Prosecutors of Trump case draw sharp distinctions with Biden probe

Federal prosecutors on Thursday drew sharp distinctions in the classified documents investigations of Donald Trump and President Joe Biden as they urged a federal judge to reject the former presidents claims that he was the victim of a vindictive and selective prosecutionTrumps lawyers told US District Judge Aileen Cannon last month that the felony prosecution of Trump should be dismissed in part because he had been charged with illegally retaining classified documents while numerous other public figures also investigated for the potential mishandling of sensitive records including Biden had either not been prosecuted or faced much less serious criminal casesBut special counsel Jack Smiths team in a court filing Thursday responding to that argument said that Trumps conduct went much further than that of the other officials he identified and that none of them is alleged to have willfully retained a vast trove of highly sensitive confidential materials and repeatedly sought to thwart their lawful return and engaged in a multifaceted scheme of deception and obstructionThat scheme prosecutors added included not only Trumps own repeated efforts to stymie the investigation but his recruitment and direction of his subordinates to join in the conspiracy repeated efforts to stymie the investigation but his recruitment and direction of his subordinates to join in the conspiracyTrump and his lawyers have seized on the findings of a different Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur who said in a report last month that his team had uncovered evidence that Biden as a private citizen had willfully retained classified information but that that evidence fell short of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt the standard required to bring a criminal prosecutionCannon on Thursday evening scheduled a hearing for March 14 to hear arguments on several of the Trump teams motions to dismiss including Trumps claim that he was entitled to possess the documents under the Presidential Records Act an argument that prosecutors have vigorously rejectedProsecutors on Smiths team acknowledged that though there are superficial similarities in the cases they stand apart in meaningful ways including Trumps extensive and repeated efforts to obstruct justice and thwart the return of documents bearing classification markings They cite the Hur report as noting that Biden by contrast alerted authorities to the presence of classified documents willingly returned them consented to searches of his homes and otherwise cooperated with the investigationSmiths team also says that though they gathered powerful evidence that Trump willfully held onto classified records from his presidency at his MaraLago estate including showing them off to others while commenting about their sensitive status the Hur report showed that such evidence against Biden was insufficient to establish criminal intentThe clear differential in the strength of the evidence on the crucial element of intent precludes Trump from showing that the two men are similarly situated wrote prosecutors for Smith who was appointed in 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland to handle Trumprelated investigationsOther differences between the cases include the volume of documents found bearing classification markings 88 in the Biden investigation 337 in the Trump one and their sensitivity The records most at issue in the Biden probe are now nearly 15 years old while the files recovered from the Trump investigation are much more recent and concern information about US nuclear programs and military and defense capabilities of the US and foreign countries prosecutors saidAnd though the Biden documents for which charges were most plausible were found in a garage those risks are dwarfed by the risks of storing classified documents at an active social club with hundreds of members that hosted weddings fundraisers and other events with tens of thousands of guests prosecutors said referring to MaraLagoIn other filings Thursday Smiths team rejected additional Trump arguments seeking to dismiss the case including the former presidents claim that he is immune from prosecution for acts committed in officeThe Supreme Court has said it intends to hear arguments in April on the question of whether a former president is shielded from prosecution for official acts an argument Trump has raised in a separate case brought by Smith charging him with scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential electionProsecutors say theres no legal support for Trumps immunity claim particularly in a case like this one where the charges involve conduct that occurred after he left the White HouseEvery criminal charge in the Superseding Indictment is based upon conduct in which Trump engaged after he left office Even if a former President could claim some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts and he cannot Trump could not benefit from any such immunity in this case prosecutors wroteThis story has been 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