority for deciding subsequent cases involving identical or similar facts, or similar legal issues. Precedent is incorporated into the doctrine of stare decisis and requires courts to apply the law in the same manner to cases with the same facts. Some judges have stated that precedent ensures that individuals in similar situations are treated alike instead of based on a particular judge’s personal views.

Even non-lawyers understand the importance of ensuring that those similarly situated receive similar treatment. Ideally, Lady Justice is blind, and the law's application to all is unbiased. We do not, of course, live in an ideal world or operate with an ideal system — but we should strive to. 

Enter one current and one former president — both vying for that office again this November — both of whom find themselves in a classified documents pickle. Both are accused of having (improperly) retained — and improperly stored — classified documents. Both have been on the receiving end of a special counsel investigation into these matters. One is being criminally prosecuted. One is being patted on the head and escorted to an easy chair. 

The release of Special Counsel Robert Hur's Report regarding President Joe Biden's alleged mishandling of classified documents in early February caused a stir in multiple ways: On the one hand, Hur's recommendation against prosecution, even while acknowledging Biden's actions broke the law, seemed to be giving Biden a pass. On the other hand, Hur's rationale for giving that pass — namely, that Biden is too old and forgetful to expect a jury to hold him accountable for his misdeeds — severely undermines Biden's candidacy (and, for that matter, justification for remaining in office for the remainder of his term). 


READ MORE: 
Predictable: Special Counsel Lets Biden Off the Hook in Classified Documents Case
Moore to the Point: Sharp Enough to Be President, Dim Enough to Be Absolved
Hawley Presses Garland: 'Either Charge the President' or Tell Biden Cabinet to Invoke 25th Amendment


Understandably, former President Donald Trump's legal team has now pointed to the Hur Report in support of his defense in the criminal classified documents case pending against him in the Southern District of Florida. In a nutshell, the Trump team asserts that the leniency afforded President Biden points to both selective prosecution and vindictive prosecution on the part of Jack Smith as to Trump and is seeking additional discovery on that matter. Smith, however, begs to differ. 

In a reply opposing Trump and his co-defendants' motions to compel discovery (which may be viewed in full below), Smith attempts to draw significant distinctions between Biden's situation and Trump's, largely turning on Trump's purported behavior after the documents became an issue. 

“The defendants have not identified anyone who has engaged in a remotely similar suite of willful and deceitful criminal conduct and not been prosecuted. Nor could they,” assistant special counsel David Harbach wrote.

“Trump, unlike Biden, is alleged to have engaged in extensive and repeated efforts to obstruct justice and thwart the return of documents bearing classification markings,” Harbach added. “And the evidence concerning the two men’s intent — whether they knowingly possessed and willfully retained such documents — is also starkly different.”

...

“There has never been a case in American history in which a former official has engaged in conduct remotely similar to Trump’s,” he wrote.

Now, I'm going to give the prosecution its due here: First, they're doing what they're supposed to do in this type of response — i.e., distinguishing Trump's case from Biden's non-prosecution. Second, there do appear to be differences in Trump's and Biden's post-retention behavior. 

Then again, there were differences in their respective offices at the times the documents in question were retained. And differences in the span of time the documents covered and were retained. (And, the cynics among us might note, the respective political parties of the two...) 

One thing Donald Trump almost has to like about Smith's stance on this matter, however, is the fact that it implicitly acknowledges that he still retains his mental faculties. 

So, to those who claim Trump is only three-and-a-half years younger than Biden and thus, vulnerable to the same age-related criticisms, Trump might cheekily respond: "Yes, but I'm sentient. Even Jack Smith says so." 




TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: biden; classified; crookedjoe; indictment; jacksmith; jerksmith; tds; tdsbs; trump; trumppersecution
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To: SeekAndFind

Excuse me for pointing this little thing out before the howls of the Democrats and anger of Conservatives. Let this just sink in a bit.

Weismann, who seems to be connected to political based DOJ and democrats, helped sink Flynn on ‘obstruction’. This is a common technique, a process violation, that the Democrats so love to use. Presidents have records, they are entitled to them. The government is entitled to the records if they do not have copies. The Trump administration appears to have been compliant in providing using electronic, unlike Obama, and the government had copies of all the records.

This is a ‘we got you’ handmade process crime so that the FBI could seize records of something that Trump believes he gave the order to release, and the government does not want the public to see. Since the “sock drawer record incident” with the Clintons it has become apparent by law, that a POTUS can declassify and keep whatever they want.

These maneuvers by the National Records, Biden Administration, a non-congressional special council, to attempt to convict for a process crime, with records the responsible agencies refused to screen and help care for is the epitome of legal overreach and government abuse that angers people. In my humble opinion, the FBI and the Biden Administration, probably elements of the CIA and the Obama administration, feel that original documents (leverage) in the hands of Donald Trump contained irrefutable proof of high level nefarious and illegal activity. Smith is an attempt to prevent sudden and catastrophic release of information that could lead voters to see things in a new light.

The difference between Biden records and Trump records begin and end with who had a right or responsibility to have them outside of secure areas, what they did to secure them, and if those records were used for personnel financial gain. The impetus for removal being the start. Jack Smith is a “I got you process crime” political operative if he is selling a process crime.


21 posted on 02/29/2024 4:34:11 AM PST by Pete Dovgan
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

As you point out the Biden and Trump cases are actually very different because Trump retained records from his Presidency which are specifically covered under the Presidential Records Act. Jack Smith is correct that there is another huge difference....their behavior. Biden is a democrat. Trump is a J6 MAGA terrorist e.g. a “conservative” republican.


22 posted on 02/29/2024 4:42:42 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: SeekAndFind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyw_rVdvpTs&pp=ygUadGhlIHVuaXRlZCBzcG90IGphY2sgc21pdGg%3D

2 m 31 s


23 posted on 02/29/2024 4:53:57 AM PST by cuz1961 (USCGR Vet, John Adams Descendant , deal with it.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The only REAL difference is that Joe Biden actively SOLD Top Secret information to the CHicoms and Trump didn’t.


24 posted on 02/29/2024 5:37:15 AM PST by eyeamok
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To: monkeyshine

Oh,it’s true, I received it in a fund raising email from Comer and I have read it on Twitter. I suspected all along that Trump had the Ukraine documents from his impeachment. Biden had the rest and the Chinese documents. This is what that fat NY prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, won’t let him talk about.

Now, people are going after Bragg for the Laken Riley murder because he issued saying that immigration authorities should not be notified when a migrant was arrested and the migrant who killed Laken Riley was arrested and released in NY. This is good. Go after him for something entirely separate from Trump.


25 posted on 02/29/2024 6:32:41 AM PST by Eva
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To: SeekAndFind

The difference is The Presidential Records Act which allows former Presidents to retain documents and self declassify them. Biden as Senator and VP had no such powers and thus his slipshod storage of classified documents was clearly illegal. Ditto for Hillary Clinton’s bathroom server.


26 posted on 02/29/2024 6:43:13 AM PST by The Great RJ ( )
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bkmk


27 posted on 02/29/2024 7:49:32 AM PST by Faith65 (Isaiah 40:31 )
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To: SeekAndFind

And gutless Republicans say nothing.


28 posted on 02/29/2024 7:50:24 AM PST by stinkerpot65 (Global warming is a Marxist lie. )
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