donald trump Y Joe Biden are under scrutiny of the US Justice for the management of the archives of the White Housein cases as delicate as they are different from each other.
common ground
The Congress of USA declared in 1978 that the set of documents created or received by the president and vice president in the framework of their functions belong to the country.
As a result of this law, all emails, letters, photos, videos and working documents from the White House must be transmitted at the end of the term to the National Archives, in charge of recording presidential activities for history.
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Another law, on espionage, prohibits US agents from keeping documents classified as confidential in unauthorized and unsecured places.
Biden and Trump appear to have broken these rules. The first at the end of his term as vice president in 2017, and the second when he left the White House in 2021.
Confidential documents – which should have been returned – were found in the Republican millionaire’s Mar-a-Lago club, as well as in an old office and the garage of the Democratic president’s Wilmington home.
Due to his high profile, Justice Minister Merrick Garland handed over the investigations to two special prosecutors: Jack Smith, who has been in charge of the Trump case since November (which also includes investigations into his role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol by his followers) and Robert Hur, appointed this Thursday for the Biden case.
recalcitrant or cooperative
The two cases differ by the attitude of their main protagonists.
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Following Trump’s departure from the White House, the National Archives struggled to recover the documents. A year later, they obtained the return of 15 whole boxes of documents, some of great historical value, such as a letter written by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Persuaded that there were more lost documents, this agency requested an investigation by the federal justice system in February 2022. After several interviews with Trump’s entourage and an on-site visit, the federal police (FBI) raided the Republican’s luxurious residence in Florida in August, recovering some thirty additional boxes.
An investigation showed that 18 documents classified as “top secret”, 53 “secret” and 31 “confidential” were among the belongings.
On the contrary, Biden’s case broke out after a notice from his own lawyers, who found the confidential documents – a dozen, according to US media – while cleaning the former offices of the president in Washington, in a locked drawer.
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The same lawyers notified the Department of Justice, which opened a preliminary investigation.
In addition, attorneys for the presidency searched two of Biden’s private residences and informed the department that they found additional “small numbers of confidential documents” in the garage of his Wilmington home, which were recovered by the FBI.
“Political persecution”
Trump denounces “political persecution” and denies any responsibility.
“I had a small number of boxes at Mar-a-Lago, which were under the protection of agents and my teams,” he declared in October. “You should give them back to me because it’s all mine!”
On the contrary, Biden said he “takes his obligations regarding confidential documents very seriously”, but claims to have sinned “by inadvertence.”
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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