Former FBI official blows a hole in Trump's latest stolen document defense

According to a former FBI counterintelligence official, Donald Trump's repeated assertion that President Joe Biden's retention of government documents is way worse than his own hoarding of documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort could not be farther from the truth.

In a column for MSNBC, Frank Figliuzzi wrote that the only thing the two cases have in common is that they both involve paper.

While the Department of Justice has absolved Biden for keeping documents, which he promptly returned after they were discovered, Donald Trump found himself in hot water with felony obstruction of justice charges for stonewalling the government, forcing the FBI to have to show up with a warrant.

As Figliuzzi noted, just weeks ago Trump took to his Truth Social platform to all-caps rant, "WOW! FAKE NEWS CNN, THROUGH A LEAK FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE, HAS JUST REPORTED THAT NO CHARGES WILL BE FILED IN THE (MUCH BIGGER THAN MINE!!!) CROOKED JOE BIDEN DOCUMENTS CASE. WE ARE LIVING IN A VERY CORRUPT COUNTRY!"

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The former FBI official responded, "Unlike Trump, who was aware for at least 16 months that the U.S. government wanted its documents back, Biden told reporters that he was 'surprised' to learn of the classified documents and didn’t know what was in them," before pointing out, "Importantly, Trump is accused of suggesting that his lawyer “hide or destroy” the classified documents, and instructing Walt Nauta, his personal assistant who is also indicted, to relocate and conceal boxes of the government documents. Some of that hide-and-seek movement was captured on security video obtained by the FBI in July 2022."

Adding, "Trump’s indictment cites multiple instances when he took specific actions to attempt to hide, conceal or tamper with evidence. Again, Trump’s reported conduct starkly contrasts with Biden’s reported conduct," Figluzzi suggested Trump had no reaction to former Vice President Mike Pence also getting a pass from the DOJ for also retaining documents which he quickly returned.

"Trump was quick to declare Pence 'an innocent man,'" he wrote. "The Pence case was closed without charges in June. It’s funny how Trump’s distinction between 'innocent man' Pence, and 'Crooked Joe Biden' seems to hinge not on the facts but on party affiliation."

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