Just when you thought he was over, irrelevant at last, about to ride into the sunset, it looks like Donald Trump may make another mucus-slimed slide out of trouble and back into the limelight.
We really thought we had him. All the legal pundits on MSNBC said this documents thing was the low hanging fruit. Slam dunk. Maybe fomenting insurrection would be hard to prove, but the documents thing was black and white, an open and shut case.
And it is. I’m no expert, but I did once play a US Army Counterintelligence Special Agent, for real, not just on TV. So I know a little more about this stuff than the average bear. Even if you are the president or the vice president of the United States, you don’t take this stuff home.
When referring, ad infinitum, to the Trump document fiasco, my MSNBC friends were only too gleeful to pronounce, “If this were you or I, we’d be in jail.” But now, oh boy, the Biden miscue is “apples and oranges.”
But it’s not “apples and oranges.” It’s exactly the same. Whatever the motivations, whatever the differences in cooperating to return things, whatever the potential exposure to viewing by unauthorized people, classified information was mishandled. And while not always a crime, that’s always a very serious infraction.
Poor Merrick Garland. His open and shut case, which, perhaps thankfully for Biden, he’s taking forever to shut, has become incredibly more politicized and more complicated. I don’t think he has any choice but to appoint another special counsel to investigate this matter. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and whoever is responsible for this should face the music.
As for Biden, he’s probably shielded from prosecution by being a sitting president. But, from the political standpoint he should immediately step forward and take full responsibility. That way he could be fined and Trump could be fined and our hopes of seeing Trump in that orange jumpsuit will have to rest on the shoulders of that Georgia DA. If Biden doesn’t, and the White House attempts to point fingers at underlings, that will be the end of any chance of him winning a second term.
©2023, David B Bucher
Note: Shortly after this was posted, Merrick Garland did appoint a special counsel
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