I woke up here on Sunday, a little more agitated about Hinderaker’s document lies, overnight. So here is likely my one and only shot at his.

First off, there is the sheer volume of Trump’s theft: over 11 times as many as Biden’s newly found documents, at around 325 to 21. And there’s the notion that Trump tried to claim they belonged to him, not the office of the Presidency, despite the fact that they bore classification markings. And there were at least 46 EMPTY classified folders, at Mar-A-Lago — which strongly suggests at least 46 documents from Trump’s thievery… are still missing (buried at Bedminster, inside Ivana’s coffin?!). The differences are stark, in sum.

As EW says, in the case of at least one document, which was stored in a desk drawer in his office (along with other pictures and memorabilia), given that it bears his own hand-written notes, dated after 01.21.21, it is clear that Trump both accessed, and used these classified documents — at least once after he left the White House. [Nothing of the sort is known of Biden’s found scraps in dusty boxes, mostly from pre-2016 — and some going back to his days as a US Senator (early 2000s).]

As EmptyWheel cogently points out:

“…[T]here are press reports that Trump otherwise accessed documents after DOJ started looking for them — in part, by curating the ones he was willing to send back in January 2022 and hiding some from Evan Corcoran (his own lawyer!) so they wouldn’t be turned over in the June 2022 search — this compilation seems to show that Trump not only knew the classified records were in his home, but he used them, at least once, after he left the White House….”

As EmptyWheel carefully points out, on the other hand, we cannot yet be certain that Mr. Biden did not access these few other documents, after 44’s Presidency. True. But we can say unequivocally that Mr. Biden has been trying to immediately give them all back, as they are found — while Trump both lied about their very existence, and then stole them for over 18 months.

Obstruction, in sum — is a difference — a key difference. As is the numerosity, of course.

This will likely be my only “compare and contrast” entry on this, to put the lie to the Powerliner boys.

Cheers.