SMU law professor breaks down former President Trump's classified documents case
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Former President Trump has been indicted for mishandling classified documents. But he's not the only one who's been accused of that.
The indictment of the former president for the mishandling of classified documents is spelled out in 49 pages. In a sit-down interview with CBS News Texas, SMU constitutional law professor Dale Carpenter explained what those pages consisted of and what makes this case so different.
"It was a kind of recklessness about the storage of the documents, the movement of the documents by various aides in part to evade any kind of return of the documents to the Justice Department. Absolute recklessness," Carpenter said.
But he's not the only one.
More than 20 classified documents have been found at President Biden's home and office. And about a dozen classified documents were found at former Vice President Mike Pence's Indiana home.
Carpenter said there are two other clear differences between what former Vice President Pence and President Biden did and what Trump is accused of.
"One of them is that while Pence and Biden may have inadvertently retained some documents related to classifications, they didn't do so willfully, they didn't do so deliberately," he explained. "Number two—perhaps most importantly—when they were asked to return the documents and to reveal the existence of the documents, they did so and they did so immediately."
In March 2022, when the FBI began an investigation into the unlawful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and a grand jury subpoenaed Trump—requiring him to turn over the documents—Trump tried to obstruct the investigation and hold on to the documents.
"There are really two basic crimes here, one is he took documents important to national security that do not belong to him...and number two, when he was asked to return those documents, he attempted to lie to cover up the fact that he retained the documents," Carpenter said.
The Justice Department closed the investigation into former Vice President Pence's handling of classified documents last week and did not file any charges. The Justice Department's investigation into President Biden's handling of classified documents is still ongoing.
