Opinion | The Impossible Task of Defending Donald Trump

Alas, Mr. McCarthy is much from alone in debasing himself for the good thing about the previous president. So on the event of Mr. Trump’s second not-guilty plea in three months, after he was arrested and arraigned on the fees on Tuesday in a Miami federal courtroom, let’s take aside the 2 most typical, and most absurd, defenses of his conduct.

Selective Prosecution. That is the “witch hunt” narrative that has animated the Republican Occasion for years. On this account, the “deep state” has all the time had it in for Mr. Trump, concentrating on him for issues that different officers, particularly Democrats, get away with. “For those who’re Donald Trump, they’re going to come back get you for something,” Byron Donalds, a Florida congressman, stated on CNN on Tuesday. “However when you’re Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, they’re going to research very, very slowly, and let’s see the place it really finally ends up.” That is an upside-down manner of taking a look at what’s occurred over the previous a number of years.

It’s true that Mr. Biden was discovered to have categorized paperwork from his time as a senator and as vp in his private possession, too, some saved in his Delaware storage. Identical with former Vice President Mike Pence. In each instances, the elimination of secret materials after their phrases ended was apparently inadvertent, and there was no indication that both one even knew he possessed the paperwork. Each males cooperated with authorities, instantly returning the paperwork to their rightful proprietor, the federal authorities. Even so, Mr. Biden’s legal professional normal, Merrick Garland, shortly appointed a particular counsel to look into the president’s paperwork case.

In distinction, it has taken the federal government greater than a yr to get the lots of of categorized paperwork Mr. Trump took from the White Home. First the federal government requested politely, then it issued subpoenas, and eventually it executed a search warrant. Even now, it will be silly to imagine that every thing in Mr. Trump’s possession has been turned over. The indictment costs him with a number of acts of obstruction, together with instructing his private aide Walt Nauta to maneuver bins round as a way to conceal them from his personal attorneys, and later suggesting to considered one of his attorneys that he “pluck” out any paperwork that may get him in hassle.

And what of Mrs. Clinton, in opposition to whom Mr. Trump nonetheless appears to imagine he’s operating, seven years later? It has develop into an article of religion amongst Republicans, each the “Lock her up” crowd and the supposedly extra severe ones, that Mrs. Clinton dedicated a serious crime by utilizing a private e-mail server to conduct authorities enterprise whereas she was secretary of state. Even Chris Christie, the previous New Jersey governor who performs one of many few accountable politicians within the trendy G.O.P., referred to as the allegations in opposition to her “damning.”