The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer declared on Wednesday "if it were anyone else" but former President Donald Trump who had mishandled sensitive documents, "they would be prosecuted."
The piece followed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of an image of documents marked as highly classified it said was removed from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home after the FBI raid. Serwer concluded from the photo that Trump unequivocally committed a crime and, were it any other person, would already be facing prosecution.
"It is illegal to ‘knowingly’ remove ‘such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location.’ The photograph of documents emblazoned secret removes any ambiguity as to whether Trump was in possession of classified documents. If it were anyone else, they would be prosecuted," Serwer wrote.
Several Republicans have pointed out that former 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was also investigated by the FBI for holding classified information on her private email server at home. Although FBI Director James Comey acknowledged that Clinton mishandled information, he declined to recommend prosecution and the DOJ declined to move forward.
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Although the article insisted that anyone else in Trump’s position would have been prosecuted, Serwer addressed comparisons to Clinton and dismissed them as Republican hype.
"If that claim sounds familiar, it’s because Republicans once offered a similar refrain about Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election. Trump led crowds in chants of ‘Lock her up!’ demanding that Clinton be imprisoned for her mishandling of classified information in email communications. Republicans, at the time, considered the mishandling of such information very serious, as did the press, which devoted front-page coverage to the federal investigation into the matter in the months leading up to the election," Serwer wrote.
He added that "Comey famously declared that Clinton and others at the State Department" were "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information" but "did not recommend prosecution" because he could not find indication that the "clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information."
However, Serwer claimed that the Comey standard for Clinton no longer applied because of a law Trump signed that enhanced the punishment for mishandling classified documents.
While Serwer argued against comparisons between Clinton and Trump, the article was largely promoted as emphasizing that "anyone else" accused of mishandling classified information would have been prosecuted. The piece’s title "If It Were Anyone Else, They’d Be Prosecuted" was featured on both the site and Twitter accounts which promoted the story.
"The photo of classified documents at Mar-A-Lago is clarifying in that we now know we are not really arguing about whether Trump broke the law but whether he should get away with it because he is Trump," Serwer tweeted.
The Atlantic’s Twitter account also highlighted Serwer’s quote, "The photograph of documents emblazoned 'Secret' removes any ambiguity as to whether Trump was in possession of classified documents. If it were anyone else, they would be prosecuted," without referencing Clinton’s past actions.
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On Wednesday, former CIA Director John Brennan also defended Clinton’s "character" against comparisons to Donald Trump, arguing that Clinton "worked tirelessly" to protect national security interests while Trump’s "nefarious intentions" put the country's "national security" at risk.
