Secret documents: what sets the Trump and Biden cases apart

Rehoboth Beach is a beach town on the Atlantic coast in the US state of Delaware. Joe Biden has a weekend home there, which he likes to retreat to even after being elected president. It is not extravagant, certainly not compared to Donald Trump’s bombastic residence Mar-a-Lago in chic Palm Beach (Florida).

Since Wednesday, however, the properties of the ex-president and his successor have something in common: they are searched by the FBI for classified documents that do not belong there. The big difference: crates with material were towed from Mar-a-Lago. In Rehoboth Beach, however, the federal police were unable to find anything.

Wednesday’s search was the latest episode in the scandal surrounding confidential government documents that should have been turned over to the National Archives. Trump had nicked them from the White House, while in Biden’s case they were from his time as Barack Obama’s vice president and senator in Delaware.

What happened?

On August 8, 2022, FBI agents appeared in Mar-a-Lago with a search warrant. Last December, a Trump aide informed the National Archives in Washington that documents from the ex-president’s tenure had been found. As a result, the archive received 15 boxes of partly classified material.

The Justice Department and FBI were alarmed and began an investigation into whether Donald Trump had “hidden away” any other secret documents in Florida. Evidence soon surfaced that there were actually more crates in Mar-a-Lago. Trump and his lawyers blocked all requests, which is why there was a raid in August.

On November 2, classified papers were also discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a Washington think tank founded at the initiative of the current president. The reason was the evacuation of a private office that Joe Biden had moved to in 2017 after the end of his term as vice president.

The discovery was only made known in early January by a message from the CBS television channel. Further documents were subsequently discovered in Biden’s private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, including in a garage. On January 20, according to his attorney Bob Bauer, it was searched by the FBI for 13 hours, with the president’s permission.

How many documents are involved?

The exact number is not known. In the case of Joe Biden, there should be relatively few. At least, that’s how his special adviser Richard Sauber put it. According to CNN, they have implications for foreign countries, including Britain, Iran and Ukraine. Sauber stressed that he “notified the Justice Department immediately” after the discovery.

At Mar-a-Lago, the FBI seized a total of 33 boxes of materials, in addition to the 15 handed over in January. According to American media, about 300 secret documents have been found with Donald Trump. Photos show some marked “top secret”. This would be a serious breach of archiving regulations.

However, critics point out that the US authorities and secret services practiced an almost excessive cult of secrecy. Even relatively harmless things can be classified as “confidential” – the lowest level of classification. Documents on Trump’s then-Vice President Mike Pence were also promptly discovered.

What does Biden say?

After the Florida raid, the president called his predecessor’s behavior “irresponsible.” Now criticism is falling back on him, which was also due to Joe Biden’s sometimes flippant response to the finds. He explained that the garage in his house was always locked, after all, he parked his 1967 Corvette there.

What does Trump say?

As usual, he described himself as a victim of a witch hunt. On Fox News, Trump claimed that a president could release material even by thinking about it. After finding Biden, he asked the FBI to search his homes, “maybe even the White House.” Which is somewhat absurd and therefore typical of Trump.

What is the difference?

Joe Biden’s response to the finds may have been casual, but he and his staff have always cooperated with the judiciary and the National Archives on this matter. He himself had begun searches of his private residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach. Donald Trump, on the other hand, put himself on the map and, as usual, presented himself as a victim.

What happens now?

In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith, a special counsel, to investigate not only Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, but also his role in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. After finding the Biden- documents, Garland went on to Special Prosecutor Robert Hur.

Given the difficult situation with a former and incumbent president, the minister had little choice. The question is therefore whether there will be any criminal prosecution at all. In the case of Donald Trump, this would be secondary. He has plenty of other legal issues.

At the political level, the situation is different. The Republicans, who have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, want to tackle several investigations into Joe Biden and his administration. This also applies to the secret documents. A “damage assessment” will be conducted, Ohio Congressman Mike Turner said.

Last but not least, the fact that the documents were found in the Washington think tank a little less than a week before the congressional elections, in which Biden and the Democrats fared much better than expected, sparked outrage among Republicans. Some Republicans suspect that the find was deliberately covered up for this reason.

This is not the only reason the case is uncomfortable for the president. Without the affair, he would probably have already announced whether he would participate again in 2024. Now the Democrats have to wait for “smoke signals” from the White House. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has already submitted his renewed candidacy for president.