Conservative lawyer says it is 'asinine' to liken Trump and Biden classified document cases

A prominent conservative attorney lashed out today at House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer for trying to draw comparisons between the apparent mishandling of classified documents by Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Andrew McCarthy, a legal analyst for the National Review and Fox News, warned Comer that “he should be an investigator, not Trump’s lawyer, in a column at National Review Online. While agreeing that “it’s not only appropriate but important” for Congress to look into Biden’s case, McCarthy strayed far from the party line that Biden’s case was comparable to that of Trump.

McCarthy took issue with Comer’s complaint of “inconsistent treatment” by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

It is not unreasonable to wonder about political bias at NARA,” McCarthy wrote. “But, that said, it is asinine for Comer to compare NARA’s handling of the Biden and Trump situations as if the two were analogous.”

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McCarthy went on to show that conservative media attacks on Trump after the GOP’s midterm electoral disaster were not a one-off occurrence.

“Comer claims that NARA ‘instigated a public and unprecedented raid at Mar-a-Lago — former President Trump’s home — to retrieve presidential records.’ That is a preposterous assertion.

“In reality, NARA quietly pleaded with Trump for nearly a year over the thousands of government records he was retaining in violation of the Presidential Records Act. Trump finally agreed to surrender what turned out to be some of the documents — about 15 boxes’ worth — in January 2022, only after NARA lawyer Gary Stern, having gotten nowhere with Trump’s representatives, told them that the agency might soon refer the matter to Congress.”

And there was this zinger from McCarthy that didn’t come from the House Republican talking points:

“None of this excuses what Biden did. It is clear, though, that the incumbent president tried to mitigate the damage while Trump was mulishly combative. It is ridiculous, in any event, for Comer to portray Biden’s cooperation and Trump’s recalcitrance as equivalent situations.”