Victor Davis Hanson
From special counsel Robert Hur, the twin Biden special prosecutor to the Trump prosecutor Jack Smith, the nation would learn of the sloppy storage of the Biden documents and their multiple unsecured locations. And, in addition, Biden discussed their classified contents with his own ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer. The latter lacked a security clearance. And he would soon destroy his subpoenaed taped conversation revealing such violations. Yet Zwonitzer was never charged with obstruction of justice. He lamely claimed he destroyed subpoenaed tapes to prevent “hacking,” on the logic that “I myself must commit a known felony to prevent a possible felony by others.”
So, there was indeed asymmetry: Trump was soon indicted without mitigating circumstances by a Biden DOJ-appointed special counsel Jack Smith, while another Biden special counsel Hur was constantly making allowances for Biden.
Note the official reasons why Merrick Garland ordered the FBI raid (followed in italics by the similar exposure that could have easily led to indictments of Biden):
- “Violations of the Espionage Act regarding unauthorized retention of national defense information” (But Hur also noted that Biden’s classified documents in his possession implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods,” and revealed secrets of military and foreign policy, especially about the war in Afghanistan);
- “destroying or concealing records ‘with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence’ federal government activity” (But Mark Zwonitzer knowingly destroyed subpoenaed tapes of his conversation with Biden that revealed felony violations and yet was not charged);
- “Illegal removal or destruction of federal government records (without respect to cause)” (Again, Biden did it for far longer, in far more locations, in far less secure places, and came forward only when his DOJ/FBI was raiding Trump’s home for similar crimes).
The ghostwriter was accorded a laxity reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s earlier massive destruction of subpoenaed emails.
Biden was described by Hur as knowingly violating the law but exempted because Hur absurdly believed that he was too demented to be taken seriously by a jury and would instead appear empathetically as a bumbling grandpa (as if Biden was too incapacitated to stand trial, but not senile enough to continue as president).
Hur, remember, was tasked to assess guilt or innocence, not psychoanalyze a mythical jury on the basis of his diagnosis of the cognitive inability of Biden.
And finally, Garland resisted a (Republican) congressional subpoena to turn over tapes of Biden-Hur conservations. Yet he was never charged by his own DOJ in the way it had jailed both Trump aides Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for the same “crimes” of resisting a (Democratic) congressional subpoena.
In sum, over the next two years, the FBI raid was seen increasingly as excessive and unfair, 1) given the laxity extended to Biden, 2) given the exemption accorded Garland for ignoring a congressional subpoena, 3) given the partisan appointment of special counsel Jack Smith, and 4) given the details surrounding the arrogance and excesses that the FBI displayed in the raid, and the mere 102 classified files that supposedly justified such an operation.
The raid, then, confirmed that the FBI was weaponized, the DOJ was biased, the twin special prosecutors treated Biden differently from Trump, and the FBI had never before conducted such a raid and likely never would again.
The Mar-a-Lago raid initially hurt Trump, given the media sensationalism. For example, in a Quinnipiac poll of November 2022, 6 in 10 Americans (57%) polled it was unfortunate that Trump was running again; only 34% claimed a third Trump candidacy was a good thing.
But the more the Biden administration went after Trump, and the more the bias inherent in such lawfare was undeniable, the more Trump would soon rebound in 2023.
As details slowly emerged of the archival raid and dispute, Trump would soon be seen as rightly suspicious of the Biden administration in general, and in particular the weaponization of America’s supposedly disinterested government agencies.
And his resurrection would only grow stronger, as the unhinged Left hounded him out.
Discussion (1)
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The Reagan Library has a form you can fill out to request a document be declassified and released to a researcher. They gave two examples of one-of-a-kind letters then raided in fishing expedition fashion Mar a Lago and took everything they could get their hands on without verifying if originals or copies. They refused to let Trump know what they took when he is still the owner of his papers. The Archivist is an administrative function. The raid sealed in my mind the image of life under Marxism. From that point on, nothing would have kept me from supporting Trump. Our feckless politicians yawned and once-trusted pundits clutched their pearls.. Returning Trump to power was the only cure I had left to defeat and end lawfare.