OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
An attorney who used to represent Donald Trump shamed ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday after the “Good Morning America” co-host seemed to suggest that the indictment against the former president for his handling of classified documents is justified, but an indictment against President Joe Biden for similar alleged actions is not.
Jim Trusty, who resigned as one of Trump’s attorneys on Friday, nevertheless spoke highly of his former client and said without hesitation that he believes Biden’s actions and behaviors are far worse though most of the mainstream media isn’t reporting on them.
Here’s a partial transcript:
JIM TRUSTY: When I have this conversation with him, he very quickly pivots to concern about the country. You know, it’s not a real selfish analysis. It’s this is a bad moment for our history. This is our country turning the corner. And as somebody that’s been around criminal justice for over 30 years, I agree with him. It’s a Rubicon we shouldn’t be crossing.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But doesn’t the president, don’t you believe in the principle that no person is above the law? If the president committed the same crime that someone else did, shouldn’t he be charged?
TRUSTY: No person is below the law. That’s really the issue here. I mean, you’ve got these investigations in Delaware that are a thousand times more serious by a sitting president who has authorized his DOJ to try to sink the candidacy of his prime opposition while that guy has unsecured documents that he stole out of a SCIF dozens of years ago. So, look, you know, we’re not talking about some sort of favoritism.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: What are you talking about? That is a ridiculous statement.
TRUSTY: There’s this issue (laughs)… Nice try. There’s an issue that anyone that reads any news, the first would agree there’s a parallel track, which is the Delaware documents scandal of Joe Biden, where there’s a special counsel, Rob Hur, that’s investigating it. You know that there were documents that were sensitive, that were marked classified, found in a garage near a Corvette that made their way through Chinatown, through the Penn Biden Center.
There’s 850 boxes that have never been fully looked at at the University of Delaware. You have the ultimate unclean hands of a current sitting president who had no declassification, had none of the protections of President Trump. And you literally had to have stolen stuff from a skiff. Even Dick Durbin has commented about how this was an outrageous possession of classified material by the vice president at that point. Joe Biden.
So that’s what we’re talking about. You can scoff and act like there’s nothing to it, but the whole country knows the basic notion of unequal treatment and fairness. And that’s what’s at issue with this prosecution.
WATCH:
Trump announced late on Thursday that he has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges connected to his handling of classified materials that were found at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last August.
Special counsel Jack Smith has charged the former president with 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents. The charges “include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, a scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations,” ABC News reported.
“Maximum sentences for the respective charges, per their statutes, range from five up to 20 years, although any eventual sentence should Trump be convicted would likely be much lower,” the outlet added.
“Any eventual sentence should Trump be convicted would likely be much lower,” ABC noted in its report.
