When his predecessor Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, was raided last August and thousands of government documents were discovered there, including several hundreds of classified papers, US President Joe Biden hardly Would have thought he would find himself in a similar sticky situation. Still, Mr. Biden and the White House have so far reacted calmly to the discovery of classified documents by his own lawyers at several sites, including at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a think tank in Washington, and in garages and other sites. is of. Other rooms in their home in Wilmington, Delaware. Of course, there are significant differences between the cases, which will likely be reflected in the different legal consequences for each of the two classified leaks. First, the Trump stash is reported to be more than 11,000, including about 300 marked classified or top secret, and includes photographs, while papers belonging to Mr Biden are reportedly fewer than 12. Second, after Mr. Biden’s lawyers first discovered the classified files in a locked cell at the think tank, his team voluntarily informed the National Archives and the Department of Justice and are “cooperating fully with the investigation.” In Mr. Trump’s case, after the US National Archives went missing classified records and requested that Mr. Trump return them, he failed to comply and so the matter was turned over to the FBI. Third, while the two leaks are being investigated separately, the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of the documents, but so far there is no indication of willful intent in Mr. Biden’s case and he is a rule-breaker. Protected by the statute that a sitting president cannot be impeached.
Regardless of these facts, it is clear that Mr. Biden’s – or his team’s – improper handling of classified material will cost him politically. Already, polls have found that his job approval rating, which enjoyed a surge late last year, has fallen back to nearly 40% – the all-time low of his presidency. The president also faces difficult questions about why, after the initial discovery of the classified papers on Nov. 2, his team suppressed that information until after the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Similarly, Republicans led by Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy have demanded a congressional investigation into the Biden classified leak. The backlash may well be a blow to Mr Trump’s case for prosecuting him for violating the Espionage Act, even though it appears he deliberately took the classified documents from their proper location and then returned them to Possibly obstructed justice when called.