On Monday, January 9, the White House announced that documents, classified as confidential and dating from the vice-presidency of Joe Biden, were found on the premises of a Washington think tank.
They were discovered by Joe Biden's lawyers when they were emptying the premises, sometimes used as a workplace by the current President of the United States.
The exhibits, whose content Joe Biden claims to be unaware of, were then handed over to the National Archives, an institution responsible for preserving this type of document.
Following the publication of this information, American elected officials could not help but draw a parallel with the investigation targeting confidential documents of Donald Trump.
Some say that the treatment of the two cases will be different between the former and the current tenant of the White House.
What is it really ?
Will the two cases have the same political and legal fallout?
Nicole Bacharan*, specialist in American society and Franco-American relations, responds to
Le Figaro
.
LE FIGARO.
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After the discovery of confidential documents dating from the vice-presidency of Joe Biden, many American elected officials have made the connection between this discovery and the investigation targeting Donald Trump.
Can we say that the cases are similar?
Nicole Bacharan.
- The parallel between the two cases was inevitable.
We are talking about the handling of classified documents.
However, we don't know much today about the documents found at the think tank.
Several questions arise, in particular that on their degree of classification, because there are several, ranging from little classified to secret-defense.
It might add an element of gravity.
If the problem is similar, the two cases remain different.
Unlike Donald Trump, Joe Biden's lawyers, who are responsible for handling this type of situation, notified the National Archives as soon as they discovered the documents.
There was no need for a request.
Beyond cooperating, they volunteered to sort this out in the best possible way.
On his social network, Donald Trump demanded that the FBI raid the residences of Joe Biden, even the White House. Could Joe Biden be searched?
No.
Once notified, the National Archives came to collect the documents.
The Department of Justice has also been made aware and asked the prosecutor - put in place by Trump - to study these files.
So I don't see why he would be searched, knowing that the prosecutor is already there.
If the FBI went to Donald Trump about the declassified documents, it was because the former president did not want to return them.
He believed that these coins belonged to him.
Especially since they were found in his residence at Mar-a-Lago, a private club that receives guests and its members.
A place that is not protected while there were files classified secret-defense.
He was therefore responsible for the mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of justice.
He is suspected of being guilty of destroying certain writings.
Legally, it was much heavier.
Some elected officials denounce a difference in treatment between the president and his predecessor. Could there be legal proceedings?
If there is a difference in treatment, it is because the facts are not the same.
But I don't think it goes any further from a legal point of view.
For there to be legal proceedings, the prosecutor would have to be convinced that there was a desire to hide these highly classified documents.
All the documents were spotted at the same time, reported at the same time… It seems in good faith, I don't see why there would be legal proceedings.
Read alsoDid Donald Trump endanger American spies?
The protocol concerning confidential documents will undoubtedly be slightly revised, because, as we can see, writings from the White House sometimes land where it should not.
Whether or not there is a bad intention behind it, the procedures to be followed must be clarified.
Normally, anything produced at the White House — even post-it notes and drafts — must be kept in the National Archives.
A qualified person then decides what to do with it, and puts on a classified stamp.
It must specify its level and duration of classification.
But, obviously, the production of documents is such that there is always a possibility of error.
Joe Biden had strongly criticized Donald Trump on this document story. He even described his act as irresponsible and a
“
danger to national security
”
.
What will be the political repercussions?
Of course, these words will be repeated.
The Republican camp will use it.
Unfortunately, it's the ambient climate.
I think the House of Representatives will rush to open investigations.
And the commission of inquiry can seek to be as cumbersome as possible.
But we can see it clearly with Trump, there were no legal consequences.
On the question of the documents withheld by Biden that can be included in a commission of inquiry, it will not go far from a judicial point of view.
Unless we discover something that we don't know today.
*
The most resistant of all
, Nicole Bacharan, Stock editions, to be published on Wednesday January 11, 2023.