geoff: With Donald Trump in a
Miami courtroom today, the first
ex-president ever indicted on
federal criminal charges, the
chorus of his Republican
supporters asking but what about
the Democrats has grown even
louder.
Laura barron-lopez reports on
why the doj charged Mr. Trump
for his handling of classified
material, but not others, like
Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and
Mike pence.
>> This is the most political
thing I've ever seen.
Laura: In response to the
federal indictment of Donald
Trump --
>> Is there a different standard
for a Democrat secretary of
state versus a former Republican
president?
I think there needs to be one
standard of justice.
Laura: Republicans are attacking
the justice system.
>> The ridiculous and baseless
indictment of me by the binding
administration's weaponized
department of injustice will go
down as one of the most horrific
abuses of power.
Laura: The justice department
charged trump with 37 felonies,
including 31 counts under the
espionage act for knowingly
retaining national defense
documents after repeatedly being
asked to have them over.
>> Joe Biden has classified
documents, he mishandled them as
vice president.
Laura: Republicans are crying
hypocrisy.
GOP primary voters agreed.
Three quarters say the
prosecution is politically
motivated.
According to a recent CBS news
poll.
>> Witchhunt.
>> I think it is a complete
waste of time.
>> They did nothing in Hillary's
case.
Laura: Trump and his allies are
pointing to other cases where
classified material was found in
the possession of former
government officials but not
prosecuted, in particular
Hillary Clinton.
>> I did not send nor receive
classified material.
Laura: Some 30,000 emails were
found in a personal email server
in her New York home during the
2016 campaign.
Clinton cooperated with an FBI
investigation, which recommended
no criminal charges.
>> Although we did not find
clear evidence that secretary
Clinton or her colleagues
intended to violate laws
governing the handling of
classified information, there is
evidence they were extremely
careless.
>> Hillary Clinton's case is
complete lead different.
Laura: An attorney who focuses
on national security issues.
He says trump and Clinton were
investigated under two espionage
act provisions, and Clinton was
dealing with emails, not marked
classified documents.
>> Most of the information that
was deemed to be classified was
actually deemed based on the
content after people reviewed
it.
Those who thought it would not
necessarily have suspected there
was anything classified in it.
Laura: As for the investigation
into president Biden and Mike
pence, there are key
differences.
In trump's case, the doj charged
ever calling onto classified
materials for after a year
leaving office.
Documents he stored in places
like a bathroom and ballroom.
Both Biden and pence found
classified material in their
homes, but unlike trump, both
turned them over immediately and
invited the FBI to search for
others.
>> When you talk about president
Biden and former vice president
pence, you are talking about
complete transparency.
Laura: David Kelley is a former
U.S. Attorney of the southern
district of New York.
>> You screwed up, you are not
supposed to take these documents
and gave them back, we are good.
When you go ahead and you are
told you have documents you are
not supposed to have, and then
you conceal that, and then you
live about it, that's the
criminal problem because that
shows knowledge and intent to
violate the law.
Laura: The doj recently cleared
pence, and a special counsel
investigation of Biden's
ongoing.
The trump indictment alleges he
conspired to hide documents from
the government, returning them
only after a subpoena and a
later FBI search.
Dozens of other classified
documents he had taken to
Florida, but turned over to the
national archives earlier were
not included in the charges.
>> The compounding factor in the
trump indictment is the
obstruction of justice.
He was told he had documents, he
kept them anyway, and then took
steps to keep them from the
national archives.
Laura: While trump and hundreds
of classified documents in
Florida, the special counsel
narrowed its case to 31 pages
which include 21 with top-secret
markings from the CIA, NSA,
Pentagon, and department of
energy, among others.
According to the indictment, the
documents contain secrets about
U.S. Nuclear and military
capabilities, and defense
capabilities of foreign
countries.
>> Some have said the goldilocks
documents.
Laura: These 31 documents were
chosen carefully by the special
counsel.
>> It is not too secret and it
is not too challenge people,
meaning these are documents that
probably anyone who looks at
them would understand as a
layperson that the information
is incredibly sensitive.
Laura: It will soon be up to a
Florida jury to decide if trump
will face criminal consequences.
I'm Laura barron-lopez.
♪♪