"Trump wants to be treated like Hillary Clinton? By all means."

"Donald Trump and his MAGA mouthpieces say the former president should
be treated the same way Hillary Clinton was — and they’re right!

Ever since the FBI found boxes upon boxes of government secrets hoarded
at his resort residence, Trump has complained that he’s being held to a different standard from the one applied to Clinton during the probe of
her private email server in 2016. “Absolutely nothing has happened to
hold her accountable,” Trump claimed when he confirmed the search of Mar-a-Lago.

The editorial board of the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal argued this
week that there is a “Clinton Standard for treating a prominent
politician who mishandles classified documents” and that there shouldn’t
be “a different standard for Mr. Trump.”

On Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted — and justified — violence over the imagined double standard. “If they tried to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary
Clinton set up a server in her basement, there literally will be riots
in the street,” Graham told former congressman Trey Gowdy (R-Benghazi)
on Fox News.

Trump promptly posted Graham’s violent fantasy (the latest of several
from GOP officials claiming a Clinton double standard) on his Truth
Social platform.

For months, voters have been telling Republicans they are tired of
hearing Trump and his allies relitigating the 2020 election. Finally, Republicans are moving on. They are now relitigating 2016. Seven and a
half years after the world learned of Clinton’s private server, GOP
leaders cry anew: But her emails!

So, by all means, let’s relitigate. In fact, Trump should be treated
exactly the way Clinton was:

The FBI should undertake a sprawling, multiyear investigation into
Trump’s conduct, grilling him and his staff, running extensive
forensics, and examining whether his actions allowed hostile actors to compromise U.S. security. The FBI should continue to keep him under investigation while he runs for president in 2024.

In July 2024, after Trump secures the GOP nomination, the head of the
FBI should break with long-standing Justice Department protocols and
publicly announce that while he doesn’t recommend prosecuting Trump,
Trump was “extremely careless” with classified information, that “any reasonable person” in Trump’s position would have known their actions
were inappropriate, that “it is possible that hostile actors gained
access” to government secrets, and that “there is evidence of potential violations” of law.

Then, 13 days before the 2024 election, a top official with the
Democratic nominee’s campaign should announce that he has heard via
leaks by “active” FBI agents of a coming “surprise” related to the Trump
investigation.

Eleven days before the election, the FBI director, in another breach of protocol, should send a public letter to Congress announcing that he has reopened the investigation into Trump because of new, “pertinent” information.

Two days before the election, the FBI director should say the new
information announced in his previous bombshell amounted to nothing. But
by then it is too late: The news of the reopened probe will dominate
coverage in the closing days of the campaign, and, analyses will show,
cause Trump to lose an election he otherwise would have won.

That is precisely what happened to Clinton in 2016. And Trump wants to
be held to the same standard? Well, fair is fair.

MAGA Republicans should be careful what they wish for as they respond to
every development in Trump’s legal saga with fits of whataboutism: What
about Clinton? What about Hunter Biden? Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz
even penned “A Defense of ‘Whataboutism’ ” for the Wall Street Journal.

If they really want Trump to be treated the way Clinton was in 2016,
they’ll also have to arrange for him to be the subject of “lock him up” chants at Democratic rallies and for the Democratic nominee’s advisers
and prominent backers to assert that Trump should be “executed,” “shot” and hanged.

Preliminarily, Trump’s case appears much more serious than Clinton’s. Clinton mishandled a small amount of classified information. (Of tens of thousands of emails, three were marked classified and about 100 had
unmarked classified material.) Trump apparently made off with boxes
containing more than 700 pages of classified material, including some of
the most sensitive types of intelligence, and refused to give it back —
even under subpoena. Still to be determined: Trump’s motive and the
damage to national security.

The Clinton “standard” wasn’t ever any guarantee not to prosecute her.
It was what FBI Director James B. Comey outlined in July 2016:

“All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly
intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference
of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United
States; or efforts to obstruct justice.”

In Clinton’s case, Comey concluded, “We do not see those things.” And Trump? Fairness requires that he be held to that same standard."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/30/trump-hillary-clinton-classified-documents-equal-treatment/

TB

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)