In what may be considered the first shot across the bow, newly installed GOP chair of the House Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer (R-KY), on Tuesday requested copies of documents found at the Biden office, apparently left there after Biden left the vice presidency in 2017 and began his presidential run in 2019. This request, which Bided admitted he was surprised by, begins the GOP’s aim to put their mark on the House.
Undoubtedly, this revelation will be used by the GOP and Trump to counter Biden’s charges that Trump mishandled government top-security documents, although exactly what is in the classified records has not been disclosed.
Unlike Trump, Biden thus far has not resisted and has been willing to cooperate; moreover, there is the matter of how many documents were found compared to what Trump had taken to Mar-a-Lago—approximately 300 documents, including several top-secret ones. Later, after the Justice Department and the FBI visited Trump’s Florida estate, 33 boxes were confiscated.
Another difference between the two incidents is that Biden is currently the president and thus immune while in office. Trump, on the other hand, is no longer in office, and could face charges of obstruction because he sought to block the retrieval of the documents.
A distinct difference between the two situations, other than we know Trump’s veracity has been questioned again and found wanting, is that he was supposed to have turned over his presidential records to the National Archives, but was informed that some items were missing. No one was aware of any missing documents from Biden’s vice presidential term and once those documents were found at the Biden Penn Center, White House counsel immediately informed the National Archives.
Meanwhile, unlike the discovery of the Biden documents, Trump’s documents are under criminal investigation with indications that possibly three crimes were involved in the mishandling of sensitive government records.
This is certain to be a contentious drama played out by Trump and Biden, with Trump already claiming a double standard on the issue—and a double standard is something he ought to be intimately familiar with.
Stay tuned.