Shortly after special counsel Robert Hur released today’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, Fox News host Sean Hannity falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump was given “no opportunity” to return classified documents before the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022.
Hur’s report — which did not recommend any charges against Biden — noted that there are “several material distinctions” between Biden’s and Trump’s classified documents cases. “Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite,” Hur wrote. “According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it.”
After reading this section of the report on his radio show, Hannity declared, “There was no opportunity for Donald Trump, you know, to have the negotiations that they're talking about.”
This assertion is false; Trump repeatedly failed to turn over all of his classified documents to the National Archives, the FBI, and the Justice Department
Later in the broadcast, Hannity read a section of the report recounting how Biden told his ghostwriter that he had found classified documents in his Virginia home, to which Hannity asked, “How is that any different than what they’re claiming Donald Trump did?”
The answer to Hannity’s question, of course, is clearly communicated in the very report that he read for his audience, as well as the lengthy updated indictment brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith: Trump reportedly obstructed justice, and Biden cooperated.
