Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley said Thursday that former President Donald Trump has “some merit” in requesting a dismissal of the classified documents case brought against him.
While he does not foresee the case being dropped, he argued Special Counsel Robert Hur’s refusal to bring charges against President Joe Biden for his case in storing classified documents gives Trump “some merit” to attempt to drop the case.
“Now, I’m afraid I think he is likely to lose the claim for dismissal, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have some merit in his objections to these charges,” Turley said. “He’s appeared in these courthouses to really drive home how he’s being pursued from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Trials being scheduled all the way up to the election potentially. This message is never gonna resonate as loudly, or in my view, successfully as this morning. Because he’s gonna be in front of this court right after the special counsel just gave President Biden a pass, and the special counsel before Congress laid out what seemed to be a serial violator of classified materials going back 40 years.”
Hur said in his report that a jury would likely find Biden to be a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” and not convict him. The special counsel therefore refused to press criminal charges, despite finding evidence that Biden willfully mishandled classified material after it had been discovered in his University of Pennsylvania offices and inside his garage.
“President Trump’s gonna play on that and I don’t blame him in saying look, you can debate the obstruction charges, but why am I being prosecuted for these documents charges after that decision,” Turley continued. (RELATED: ‘Particularly Egregious’: CNN Commentator Blasts Democrats For ‘Attacks’ On Robert Hur)
During a Tuesday hearing, Hur denied Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s claim that he “exonerated” the president. Congressional Democrats accused Hur of being politically motivated by pointing to his alleged “poor memory” in the report ahead of the 2024 election.