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Anna Moneymaker

It doesn’t take much to grasp the difference between the classified documents that were discovered in President Biden’s post-vice presidential office and those found at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

In the former situation, Biden’s lawyers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/09/biden-classified-documents-trump/" target=_blank>found</a> around 10 classified documents in a locked closet at his office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and immediately turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

In the latter, Trump went against the advice of his lawyers, personally went through boxes of documents and withheld dozens of classified documents at unsecured locations at his club. When a grand jury issued a subpoena demanding that they be returned, Trump’s lawyers handed over 38 documents, stating that no other documents were in Trump’s possession. But, as The Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/09/biden-classified-documents-trump/" target=_blank>reported</a>, “an FBI search recovered more than 100 additional classified documents that were not turned over to authorities.”

These scenarios are not remotely equivalent. Yet after news of the documents from Biden’s office emerged on Monday, Republicans rushed forth to scream foul.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mccarthy-reacts-classified-documents-discovered-from-bidens-time-vp-dems-overplayed-hand" target=_blank>declared</a> that Democrats had “overplayed their hands” in their handling of the Mar-a-Lago case and suggested without a scintilla of evidence that Biden’s lawyers did not return the documents immediately upon discovering them. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), head of a new House subcommittee charged with investigating (read: obstructing) ongoing criminal prosecutions, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-center-classified-documents/" target=_blank>insisted</a> something was fishy. “It’s always one set of rules for President Trump — they literally raided his home 91 days before the midterm election — and a different standard it seems with President Biden,” he said.

Republicans are in a tricky spot for two reasons. First, if they decide to investigate the documents at Biden’s office, it’s entirely possible they will find no wrongdoing. And obsessing over a nothingburger is the sort of thing that will remind voters why it’s a bad idea to give MAGA radicals power.

Second, if they insist Biden’s case is super serious, they wind up conceding that Trump’s actions — willful, egregious and aggravated by his own obstruction — are, too. Indeed, if they return to the standard they once used for Hillary Clinton — that no one who mishandles classified information should be president — then Republicans would have to demand that Trump not run for president and agree that he should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

It’s possible that Republicans recognize this problem. McCarthy’s first loyalty is to Trump, who helped get him the speakership, so his preference might be to not keep this story in the headlines. After all, it will only make Trump’s actions look far worse by comparison.

Some Republicans — given the party’s affinity for inventing scandals — might decide to go a slightly different route, claiming that Biden’s lawyers must have waited for the right time to turn over the documents to avoid making it a campaign issue. But this wouldn’t hold water: Biden turned over the documents before the 2022 midterm elections. Moreover, Biden’s team ostensibly returned the documents; Trump did not. (And if you want to talk about concealing information from voters, let me introduce you to Republican <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/09/george-santos-campaign-finance-complaint/" target=_blank>Rep. George Santos</a> of New York.)

Democrats, for their part, should not dismiss the case before all the facts are known. They would be wise to follow the example set by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/politics/classified-documents-joe-biden/index.html" target=_blank>made clear</a> on Monday that any case involving mishandled classified documents is “concerning.”Fortunately, Attorney General Merrick Garland has already designated John R. Lausch Jr., a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, to review the matter.

Finally, the mainstream media should demonstrate that they learned something while meandering into the thicket of false equivalences during the Trump years. Serious reporters should be able to tell the difference between the two cases. But don’t count on it.

University of California at Berkeley, BA in history

University of California at Berkeley, JD

Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post. She is the author of “Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump” and is host of the podcast Jen Rubin's "Green Room."

Jennifer Rubin

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The GOP can’t slam Biden on classified docs without condemning Trump

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The GOP can’t slam Biden on classified documents without condemning Trump