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Should Donald Trump escape any legal consequences for removing and storing classified information at his home in Florida, the fever-swamped, blue-check resistance members of the media will have only James Comey to thank for it.
When a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago was executed and then unsealed last Monday, we learned one of the criminal statutes for which it was executed was the Espionage Act (18 US Code § 793), which makes it illegal to gather, transmit or lose defense information. Should a person actually be prosecuted on that charge, he or she could face up to ten years in prison.
The political problem for Joe Biden’s Justice Department has with such a scenario is, of course, that Trump was his former (and possible future) political opponent in a presidential race. Then also consider the optics of Merrick Garland, the Biden-appointed attorney general who was prevented from sitting on the US Supreme Court by Trump’s election, going after the former president.
Further complicating this matter, 18 U.S. Code § 793 was the statute under which Hillary Clinton was being investigated in 2016. In his July 5 press conference, then-FBI Director Comey said that Clinton possessed “seven email chains [concerning] matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending emails about those matters and receiving emails from others about the same matters.”
Comey went on to conclude that, “although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Several people have been charged and prosecuted under these statutes, but none with the profile of the former secretary of state, and now, certainly none with the profile of a former president.
The term “no one is above the law” has been thrown about on cable news and in news outlet columns over the past week, but as we saw with the investigation into Hillary Clinton, that is clearly not the case. Clinton, at the very least, should have been charged, and if not prosecuted, at least offered a plea deal that would have seen her serve no jail time. Such an event, of course, would have greatly damaged her presidential campaign and candidacy, just like the current circumstances facing Trump would.
Should Biden’s Justice Department move ahead with charges against Trump, leading to a trial and prosecution, it will deepen the politicized divide in a country already riven by partisanship. The FBI and current director Christopher Wray would face significant scrutiny — for good reason.
The message would be loud and clear: Democrats like Hillary Clinton can get away with violating laws, but Republicans who commit the same acts cannot. It would tear the very fabric of the FBI and DoJ apart.
Comey’s actions or non-actions have once again put the country in a no-win situation. Trump most likely is going to run again, and with the Mar-a-Lago raids personally approved by Merrick Garland, 45 will have an added incentive to do so. The base that found itself perhaps wandering away from Trump has now been re-energized — and Trump himself may be reinvigorated to mount a campaign against Biden or whoever the 2024 Democrat may be.
That is unless, of course, the Justice Department does what they chose not to do to Hillary Clinton, which at this point would almost be unthinkable. The weekl-ong saga at Mar-a-Lago can be left at just that. The FBI and DoJ can release a statement saying the matter has been rectified and no further actions will be taken, as Comey did with Hillary Clinton. Or they can do the other thing — and rip the country apart.
