NewsNation host and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams made the case that Donald Trump shouldn’t be charged over the Mar-a-Lago documents scandal in light of everything that has happened with President Joe Biden’s classified documents.
In a commentary at the outset of his Monday show, Abrams made reference to the news that the Department of Justice found even more classified documents and sensitive materials after conducting a search through Biden’s house in Delaware. As he broke down the search’s implications, Abrams said, “I am finally convinced… the DOJ won’t, or probably shouldn’t, prosecute Donald Trump in connection with the documents found at Mar-a-Lago.”
“This coming from someone who believes Donald Trump almost certainly committed a crime with the way he tried to keep the documents from the National Archives and the DOJ,” Abrams said. “It’s not just that classified material keeps popping up in Biden’s homes and offices; it’s also what Biden has said both about his own situation and that of Donald Trump.”
After rolling footage of Democrats criticizing Biden’s handling of documents, Abrams acknowledged the president’s compliance with investigators represents a big legal difference between his situation and Trump’s. Nonetheless, Abrams was exasperated when he aired Attorney General Merrick Garland’s response to both cases.
“C’mon! When you talk about prosecuting the former president of the United States and investigating the current one, it can’t be just about the definitions of criminal statutes,” Abrams said. “Both of these cases stem from the former president and former vice president not taking classified material seriously enough. In both cases, they kept dozens of documents they weren’t supposed to have, and if you are going to charge for that, you better be able to explain to the public why it’s so serious that a former, or theoretically current, president should get charged for it.”
From there, Abrams recalled Biden’s 60 Minutes interview where he called Trump’s handling of documents “totally irresponsible.” This, Abrams said, was undercut by Biden’s lack of contrition, and how he “doesn’t seem to be taking any of this that seriously at all.”
When you are talking about the intersection of politics and the law, where any decision is so monumental, it has to be with completely clean hands. And there are a lot of questions about Biden’s situation, including why he didn’t disclose it publicly for two months…
Biden probably can’t be charged because he is president, and maybe he wouldn’t or shouldn’t be anyway. But regardless of the underlying situations, but the raison d’etre for these investigations, and now special counsels are so similar that I now believe it’s too hard to distinguish them for the American public, and knowing that Biden almost certainly won’t be charged. I think Trump shouldn’t, or can’t be either.
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