Donald Trump and his GOP presidential rival Nikki Haley each slammed a Justice Department special counsel decision Thursday not to charge President Joe Biden for mishandling classified documents, calling it unfair.
“THIS HAS NOW PROVEN TO BE A TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL SELECTIVE PROSECUTION! The Biden Documents Case is 100 times different and more severe than mine,” Trump, who faces criminal prosecution for deliberately retaining classified material, said in a statement.
“I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more. What Biden did is outrageously criminal.”
While describing the decision as a “glaring” double standard, Haley also used the decision to take a jab at both Biden and her rival Trump: “Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were reckless with classified documents,” she wrote on social media platform X. “If Biden’s defense is old age and forgetfulness, Trump can easily make the same claim. Trump should quickly hire Biden’s lawyers.”
The special counsel report released by the Justice Department withheld condemnation of Biden on legal grounds, but it also presented a harsh portrait of his conduct and mental faculties. It stated Biden would be perceived in any court proceedings as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
The report also drew a sharp contrast between Biden and Trump, saying while Trump allegedly refused to return classified documents for months and directed other people “to destroy evidence and then to lie about it,” Biden “turned in classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview, and in other ways cooperated with the investigation.”
Biden said in response to the decision that he was “pleased to see the special counsel make clear the stark differences between this case and Trump’s.”
“The special counsel in my case decided against moving forward with any charges. This matter is now closed.”
