Elie Honig Dismantles Comparisons Between Biden and Trump Docs Cases

On Thursday, news broke that it was unlikely that President Joe Biden would face any charges in his classified documents case following a year-long special counsel investigation. CNN’s Jake Tapper was already anticipating what “one other network” was going to say about this case versus the classified documents case that saw federal charges being brought against former President Donald Trump, but legal analyst Elie Honig knocked that argument down in about 60 seconds, maybe less.

During his first segment on The Lead with Jake Tapper featuring correspondents Paula Reid and Katelyn Polantz, the host jumped right into what he expected to hear from an unnamed cable news competitor:

So I can already anticipate what we’re going to hear from other, well, specifically one other network, Elie Honig, that this is a double standard! That Donald Trump was charged, and there’s a federal case and indictments about his mishandling of classified documents. And Joe Biden is not going to be charged. Obviously, the cases are different. Elie Honig, explain what you think about that.

And explain Honig did, basically demolishing any notion that the cases had similarities, all within the space of a minute:

Well, Jake, first of all, important to keep in mind, [Special Counsel] Robert Hur is a conservative. He was a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He was nominated to be U.S. Attorney in Maryland in 2017 by Donald Trump. So he’s not some liberal or Joe Biden-leaning prosecutor.

Second of all, there are differences between these cases based on the indictment that we’ve seen of Trump in Mar-a-Lago and based on what we’ve seen from the public reporting, starting with knowledge and intent. We’ll see. But presumably, Robert Hur has found there is no evidence that Joe Biden had criminal knowledge and intent. Donald Trump has acknowledged publicly he knew he had those documents and he’s alleged to have had criminal intent. Second of all, let’s remember, Donald Trump is charged with obstruction of justice now, and the evidence set forth in the indictment is really quite overwhelming.

In contrast, Joe Biden’s team, they came forward with the documents. They were the ones who brought it to DOJ. So two very big, very crucial distinctions there.

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to 32 counts of willfully retaining national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act and eight counts of obstruction of justice.

Watch the video above via CNN.