Days before former President Donald Trump’s court appearance on charges of misusing top-secret White House documents, his allies recalled a case similar to that of Bill Clinton’s administration. No charges were brought up in it.

“¿A Democratic secretary of state has different standards. And a former Republican president? said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s main rivals. “I think there should be a standard of justice in this country.” “

Trump supporters cite Justice Department’s 2016 decision not to charge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with handling of classified information Make sure the ex-president’s case is a witch hunt.

His supporters also cited a separate investigation into classified documents involving President Joe Biden, claiming that a double-standard justice system would punish Trump for the actions of Democrats.

“I can’t right now, you know, but it’s still a secret,” the indictment quoted him as saying.

Clinton relied on a private email system during her tenure as a top diplomat out of presumed convenience. Obama administration.

The decision stuck with her in 2015 when the intelligence agency’s internal watchdog Alerting the FBI that there may be hundreds of emails Contains confidential information.

fbi investigator Finally concluded that emails sent and received by Clinton contained classified information In that unclassified system, information at the top secret level is included.

The FBI said it found 110 of the roughly 30,000 emails released by Clinton representatives in 52 email chains were contains confidential informationincluding some top-secret levels.

After about a year of investigation, the FBI closed its investigation in July 2016, Concluded that Clinton had no intention of breaking the law.

What is Trump accused of?

When Trump leaves the White House after his term ends in January 2021, the indictment filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith said, He brought hundreds of classified documents to his Florida mansion Mar-a-Lago Then repeatedly blocked attempts by the administration he oversaw to restore those records.

Prosecutors say Trump withheld material related to U.S. Nuclear Program, U.S. Defense and Weapons Capabilities and other countries, as well as potential attack vulnerabilities.

Beyond simple document hoarding, DOJ says Trump showed highly classified material to visitors without security clearanceAnd thwarted the FBI by, among other things, ordering a personal assistant to move boxes from one location at Mar-a-Lago to another to evade investigators.

Despite claims by Trump and his allies that he can do whatever he wants with the documents under the Presidential Records Act, imputation ignores that argument And he didn’t mention the statute once.

In all, the indictment against Trump includes 37 felony counts, most of them under espionage laws related to willful concealment of national defense information.

A lot, but there are two important distinctions between intent and hindrance.

Investigators found no clear evidence that Clinton or her aides had they have illegal intent Manage confidential information.

As a result, he said, “no reasonable prosecutor” would pursue the case. Comey said that for every relevant Espionage Act case brought by the Justice Department in the past century, involves obstruction of justice, Deliberate mishandling of classified documents and disclosure of numerous records. Those factors were absent from the Clinton investigation, he explained.

For example, a formal complaint accuses him of Lawyers advised to hide required documents DOJ subpoenas or falsely claims to have provided all requested records even though more than 100 are missing.

The indictment repeatedly cites Trump himself against him, showing that he understands what he is doing and what the law allows and does not allow him to do.described a July 2021 meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where Pentagon ‘attack plan’ shown to people without security clearance Looking at the material, declaring “as president, I could have declassified it.”

The conversation, which was recorded on tape, is likely to be strong evidence because it undercuts Trump’s repeated claims that he has declassified documents he brought to Mar-a-Lago.