As former President Donald Trump’s attorneys signaled that they are planning to allege their client is the victim of selective prosecution, Professor Cheryl Bader explains how circumstances in Trump’s documents case are different and “quite unique.”
In June, Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 counts that allege he kept sensitive military documents, shared them with people who didn’t have security clearance, and tried to thwart the government’s efforts to get them back.
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Classified documents were discovered at the Carmel, Indiana, home of former Vice President Mike Pence in January. The FBI later conducted a five-hour voluntary search of Pence’s home and found another classified document. In June, the U.S. Department of Justice closed its investigation into the matter without bringing charges.
Classified documents also turned up in President Joe Biden’s possession. Between November 2022 and January 2023, Biden’s attorneys found classified documents at his former office and his Delaware home. Biden then voluntarily allowed federal authorities to search his properties for additional materials. To date, no charges have been filed in that case.
But Trump’s documents case is different than both of those, said Cheryl Bader, a clinical associate professor at Fordham University and a former federal prosecutor.
“I think the circumstances of Trump’s case are quite unique, particularly because he was given every opportunity to voluntarily turn over these documents and didn’t,” she told The Center Square. “There are attorneys who kept copious notes about Trump’s instructions regarding how these documents should not be turned over.”
Bader said people have been prosecuted for mishandling classified documents from both parties.
“To the extent that the court was to look and see what happened to similarly situated targets, I think that they would find that defendants have been prosecuted for less egregious conduct than Trump’s and Trump wouldn’t be able to establish a pattern of prosecuting people affiliated with the Republican Party, but not people affiliated as Democrats,” she said.