I’m the Judge: Trump, Biden and Confidential Documents
You can listen to this article at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNF5NxQ2phw
This is a new series on the website titled "I’m the Judge" in which I give my verdict on a contentious situation. The purpose of this series is to bring a fresh outlook to situations where I believe that they are needed. This is why I think it's important that I'm starting this series with the topical issue of both Former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden mishandling confidential documents. I feel that this is an interesting first topic to give my verdict on as I will approach this issue on two levels, the legal and the moral. Before undertaking this, I will briefly outline the key facts of both cases, with much of the factual information coming from this BBC comparative article (1).
Trump's Case
The issue began when the National Archive contacted Trump's office in regard to some notable documents that it was not in possession of. They received some cooperation but were not convinced by the number of documents returned. Thus, on the 8th of August 2022, the FBI conducted a raid on the house of Former President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago in Florida as part of an ongoing investigation into the (then alleged) taking of confidential documents (2). This culminated in the seizure of over 325 documents, with some being marked Secret or Top Secret.
Rather than coming out and admitting fault, Trump went on the offensive by arguing that people were attempting to stop him from running for President in the next election, deeply politicising the issue. Turning the argument from legal to political was a genius move in some respect, as it weaponised the right-wing American press and allowed journalists to construct a narrative of media bias against Trump, built upon the staging of this photo (3).
The simple narrative created by Fox (and others) proved convincing enough to save Trump's popular image among his supporters. This is despite the fact that he ran with the phrase 'Drain the Swamp' to deal with the '"corrupt Federal Government".
Trump's case is one of blatant disregard for the rules alongside some pretty bad hypocrisy. However, it is matched by some equally impressive PR that ultimately provided some damage limitation for his public image. The discovery that Joe Biden was guilty of the same thing also provided Trump with some cover.
Biden's Case
On the 9th of January 2023, the White House revealed that Obama administration documents had been discovered at the Penn Biden Centre after several media reports had been made about the incident. Subsequent searches were conducted at the President's homes on the 11th, reported by the media, uncovering more documents. However, this would not be revealed by the White House until the following day, the 12th. By the 16th of January, CNN had pieced together that documents had been found on 4 separate occasions, the 2nd of November, the 20th of December, and the 12th and 14th of January, with the White House's first statement coming two months after the first discovery (4).
Logically, in this case, the next question we should be asking is, why did Biden's team wait so long to officially announce a statement regarding the discovery of these documents? It could be explained that, if the team waited only days, there would be a legal delay whilst the National Archives (who were alerted immediately) contacted the Justice Department. However, this argument cannot explain the 2-month delay so we must turn to another reason. Thinking politically, Biden and his team were busy rallying Democrat support for the upcoming midterms on the 8th of November. The last thing they would have wanted was a political scandal that the Republicans would have manipulated to gain support for their party (whether Biden's team were cooperating or not). I believe that the delay in an official statement to the public was initially bought about by the midterms, but then put off for as long as they possibly could. It wasn't until the issue had gathered considerable media coverage that the Biden team decided to release an official statement, and even then they slowly fed information rather than release all the information at once. With both of these cases contextualised, I will now turn to my two key factors mentioned earlier, starting with the legal.
The Legal: Donald Trumps Biden
The close timing between both of these cases has led to the production of a rather crazy article in which Fox attempted to argue that Biden is in more trouble than Trump as he repeatedly violated 18 USC 793 as they attempted to move the documents to an unauthorised location (5). Despite this interesting attempt, Trump broke the same laws so even if the cases were on par they would have to be treated the same. However, they are not the same, as whilst Biden didn't make a public statement, he and his legal team fully cooperated with the National Archives and the Justice Department from day one. On the other hand, Trump tried to get away with it for as long as possible which meant that a raid had to be carried out. The initial crime committed may be similar, but the way these crimes were committed are not the same. Trump's attempt to take no responsibility for his actions will only harm him further down the line.
With Biden, it would be wrong to say that he has not committed a crime. The fact that these documents were not returned when they were supposed to be is (from my understanding of the law) a crime. This is about the extent of Biden's crime that we know of. The concern is that, like Trump, Biden was still using these documents during the Trump administration. If this turns out to be true then Biden's situation gets worse but I still do not believe that it would ever be comparable to Trump's case in terms of illegality.
The Moral of the Story
We don't have to look very far back in the past to see how the US government has reacted to the leaking of classified documents. When Chelsea Manning leaked classified information on American war crimes to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, the former was arrested and the latter went into political asylum. This was the reaction to whistleblowing and releasing documents that should have been public in the first place. The US has always struggled with transparency and this was a clear sign that they take these things very seriously. Now, whilst these cases don't contain people leaking documents, they do contain the mishandling of sensitive information from the highest office holder in the country. Both cases show that these individuals should be held to the highest standard, and scrutinised completely (as the special counsels are doing). The reason for this is that the President must always be better than the best and completely beholden to the law. It is not that I expect 100% all the time, but this level of carelessness from Biden (and recklessness from Trump) should never happen from the President.
I believe this leads neatly into the counter-argument for my argument. People have countered my stance on this issue by arguing that, as Joe Biden has remained cooperative throughout, the cases are nowhere near the same. Whilst I will admit this is perfectly true in the eyes of the law, the fact that the White House delayed making a statement on the issue and Biden so sanctimoniously mocked Trump for having documents in his home (6) makes the moral side of the story so problematic for me. I believe that the whole thing shouldn't happen in the first place, there should be more care and due diligence put in place to ensure these files are treated properly. Particularly in Biden's case, as he seemingly forgot he had the files and no one chased him up on them either. The carelessness that is required from multiple parties to even allow this to happen is (in my opinion) unacceptable for those that are in the highest positions. I am fully aware that everyone makes mistakes, but unfortunately, there are jobs where those mistakes should be marginal at best. This is why it is not easy being President, the job comes with standards that are honestly not being met by both of the individuals in this article. At the end of the day, both Biden and Trump should be held to account for their actions and should equally face criticism for their actions. The moral attitudes of both men is unpresidential, however, at least Biden has the decency to cooperate with the authorities, something that makes Trump's situation a whole lot more damaging.