WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The volume of classified documents is vastly different, the circumstances of discovery worlds apart.
\nBut the\u00a0revelation\u00a0that lawyers for President\u00a0Joe Biden\u00a0have located what the White House says is a \u201csmall number\u201d of classified documents in a locked closet is an unexpected wrinkle for a Justice Department already\u00a0investigating Donald Trump\u00a0over the retention of top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate.
\nDespite abundant\u00a0factual and legal differences\u00a0in the situations, Trump seized on the news in hopes of neutralizing his own vulnerability \u2014 at least in the court of public opinion. The development is\u00a0unlikely to affect the Justice Department\u2019s decision making\u00a0with regard to charging Trump. But it could make a criminal case a tougher sell politically, hardening the skepticism of Republicans in Congress and others who have doubted the basis for a viable prosecution.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think that it impacts Trump\u2019s legal calculus at all, but it certainly does impact the political narrative going forward,\u201d said Jay Town, who served as U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Alabama during the Trump administration.
\n\u201cTo the extent that the political narrative is a consideration,\u201d he added, \u201cit does make it harder to bring charges against former President Trump as it relates to the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago.\u201d
\nThe Mar-a-Lago investigation is being\u00a0handled by a special counsel, while the Justice Department assigned the top federal prosecutor in Chicago, a Trump administration holdover, to scrutinize the Biden matter. It\u2019s all unfolding as newly ascendant Republicans have taken control of the House, with plans to target the department with complaints of politicized law enforcement.
\nAlready, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, has\u00a0requested a damage assessment\u00a0of the classified documents from the director of national intelligence. And Trump, referring to the FBI\u2019s seizure in August of boxes of classified record at Mar-a-Lago, asked on his social media platform: \u201cWhen is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?\u201d<\/p>\n