Obama won’t say if he’s looking for classified documents as NYT says Trump is now harder to prosecute

Barack Obama’s spokesman on Tuesday declined to say whether the former president was searching their homes for classified documents, as The New York Times reported that prosecuting Donald Trump for file mishandling could be complicated by Joe’s own classified chaos. Biden.

With the saga of classified documents growing: Trump stalled for 15 months and is now being investigated by a special counsel; Biden said he has “no regrets”, however five searches have now turned up documents: on Tuesday it emerged that Mike Pence, the former vice president, had found classified documents in his own Indiana home.

Obama’s communications director, Hannah Hankins, was asked Tuesday about foxnews if he was also searching their houses.

“We don’t have anything for you right now,” he told the channel.

Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump (right) are under investigation by special counsel for their handling of classified material.

George W. Bush’s office has said that he handed over all classified documents upon leaving the White House.

Some legal experts have concluded that Biden’s clumsy handling of classified material could make it more difficult to prosecute Trump, though the cases appear to be very different.

Biden and his team alerted the Justice Department to the presence of the files and turned them over, while Trump spent months arguing over the circumstances of his own papers.

“Politically, he has effectively freed former President Donald J. Trump for hoarding secret documents,” Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, wrote.

David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Obama, told Baker that while the actions of Trump and Biden were radically different, “in the court of public opinion” they can be perceived as the same.

At least some documents were found in Biden’s garage at his Wilmington, Delaware, home. Biden’s sons Beau and Hunter rebuilt the car for him

A box labeled ‘Important Doc’s + Photos’ appears to have been left unsealed on a table at President Joe Biden’s Delaware home.

In the photo, some of the classified documents found in Mar-a-Lago, after the raid on August 8.

The latest poll shows that American voters believe that both Biden and Trump are to blame, though most concede that Trump’s actions were more egregious.

Among those surveyed by ABC News and Ipsos, 77 percent said Trump acted inappropriately by handling classified documents, and 64 percent said Biden had.

Trump is seizing the moment to downplay his own behavior and insists he is being treated unfairly, telling supporters at a rally Tuesday that he was “hunted” by a “Trump-deranged” special counsel, while Biden ” white is being given.” glove treatment.’

Stanley M. Brand, a Washington D.C. lawyer who previously served as House general counsel, told the newspaper that Trump may well challenge the process.

“There’s also the issue of selective prosecution — treating similar cases differently based on suspicious classification or criteria,” Brand said, adding that Merrick Garland, the attorney general, was now in the difficult position of being appointed by Biden and supervise the special. investigating lawyer.

“I would argue that as a presidential appointee, he is conflicted,” he said.

“A conflict that cannot be resolved by the appointment of a special counsel, since according to the regulation of the Department of Justice, he retains the final responsibility.”