Special Counsel: The Hur Report Is Bad for Trump, Actually
Special counsel Jack Smith argued Monday that a blistering report on Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents actually demonstrates just how bad Donald Trump’s handling of sensitive material is.
Smith indicted Trump in June for hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Trump claimed two weeks ago that the charges are part of a pattern of selective prosecution by attorneys working at the behest of the Biden administration. Trump had argued that his behavior was no worse than that of Biden, who was found to have kept classified documents after leaving the vice presidency.
Smith’s team said in a Monday court filing that the report on Biden shows that the two cases are not comparable at all.
“There has never been a case in American history in which a former official has engaged in conduct remotely similar to Trump’s,” assistant special counsel David Harbach wrote.
“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. Indeed, the comparators on which they rely are readily distinguishable.”
Trump faces 41 criminal counts for willful retention of national defense information, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, among other things. Smith’s indictment revealed Trump stored the sensitive material in the ballroom and in bathrooms.
Trump also refused to give the documents back, despite requests from the National Archives and urging from his lawyers. The material wasn’t recovered until the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago in 2021, and even then, Trump may still have some documents hidden in the Palm Beach compound.
The report on Biden’s handling of classified documents, which was released two weeks ago, painted a damning portrait of the president as senile and unable to recall basic facts of his life, including his time as vice president or the death of his son Beau. Special counsel Robert Hur described Biden as having “significant limitations” with his memory. But Hur also found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and did not issue charges against Biden. Biden also made sure to cooperate fully with the investigation.
“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 wrote in his filing. “And the evidence concerning the two men’s intent—whether they knowingly possessed and willfully retained such documents—is also starkly different.”