Classification Hypocrisy, Partisan Style
Most partisans fail to see the similarities of the Clinton and Trump classified documents scandals
Partisan hypocrisy hit a new milestone last week when the federal government officially indicted former president Donald Trump with violations of the Espionage Act. Most Democrats were quick to lambast Trump with accusations of unforgivable law violations. Most Republicans were quick to defend Trump. The irony is that both parties responded in precisely the opposite way in 2016.
During the 2016 election, it became public knowledge that the Democratic Party presidential contender, Hillary Clinton, had a private email server that contained thousands of sensitive emails related to her time as the US Secretary of State. Clinton said that none of the emails were confidential, so it was fine to keep them on her private servers. However, federal agencies concluded that many of her emails were confidential, and some were even “Top Secret”.
In 2015, the legislative branch subpoenaed Clinton for the emails. Shortly after the subpoena, Clinton’s team permanently deleted the emails from her server. Clinton’s team also physically destroyed many of her personal devices that may have contained the pertinent information. To this day, the legislative branch has not received the emails that it subpoenaed.
To review the Clinton case:
Clinton illegally stored confidential and “Top Secret” emails on private servers.
Clinton likely lied when she said that none of the emails were confidential.
Clinton’s team destroyed the confidential emails when the legislature subpoenaed them.
In spite of the above points, which are unquestionably illegal, Clinton was not charged with any crime, which was applauded by Democrats and decried by Republicans.
Fast forward to today and we have a very similar situation. When Trump left office in 2021, he took stacks of boxes with him to his Mar-a-Lago estate. Many of these boxes contained confidential and “Top Secret” information that Trump never formally declassified. Video evidence indicates that Trump himself was aware that the documents were classified and that he should not have them.
Over the last couple years, the federal government worked with Trump’s lawyers to reacquire the documents that Trump took. After returning some documents, the government alleges that Trump lied by saying he no longer had any classified documents when he did. Further, the government alleges that Trump tried to prevent the government from reacquiring the documents by directing his team to move the documents around his estate.
To review the Trump case:
Trump illegally stored confidential and “Top Secret” documents at his private estate.
Trump likely lied by saying he no longer had classified documents when he did.
Trump directed his team to hide documents when the government formally requested them.
Stop for a moment and compare the Clinton and Trump case reviews. They are incredibly similar.
Now, the same Democrats that insisted Clinton did no wrong in 2015-2016 are insisting that Trump should be tried to the fullest extent of the law. Similarly, the same Republicans that chanted “lock her up” in 2016 insist that Trump should not be tried either because he did nothing wrong or because Clinton’s lack of prosecution should effectively exonerate Trump today. Both of these groups are incredibly hypocritical.
The truth is that both Clinton and Trump acted illegally, but both of their crimes are fairly minor. Both are likely guilty of illegally possessing and concealing classified documents, which may not need to be classified at all (see The Overclassification of Information). Two wrongs do not make a right, so forgiving Trump because Clinton was wrongfully forgiven is a bad argument. All politicians, regardless of party, should face charges when they act against the laws that they swore to uphold; Clinton and Trump are no exception.