The establishment’s rules really are different for former President Donald Trump.
Newsmax recently reported that at least four of Trump’s predecessors in the White House have stored or kept classified documents outside the guardianship of the National Archives.
But Trump is the only one who was subjected to an FBI raid to recover the papers — and U.S Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of Trump’s staunchest backers, says that is a travesty.
Under the 1978 Presidential Records Act, the records of the president belong to the federal government, not the individual president.
Yet Newsmax pointed out there have been “plenty of instances of Oval Office memos winding up in places far less secure than Trump’s private home — a location that’s guarded by the Secret Service.”
The Free Press reported last month that former President Barack Obama keeps materials, including some classified documents, as Obama’s own staff admitted, in an old furniture store in the Chicago suburbs.
Newsmax noted that the trove encompasses some 30 million pages of Obama’s records.
Before Obama, according to the outlet, former President George H.W. Bush kept an unknown number of records in a Texas strip mall that had once been the location of a bowling alley and a Chinese restaurant.
Former President Bill Clinton stashed some 80 million pages in an abandoned Oldsmobile dealership in Arkansas.
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Former President George W. Bush kept 68 million documents in an old warehouse in Texas.
“There’s probably not a single presidential library in America that’s not out of some sort of technical compliance with the Presidential Records Act,” Rep. Gaetz told Newsmax when asked about habits of the previous presidents “Which makes the FBI raid [of Trump] all the more ridiculous.”
The Fort Walton Beach Republican added that the FBI used the “dispute” over documents between Trump and the National Archives to “smear” Trump with “this air of criminality.”
Gaetz also said the raid “totally backfired” as conservative commentators and politicians have united in denouncing the FBI, and his fans have only hardened their support.
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