Whereas when Donald Trump smuggles top-secret papers out of the White House, he takes them very capriciously. He apparently just crumpled them up and thoughtlessly tossed them in boxes with other household miscellany. Then the boxes got spread, willy-nilly, all over the tacky, garish grounds of MAGA-Largo.
Joe Biden, then the outgoing vice president, on the other hand carefully folded and sorted classified papers before responsibly removing them from the White House and then securely locking them in a closet in his think tank. That should prove to everyone's satisfaction how thoughtful and serious he is.
And to prove just what a down-home regular guy Joe also is, he even folksily stashed some of the stolen papers in the humble garage of his Delaware home. He reportedly did not store them in his beach house, possibly because, unlike Trump, he knows the dangers of flooding from hurricanes, not to mention the damage that salty air can do to exposed paper.
Feigning surprise that a team of his own lawyers just happened upon the first batch of papers in a closet during the routine performance of their professional duties, Biden scoffed during a Mexico summit press conference, in a non-admission admission that "People know that I take classified information seriously."
As Biden is fond of insisting before many a misleading statement: "No joke". He gives you his word as a Biden that he has no idea what's even in the purloined classified documents. As long as he knows people who know, what more do you want of him? If you're not one of those people who know, then you ain't human. The same way that if you're an African-American and you didn't vote for him, you ain't Black.
The weird similarity between the discovery of Trump's stolen documents and Biden's is that both were accomplished by whole teams of lawyers - rather than, say office assistants or household cleaners. Either the job description of lawyers has radically changed, or else mere servants simply aren't good enough for presidents. Just being speculative here, but when you're a former or current president with a consciousness of guilt, it seems that using whole armies of expensive private attorneys to ethically discover your booty before the cops do is a fine way of shielding yourself you from any culpability - before, during or after the crime.
But, hidden deep within the New York Times article on the second garage discovery, lies the real crux of this story.
The inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter, is a type aimed at helping Attorney General Merrick B. Garland decide whether to appoint a special counsel, like the one investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s hoarding of sensitive documents and failure to return all of them.
The all-too-convenient discovery of the stolen documents on two of Biden's properties may give the Justice Department just the excuse it needs not to prosecute Trump for his own thefts as they go through the serious motions of investigating Biden.* They probably don't have a case. It would be uncomfortable for Garland to prosecute The Donald without also charging Uncle Joe. The Republicans would only play their hypocrisy card were Biden to be given a pass when Trump went to trial. These two sticky-fingered presidents may just end up canceling each other right out. We can put it behind us, turn the page, go forward and not backward.
It's also possible that Team Biden simply created the classified documents drama as a way to deflect attention from his son Hunter's own legal troubles and imminent GOP attacks and congressional hearings. By coming clean on his own misdeeds, Joe Biden aims to be seen as seriously and nobly and pre-emptively copping to innocent mistakes that were made, in an aw-shucks kind of way. He's shielding his kid by pretending to fall on his own sword.
Since it is still theoretically possible to fool some of the people most of the time, or at least most of the people some of the time, Biden can even use his trademark motto ("Here's the deal, Folks!") to market the latest diversionary product in his Battle For the Soul of Our Nation franchise.
 |
| Dems Vs. GOP: The Play's the Thing, Or "You Can Bring a Sword to a Gunfight!" |
*After I posted this, Garland did indeed appoint a special counsel to investigate Biden's stash of classified documents. The appointment gives the appearance of fairness and equity with Trump's own ongoing special counsel probe. It's probably only a matter of time before someone dubs this "GarageGate" - because Biden's immediate goofy defense argument was that his expensive Corvette is in the same hallowed space as the second stash of documents. And if he keeps his precious car so secure, then the documents adjacent to the car must be secure, too. Seriously.
Biden took those documents to his think tank sometime after it opened, and thus two years after leaving office. Why? They were about the subjects of the think tank's work, as described in the press so far. He selected them from somewhere else he's stored them, and moved them to his think tank for use there.
ReplyDeleteIt cannot be meaningless that ultra-secret papers were taken to a think tank promoting its views and information on those very subjects.
This puts the papers in the same category as those Gen Petraeus misused to sell his view of his role to his biographer. That was deemed a serious matter, criminal, and he was prosecuted and sentenced.
Could also be a sneaky way of getting both of these losers out of the running for 2024:
ReplyDeleteFind them both guilty of the felony of taking home and storing classified material and sentence them both to "community service" like Sandy Berger. They cannot legally run for office again.
Or better yet, sentence them to six years in prison:
https://www.foxnews.com/story/former-nsa-analyst-gets-6-years-in-prison-for-taking-documents
I am convinced Merrick Garland still wants that seat on the Supreme Court so he maintains an aura of impartiality.
In any event, since they were not seized by storm troopers but by Biden's own lawyers, many details of the discovery of Biden's documents may now be protected by attorney-client privilege. Joe is a pro.
ReplyDeleteBiden wants to talk about what he did after he got caught, instead of what he got caught doing.
ReplyDeleteWhat did he get caught doing?
In any system, there are things missed. That is why programers must debug coding, and why attorneys do risk assessment even for good cases, and why investors hedge even good bets and insurers re-insure even good risks.
There was an eight year flood of classified documents going to the VP. In DC, they seem to classify almost everything, so the volume was enormous. It would not surprise anyone that in closing down, they missed a few pieces of paper from that flood.
