Posted on 01/10/2023 9:51:34 AM PST by SeekAndFind
“Really?” Poppy Harlow exclaimed. Yes, really. Theoretically, the Department of Justice could still charge Donald Trump over his alleged criminal violations in keeping classified documents.
In reality, though, Merrick Garland would have to explain why he’s not charging Joe Biden for the same crimes, as CNN legal analyst John Miller explains. They may not be the same situation, but it’s close enough to make it awkward:
DON LEMON: I said that last night, it puts Merrick Garland in a very odd position. Did they know this was coming? This was November? I said, well, you know, look, I’m just asking here. Maybe Merrick Garland didn’t. Everyone’s wondering why he didn’t act, did he know this was coming?
JOHN MILLER: The White House knows how to get news out fast and they know how to get news out slow. The idea that we went through the contretemps of last week and once that was all clear, you know, they announced this probably, you know, speaks for itself in terms of analysis.
KAITLAN COLLINS: I’m so interested that you said it helps Trump because I was talking to people close to his legal team yesterday and they were saying this is a huge gift to them because they believe, you know, politically speaking, of course, the obstruction is obviously the big part of the Trump story. He resisted for so long, turning them over. But they believe it helps make their argument that it’s pretty easy actually, to innocently and mistakenly perhaps take classified documents. Does that actually hold up in court?
JOHN MILLER: So it doesn’t hold up in logic.
KAITLAN COLLINS: But does it hold up in court?
JOHN MILLER: Let alone court. Sure, it holds up in court as an argument. But, you know, the law is clear on on both. It’s just, you know, the balancing act of you’ve got a special prosecutor, you know, Jack Smith, who’s going to is going to make a recommendation, and then the attorney general is going to have to make a decision. And these developments have put him in a very awkward place in terms of the decision-making.
The two situations aren’t identical, at least at the moment, but they don’t appear to be different enough to matter politically. Miller also notes that there is an obstruction charge that could be brought against Trump, an element that doesn’t appear to be present in this instance, at least not yet. To charge obstruction without an underlying criminal charge on the document retention itself would be even more awkward, however.
Another CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor Katie Cherkasky, points out more explicitly the difference on obstruction. However, she also notes that the underlying crimes are too similar to ignore for prosecutors, and perhaps for a court as well:
CHERKASKY: I think in terms again of the obstruction, that is not present in this case. But the mishandling of classified documents — if that is an offense that is being looked at, that happens at the time the documents are removed, potentially, if they’re done so under inappropriate circumstances. So that part of it is more nuanced, and legally I think those analyses are much more similar. …
I think that Merrick Garland is in a difficult position. … Ultimately, I think there’s going to need to be a special counsel appointed to look into whether this is a criminal offense or whether this is something that is prosecutable.
The problem for the crowd — mainly in the media — screeching that Trump’s obstruction makes this different is the precedent set by the DoJ for Hillary Clinton. Her use of an unauthorized home-brew e-mail system resulted in the retention of thousands of classified documents/data for up to six years or more. Clinton’s motive for employing this system for her official e-mails was clearly to obstruct Congressional review of her communications at State. Furthermore, she directed underlings to strip classified markings from documents before transmitting them, which is itself illegal and demonstrative of obstruction. When confronted, Clinton refused to grant access to the e-mail server, and then erased half of the 65,000-plus emails before granting access to the FBI, claiming that they were personal in nature. That also is a demonstratively obstructive act. And yet the DoJ refused to charge or prosecute Clinton, claiming some fig leaf of “intent” that doesn’t exist anywhere in statute and that her behavior completely contradicted anyway.
So Merrick Garland’s decision was already awkward even before this latest development belatedly emerged. Now we have a sitting president who as VP apparently did exactly what Trump is being accused of doing, and without the authority to commit even a pretense of declassification. If Garland presses forward on a prosecution against a Republican candidate while taking a pass on two Democrats for the same crime, it’s going to look very, very political. And after that, it will be Katy-bar-the-door in the next Republican administration for political prosecutions, and that next Republican administration may be a lot closer than Biden and the media think.
NYT, WaPo, and CNN hardest hit. MSNBC is too small to take a hit. Ron Klain is frantically texting all his “journa[list]” friends trying to coordinate a narrative that will work. If one falls flat they try another. WSJ is trying to sound bi-partisan, while excusing Biden, and miserably failing.
Isn’t this fun to watch?
Never,never,*ever* underestimate the depravity of The Big Guy's puppet masters and their willing co-conspirators.
When the hell are we going to see an FIB raid on the White House?! This is BS. Jo jo the Pedo Clown is NOT above the law. Lock him up!
“Never,never,*ever* underestimate the depravity of The Big Guy’s puppet masters and their willing co-conspirators”.
Right on the button! That’s the fact of the matter.
“In reality, though, Merrick Garland would have to explain why he’s not charging Joe Biden for the same crimes”
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Yup I laughed my azz off when this news broke, once again demonstrating the blatant hypocrisy of the Dems.
Time for the college dropouts in the far-left “mainstream media” to get ready to pull Brandon’s chestnuts out of the fire again.
Paving the way for Harris.
Intel memos on Iran, Ukraine among docs found at Biden office: report"MEXICO CITY — President Biden declined again to answer reporter questions Tuesday morning about the discovery of classified documents at his former think tank office as a new report indicated the sensitive information included intelligence memos and other material on topics including Ukraine and Iran."
Wrong. The corrupt DOJ could care less about the double standard.
Why does Biden even HAVE classified documents at UPenn? Isn’t his position there ostensibly teaching? He doesn’t need classified/secret documents there for that.
‘Member when the libs claimed Trump kept the documents at Palm Beach because he was going to offer them to the Russians for a price?
Guess what!?
I assume this is the classic case of the Democrats (falsely) accusing Republicans of doing what they’re ACTUALLY doing (for the Chi-coms).
Hey, I’d take them bringing criminal charges against Trump if they also brought the same criminal charges against Biden.
“And after that, it will be Katy-bar-the-door in the next Republican administration for political prosecutions...”
Author obviously isn’t familiar with Republicans at all. They will do nothing, no matter how much the Democrats abuse their power to politically prosecute Republicans.
I can't help however from thinking they released this admission to dampen an even really bigger issue about to drop on the public (unless the FBI at Twitter, Washington Post, New York Times, Google, Facebook, YouTube and the LA Times can write it out in algorithms like "Infoporize" mist)
Nice of cnn to say that. But they don’t know biden and his armed gestapo. They don’t care about fairness or right or wrong. They will do what the self-pooping mass of decrepitude tells them to do.
Let’s not forget...they impeached President Trump over a phone call.
The Gaslight Media is having a problem with this.
Well, c’mon, Obama has hundreds of pages still being withheld from the archives. His criminal behavior has never been used as an excuse to let anyone else off.
How soon we forget:
“no reasonable prosecutor’ would bring a case against ...”
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