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   JB Emmons (intllawgnome@law.builders)'s status on Monday, 16-Jan-2023 23:28:44 JST JB Emmons

   This story has become an actual scandal for Biden, and legitimately so.

   One can obviously draw contrasts to the Trump situation. The former doesn't raise all of the concerns triggered by the latter, such as affirmative efforts to knowingly prevent the US government's recovery of classified docs.

   But both stories touch on concerns about improper handling of classified docs, whether or not intentional. And that can't be hand-waved away.

   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/14/us/biden-classified-documents-delaware.html

   • Embed this notice
     JB Emmons (intllawgnome@law.builders)'s status on Monday, 16-Jan-2023 23:28:41 JST JB Emmons

     in reply to

     • emptywheel

     I'm also finding @emptywheel 's analysis persuasive as usual, which leads to this conclusion: "Taking classified documents unknowingly is probably not a crime, especially for a President or Vice President. Refusing to give them back may well be. That’s the question before Jack Smith, as well as the obstruction question. That’s probably the question before Robert Hur."

     Marcy's thinking as to why this is so is worth your time:
     https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/01/15/why-trumps-lawyer-evan-corcoran-thinks-joe-biden-didnt-violate-18-usc-1924/

   • Embed this notice
     JB Emmons (intllawgnome@law.builders)'s status on Monday, 16-Jan-2023 23:28:42 JST JB Emmons

     in reply to

     • NatlSecCnslrs

     From a criminal-law perspective, of course, I can't and won't counter anything Kel @NatlSecCnslrs says here. He knows this area far better than I do, and his take seems reasonable on its face. I recommend reading it.

     https://mstdn.social/@NatlSecCnslrs/109688878625174036

     Nicholas Sarwark repeated this.
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     JB Emmons (intllawgnome@law.builders)'s status on Monday, 16-Jan-2023 23:28:43 JST JB Emmons

     in reply to

     Bad actors will both-sides this story in an effort to downplay the qualitatively worse actions taken by Trump.

     But the antidote to that is not to countervailingly insist that the Biden classified-docs scandal is a nothingburger.

     The better approach is to acknowledge that this was indeed a serious problem--probably not as bad as the Trump situation, but serious nonetheless. Keeping in mind that an average-joe gov't worker would face severe scrutiny if classified docs were found in his garage.