No. of Recommendations: 7
Still want to go here?
None of that is present with Clinton or Biden.
Sure about that?Yes and yes.
Again, the criminal statute that Trump probably violated is 18 U.S. Code § 793. You can find a link at the bottom of my post - but in a nutshell, that section of the Code makes it a crime to
refuse to give back national defense material that you possessed legally, when asked to return it by the government.
Neither Biden nor Clinton did that.
Mishandling classified information is often a violation of the rules governing classified information - but many such violations
are not criminal. Only
specific actions are crimes. Taking classified information out of where it is supposed to be kept
for the purpose of giving it to someone not authorized to see it is a crime. Taking classified information out of where it is supposed to be kept
if you have the authority to do that generally is not (there are exceptions); it is a violation of the
non-criminal rules for how classified information is supposed to be treated, but it is not a crime under the relevant statute (18 USC 1924, also linked below).
These are not meaningless distinctions. Section 793 and Section 1924 are two very different statutes, they have very specific and very different elements that need to exist before a crime has been committed, and no one can be prosecuted unless
all of those elements are present. Trump's behavior establishes all of the elements of Section 793 - he lawfully possessed national defense information, but then willfully refused to return it to the government upon the request of an officer or agent of the government. There is some pretty strong evidence that his behavior in failing to return the documents to the government was knowing, intentional, and done for the purpose of wrongfully retaining possession.
Biden and Clinton's behavior does
not establish all of the elements of Section 1924 - although they retained documents at an unauthorized location, they both had the authority to remove the documents from their initial repositories (and there is no evidence of the requisite intent of willful and intentional (not negligent) mishandling of documents necessary to support criminal charges under various other statutes).
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1924
