Former FBI assistant director sees ‘glaring disparity’ in DOJ’s ‘kid gloves’ treatment of Biden

A former FBI assistant director is attacking the bureau for its “glaring disparity” in the way the agency has approached situations surrounding President Biden and its handling of classified material from former President Donald Trump.

The first set of classified documents in Biden’s possession was found at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 2, shortly before the 2022 midterm elections, and was not revealed until Monday. A search of Biden’s garage at his Wilmington home was conducted on Dec. 20, and the remainder of the home, according to Biden’s lawyers, was searched this week when additional documents were discovered.

While the Trump and Biden cases have major differences, Chris Swecker, who served 24 years in the FBI as a special agent and retired from the bureau as assistant director for the criminal investigation division, told Fox News Digital Saturday that the Justice Department is handling things. with Biden in a “gentle” way.

Swecker, referring to the treatment Trump received during the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago last year, said there is a “glaring disparity in how somewhat identical facts are treated when it comes to the Bidens.”

5 CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS FOUND IN BIDEN’S DELAWARE HOME, WHITE HOUSE LAWYER SAYS

Attorney General Merrick Garland looks on as President Biden speaks during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 13, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“You know, it’s kid gloves, it’s happening in a very nice, very polite way,” Swecker said, noting that the Justice Department is apparently allowing Biden allies to decide what gets watched and what doesn’t. also. such as what is taken from the properties and what is not.

“This is another example, I think, of the soft way of treating the left and the right,” Swecker added.

Special counsel to the president Richard Sauber revealed in a statement Saturday that five additional pages of classified documents were found at Biden’s home in Delaware on Thursday evening, making a total of six classified documents taken from the home — in addition to documents discovered in the garage.

Sauber explained that when Biden’s personal lawyers identified a classified document at Biden’s home on Wednesday, they halted the search for additional documents because they did not have the security clearances needed to view those materials — calling into question the seriousness of the case and why the DOJ doesn’t seem to help control Biden’s residences or offices.

Under pressure from Republicans, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel Thursday to investigate the classified materials, which Biden claims were “inadvertently placed.” Garland tapped Robert Hur, a former US attorney, to handle the investigation.

BIDEN’S ‘RESPONSIBLE’ HANDLING OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS GREATER ‘LEAK’ RISK THAN TRUMP’S, EXPERTS SAYS

President Joe Biden appears in the Oval Office at the White House on January 13, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Biden’s cooperation with the DOJ as authorities investigate the classified documents has been praised by Democrats. Sauber stressed in his statement that Biden “takes classified information and material seriously” and said the president’s lawyers “will continue to cooperate” with the special counsel’s investigation.

“We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced and the President and his lawyers acted immediately upon discovering this error,” Sauber said.

“Based on what we know now, Biden is unlikely to ever face charges, while Trump is at high risk because of his obstructive behavior and other factors missing from the Biden case,” wrote Norm Eisen, an ethics attorney. and counsel for House Democrats. in an opinion column for CNN. “The cases have special counsel and classified documents in common — but little else.”

Trump, Eisen argued, resisted handing over the materials after months of discussions and a subpoena and insisted he had a right to keep them, while Biden said he was unaware the classified documents — at least the first set — were in his possession. his, and the lawyers voluntarily submitted them to the DOJ.

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At the time of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, before it became public knowledge that he also had classified material hidden away from his time as vice president, President Biden questioned how Trump could be so ” irresponsible”.

Asked why the FBI is leaving the search of Biden’s Delaware residence for additional classified material to White House aides, Swecker said there should be “an open investigation” and that it reminds him of how the FBI addressed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. who was able to avoid allegations of her use of a private email server during her tenure.

“This is a continuation of those kid gloves, the soft touch they have with things on the left of the political aisle,” he said. “On the right side, they come in with swat teams and search warrants and come hard. It shouldn’t be like that.”

“I think it’s wrong for the FBI to use search warrants to do this,” he added. “They have to call, and they have to do it in a way that a direct raid can’t. But that’s not what they did with Trump — they just raided his Mar-a-Lago mansion… If it’s good for Trump, it should have been good for Biden. There is a disparity in how this set of very identical circumstances was treated.”

At the time of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, before it became public knowledge that he also had classified material hidden away from his time as vice president, President Biden questioned how Trump could be so ” irresponsible”. (Getty Images, photo illustration)

Swecker also said he believes the documents found at Mar-a-Lago were in a much more secure location than those found at Biden’s home in Delaware, which served as his residence for the time between his roles as vice president. and president.

“I think they were safer at Mar-a-Lago, I mean it took an FBI team to get in there,” he said. “You can’t get in the gate. I’m sure there was a log there because it was still under Secret Service protection. [They] they were locked inside a closet, the hotel has cameras and security so it’s tightly locked. They made sure that it was locked at the request of the archives and the DOJ”.

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“Now a garage door, you can go out to any of these technology places and you can program any garage door opener to open any garage door, virtually,” Swecker added. “[Biden] It wasn’t under Secret Service protection at the time, from my understanding, and the house was empty a lot during that time. That house was inherently unsafe. It’s a lot less safe than Mar-a-Lago.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House.