(CNSNews.com) - The Justice Department’s handling of President Biden’s classified documents case compared to its handling of Trump’s case is not so much “a double standard” as it is a “a two-party system,” Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Thursday.
“I don't know that it's a double standard so much as it's a two-party justice system as you’ve just laid out. Democrats have been treated one way under the system of justice and Republicans differently. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have been treated exactly the same,” Ratcliffe told Fox News’ “Hannity.”
“With respect to Donald Trump, search warrants and raids against a president we were told that was by the book and following the law, but then with respect to Biden and Clinton we see exceptions to that. We see that people are above the law and that they are treated differently. I think that was what was the intent here. I think what you saw, what you mentioned about the National Archives,” he said.
“You saw a shift today in mentality from one of get Trump to one of save Biden. They never thought they were gonna have a side-by-side comparison when they took an aggressive approach to President Trump, but now they know that Joe Biden has engaged in conduct with far more frequency and far more severity and the likelihood of far more grave damage to our national security than anything President Trump could have done,” Ratcliffe said.
“So they are trying to recalibrate and spin their way out of it, and I think that this is all playing out in front of the American people,” he said.
Host Sean Hannity pointed out that the FBI already has unfettered access to Mar-a-Lago before the raid.
They say that while Joe Biden was cooperating otherwise they would have issued a subpoena. That is Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland. They’re the ones bragging that they gave the order to raid Mar-a-Lago, but here is what they didn't say is that the FBI already had unfettered access to mar-a-lago, didn't they?
The FBI was already in the very room where they found the classified documents. The FBI had the option to take them with them but they decided not to and then called back the next day or soon thereafter and asked for a padlock to be put on.
If they knew they were there and they saw them because they were invited in, why didn't they ask to come back again and go over the documents and take that which was designed for the National Archives with them?
“Because the intent was to treat Donald Trump differently under the law. We have seen this time and time again repeatedly partly because it's Donald Trump partly because he's a Republican,” Ratcliffe said.
“At this point I don't think the American people are surprised by that. I think it's an unfortunate development in the system that we have, but again, I think what is playing out here is they never anticipated that they would be dealing with a Joe Biden problem with respect to this, and now they are trying to find a way out,” he added.