Trump’s Media Defenders Forget Key Reason FBI Raided Him and Not Biden: Christina Bobb’s Signed Statement

As the fallout from revelations that President Joe Biden retained several different sets of classified documents from his time as vice president continues, defenders of former President Donald Trump latched onto the scandal and are asking why the FBI raided Trump’s home to retrieve documents, but not Biden’s.

“In the aftermath of the Biden classified docs revelations, one question remains: why didn’t the FBI raid his office and residence like they did Trump’s?” asked Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night.

“Well, tonight, the Wall Street Journal has the answer. Apparently, Merrick Garland considered having FBI agents monitor a search by President Biden’s lawyers but decided against it both to avoid complicating later stages of the investigation. Okay, how thoughtful and one-sided,” concluded a smirking Ingraham.

There is just one key issue with this analysis, the widely reported fact that former President Donald Trump’s lawyer, after negotiating with National Archives and voluntarily handing over some documents, signed a certified statement saying no more documents were at Mar-a-Lago.

Christina Bobb, a former host on the One America News Network, signed a letter on June 3rd, 2022 certifying that “based upon the information that has been provided to me” Trump had returned all classified records sought by the government. Bobb signed the certification as the “custodian of records” and the letter explicitly stated that after a “diligent search was conducted of the boxes” taken to Mar-a-Lago from the White House “any and all responsive documents accompany this certification.”

NBC News’s Marc Caputo reported in October of 2022 that unsealed court documents regarding the approval of the warrant for the FBI to search Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the documents focused heavily on Bobb’s certification, which turned out to be false.

“After Justice Department officials were given the statement, the FBI subsequently determined the substance of the certification was untrue and, on Aug. 8, agents executed a search warrant and seized more 103 more records with classification markings, court documents show,” Caputo reported.

Since signing the statement in June and the FBI retrieving the documents from Trump in early August, Bobb has reportedly spoken to federal investigators as many pundits and observers have suggested she is facing personal legal trouble.

Sources close to Bobb made clear to Caputo that she insisted on a “disclaimer” before signing the statement, making clear she did not conduct the search herself, but that another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, assured her no more documents were in Trump’s possession:

Before Bobb signed the document, she insisted it be rewritten with a disclaimer that said she was certifying Trump had no more records “based upon the information that has been provided to me,” the sources said of what she told investigators. Bobb identified the person who gave her that “information” as Corcoran, the sources said.

“She had to insist on that disclaimer twice before she signed it,” said one source who spoke with Bobb about what she told investigators.

Reporting on Bobb’s statement went as far and wide as the New York Post to the New York Times to CNN and Fox News.

Yet on Tuesday night, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) told Ingraham, “This from the same Democrats who kicked Republicans off of the J. 6th committee, who literally turned the FBI on Mar-a-Lago when there was no need to.” Donalds, like many defenders of Trump, has completely memory-holed Trump’s legal team making a false statement to authorities.

Here is Fox & Friends First host Todd Piro on Outnumbered Wednesday:

But there’s a couple of points here that really stand out to me on this FBI front. We know the FBI has a tremendous skill set of raiding presidents’ homes. They were able to do so with regard to President Trump. Do you think that the DOJ, when they’re faced with a similar situation involving documents with a president, would use that same skill set to raid Joe Biden? That clearly was not the case when it comes to the documents themselves.

Of course, the difference here is that Biden’s lawyers both alerted the DOJ to the existence of the documents and voluntarily handed them over, while the National Archives referred the issue with Trump to the DOJ after noticing missing documents and Trump’s lawyers eventually lied to law enforcement about any further possession of documents — none of which is to say Biden’s retention of the classified documents is defendable.

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan (R-OH), made a similar comment on Twitter late Tuesday night:

Why was President Trump’s home raided but not President Biden’s?

Why did the FBI take pictures of President Trump’s so-called classified documents but not President Biden’s?

Americans are tired of the double standard.

Now, in all fairness, not all members of the right-leaning media have forgotten about Bobb’s statement.

Fox News anchor John Roberts asked Rep. Donalds about it on Wednesday.

“Yeah, well, we’re going back to Mar-a-Lago. Those negotiations had gone on for more than a year between the Department of Justice, the Trump Organization, not the Trump Organization, but the president’s post-presidential organization and the National Archives and Records Administration. But at some point, President Trump’s attorneys told those entities that all of the documents had been handed over. When that wasn’t the case, which is what prompted the raid. So in terms of the differences here, there do seem to be some. But you believe that there is still a double standard here in terms of how those two things were handled?” Roberts asked Donalds.

“Oh, absolutely. Without a doubt. Because here’s the other thing. You get leaks to the press, pictures of documents tossed all over the floor. I mean, come on. This is the kind of double standard that has existed,” Donalds replied, ignoring Roberts’s question regarding Bobb’s statement.

Watch the full clips above via Fox News

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.