😹😹😹😹

Trump’s legal team thinks Pence having documents changes everything: report https://t.co/llfC4wU4W6

— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 24, 2023

Because of course they do.

It was announced on Tuesday that unknown to Pence, among the items taken from his time in the White House were a few documents that were marked classified. Pence, like President Joe Biden, immediately contacted the FBI and handed over the information. 

The Trump team thinks that it will make it difficult for prosecutors to justify bringing charges against the former president without charging Pence and Biden.

I want to see them use the "But Mikey got to do it!" defense in court. I really do.

TED CRUZ: The FBI needs to search the University of Delaware and Hunter Biden's home and business addresses

LARRY KUDLOW: What about Pence, a friend of both of ours, who found classified documents in his home?

CRUZ: Oh look, Mike Pence has explained where these came from pic.twitter.com/VZwobf8RZl

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 24, 2023

Cruz has jumped the shark.

narcissists present a facade of invincibility, superiority, 'smartness' and invulnerability. but in times of crises, when this front is penetrated, they crumble in a process of disintegration referred to as "decompensation." as shown here: pic.twitter.com/4k2xhkpW9t

— The Ghost of GC 🌻 (@gtconway3dg) January 24, 2023

By the time of the first criminal trial, Trump will just be a whimpering blob of protoplasm.

"Why Did Mike Pence Wait So Long to Reveal His Stash of Classified Documents?"https://t.co/lRZnk5Jf1o

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 24, 2023

I don’t much care that Pence didn’t immediately run to the press to announce the documents, but it is the kind of thing that journalists who are good at horse race coverage, unaware of many of the thus-far distinguishing details about the Trump documents, and ill-equipped to cover classified documents stories latched onto with Biden. 

Until we have answers about some of the details that currently distinguish Biden and Pence from Trump — like whether they knew of the documents (both claim they did not), whether they ever accessed the documents after leaving office, whether we have reason to believe they’re harboring more — this should not be a story. 

And the key difference, one that should be included in every story that tries to make such a comparison, is that Trump refused to give documents back, whereas Biden and Pence freely offered them up. 

The reason that’s important, aside from the both sides drama of it, is that it is an element of the offense that would be most likely to be used if DOJ took the unprecedented step of charging a former Original Classification Authority with harboring classified documents. 

As we can now see, it happens that men who have aides pack them up at the end of their tenure go home with documents they didn’t know they had. It happens. (By the time Kamala Harris leaves, there’s likely to be a new protocol in place, so Harris can set a perfect record as the first woman being packed up.) What matters — what distinguishes a mistake from a potential crime — is what you do with the documents when you become aware you have them.