One of former President Donald Trump’s many, many lawyers attempted to label President Joe Biden’s classified documents fiasco as a case of obstruction—in a defense of his client, who is actually under investigation for obstruction of justice.
Appearing on NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday, attorney James Trusty blasted host Chuck Todd for touting the “Democratic narrative” that Trump had not complied with a subpoena to overturn classified documents housed at Mar-a-Lago, prompting an FBI raid. Trusty claimed the true “set of facts” pointing towards obstruction was in Biden’s case because Biden shouldn’t have had the documents at all.
“You've got a vice president that has documents for decades in this Chinese-funded Penn Biden Center, right?” Trusty said. (The Penn Biden Center said it received no Chinese funds.) “You’ve got absolute obstruction there.”
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Trusty failed to grasp the different levels of transparency in Biden’s and Trump’s respective cases. When the documents at the Penn Biden Center were discovered in November, Biden’s attorneys said they immediately notified the National Archives and Records Administration, which looped in the Department of Justice. Each subsequent batch of documents was turned over and also prompted a government notification, they said.
Trump, meanwhile, allegedly had multiple boxes of various classified documents at his Florida estate despite his lawyer telling NARA he had turned everything over.
Todd, using that information, tried to reel out a concession from Trusty. “Did he proceed to turn them over when he found them?” Todd asked a flustered Trusty, who seemingly came equipped solely with talking-point responses.
“We don't have the leaks coming from [Biden special counsel] Rob Hur's investigation to know the details of exactly how stuff was turned over,” he said.
“So is your defense that, ‘You know, hey, we think other people broke the law, so let us break the law?’” Todd asked. “I mean, I just think that doesn't seem to be a good defense.”
Trusty shifted gears again, claiming Trump was receiving undue “differential treatment”—despite his alleged conduct differing wildly from others facing their own document scandals.
