Justice Department Takes Hard Stance on Mishandling of Classified Documents, Appoints Special Counsel for Biden and Trump Investigations

The Justice Department is taking a hard stance on the mishandling of classified documents, regardless of the political party of the president involved. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recently stated that both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump should be treated “exactly the same way” for any mishandling of classified documents.

In response to this, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel to look into the documents found in Biden’s former office in Washington and his Delaware home. Meanwhile, a different Justice Department special counsel, Jack Smith, is conducting a criminal probe into Trump’s mishandling of classified files, including hundreds of highly sensitive documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

McConnell believes that Garland “probably did the right thing by having two special counsels” and that “what’s good for one candidate for president ought to be good for another one.” However, he also noted that for every investigation, there is not an equal and opposite investigation, although scrutiny of the current and the former president continue to dovetail.

Trump’s family business was recently fined for tax fraud, and the former president is also facing a special counsel to wrap up multiple Trump investigations. It remains to be seen how the Justice Department will handle the investigations into both Biden and Trump, but it is clear that the department is taking a hard stance on the mishandling of classified documents.