But is that what happened? Biden's office at his think tank opened in 2018, two years after he left office. These documents followed him to there. They were in his new office. Why? Who used them? Who saw them? Where did that information appear in the work product of Biden's think tank? Where did it appear in the fund raising for that think tank?
These are questions that can be asked under oath. Testifying. Even if the answers are benign somehow, the process is a problem. AND the answers are likely to be embarrassing, because there likely was some reason those secrets made the trip to his new think tank office two years after Biden left the VP office.
Asking is bad. The answers might be worse. So talk about something else, about what somebody else did to clean it up after he got caught.
I hope Biden's personal attorneys checked under his mattress, in the freezer, in the trunk of his Corvette and in the shoe box on the closet shelf.
ReplyDelete"CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU?" Toody and Muldoon could have done a better job than this drip, drip, drip. Isn't that what the FBI is for? Scour the premises top to bottom?
It feels hinky to me. It's not the crime as much as the coverup that gets 'em. It might look like a bumbling mess, but I think not. Attorney-Client privilege is working it's magic and Merrick Garland did his part by giving Biden's legal team plenty of time and space to do that. Biden claims to know nothing of course and hides behind his lawyers.
Why were Joe's personal attorneys at the PennBiden Center doing routine housekeeping in the first place? Were they anticipating an investigation related to Ukraine and stumbled upon classified documents? Otherwise, why pay $500/hr lawyers to look through old files? Biden's legal team even discovered and grabbed the last batch of classified documents AFTER Garland appointed a special counsel. Red flag.
Context is important. What else was in those boxes, especially those in the garage? That's where kids who've left home leave their stuff or where they want to hide stuff from the prying eyes of the law or a Republican subpoena. Biden already has a home office, the PennBiden Center, and the University of Delaware (which is keeping Biden's papers top secret) for his stuff. It's absurd that Garland would let Biden's own personal attorneys do the search and sift, like Hillary's personal lawyers did with Servergate - but obviously not how Trump was handled. The coverup could be the most interesting and revealing part.
Was Hunter given some classified files to help him with the Biden family business of influence peddling? That is the privilege of the powerful after all, as the Clintons well know. I suspect this all relates to Hunter and good old Dad protecting his son and the family business of which his brother is also a part. Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.
"No one messes with a Biden." We'll see.
I bet they forgot to check under the couch cushions.
ReplyDeleteannenigma -- "Why were Joe's personal attorneys at the PennBiden Center doing routine housekeeping in the first place? Were they anticipating an investigation related to Ukraine"
ReplyDeleteVery good point. Also in context, Ukraine was for the whole time one of the most corrupt places on the planet, and wallowing in all that corruption was Hunter's most important playground. "The Big Guy" was a major player in Ukraine events as VP, all at the same time.
It is a good guess that the war there today and a lot of Hunter's money are somehow linked back to corruption hidden in those boxes.
Who is going to check the 40 truck loads of Obama papers, stashed for nearly six years in an old furniture warehouse oin Chicago?? We aren't even told what NARA is doing to store them.
ReplyDeleteTrump hid his papers at Mar-a-Lago. Biden stored his papers in his garage. Who knows where Obama's and Bush II's papers are these days? The divided Republicans are in chaos but the united Democrats are governing. Frightening what's happening in America today.
ReplyDelete"These two sticky-fingered presidents may just end up canceling each other right out." That is certainly the impression I get. Both have scummy children who operate on the borders of legality and think they are above the law, both steal documents, both have dementia - the list goes on and on.
ReplyDeleteAnd instead of governing, the two major parties are name calling and flinging accusations at each other, ignoring their own hypocrisy.
I like the idea that Anonymous brought up, "Could also be a sneaky way of getting both of these losers out of the running for 2024." We can only hope. Sadly, instead of good governance, we will just get two more corrupt posers doing the bidding of the MIC and the oligarchy.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is in a strong position as Minority Leader of the House. He didn't make deals to replace Nancy Pelosi as leader of the Democratic Caucus. Rep. Kevin McCarthy dealt away his power and bent his knee to followers of Trump and Maga. McCarthy, power diminished, won his fight to become Speaker of the house on the 15th ballot. We're seeing Hakeem Jeffries wearing the mantle of former President Barack Obama and the "yes, we can" activism in the House. Time will tell if Hakeem Jeffries will wield the power of Mr. Obama in our history.
ReplyDeleteRep. Hakeem Jeffries is in a strong position as Minority Leader of the House. He didn't make deals to replace Nancy Pelosi as leader of the Democratic Caucus. Rep. Kevin McCarthy dealt away his power and bent his knee to followers of Trump and Maga. McCarthy, power diminished, won his fight to become Speaker of the house on the 15th ballot. We're seeing Hakeem Jeffries wearing the mantle of former President Barack Obama and the "yes, we can" activism in the House. Time will tell if Hakeem Jeffries will wield the power of Mr. Obama in our history.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteJeremy Scahill: Biden & Trump Scandals Point to Deeper Problems with Overclassification of Gov’t Docs --
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/1/24/biden_trump_classified_documents
January 24, 2023
"We speak with The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill about the brewing scandals over the handling of classified documents by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, and how they “point to deeper systemic problems with Washington’s obsession with secrecy.” While the details differ, Scahill says both cases show powerful players in Washington who routinely mishandle classified documents face different rules than whistleblowers who have endured the full brunt of the law for exposing government secrets in the public interest."