If this is true, then I really don’t see any way that people could possibly defend his actions. It looks like he admitted, on tape, knowing he was being recorded, with three different witnesses, that he had classified information that he had not declassified, that he KNEW IT WAS STILL CLASSIFIED, then SHOWED THEM THE DOCUMENTS. On tape.

I really don’t know how anyone can compare this to the actions of any other politicians, this is just utterly insane. Hillary Clinton didn’t knowingly and deliberately try to show other people classified information, at best she stored some classified information improperly, at worst her improper storage may have led to people who weren’t cleared to see it to see it. And either way she coorperated with investigators at every step of the way, endured hours of congressional testimony, and didn’t try to hide it or delay the investigation.

And I also think that it’s fair to treat the President and Cabinet members differently than other people with security clearance when it comes to the improper handling and storage of classified materials. The president is constantly handling classified information, on a daily basis, anywhere he works. He handles so much classified information that I think it becomes nearly impossible for him to actually keep track of what he has that is and isn’t classified. All it takes is one page of a file being removed from its folder and put somewhere else by mistake- and the president handles hundreds of such pages per day. And, of course, notes about a classified document or discussion are by default also classified- and the president is constantly taking notes to keep up with everything. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the President to be 100% perfect with this, they expect their aides and assistants to help to do it for them. But even with that mistakes will be made. The president handles more classified information in a day than most people with clearance will handle in months. The same goes for cabinet members and the Vice President.

The important thing is that when other presidents have discovered classified information in their belongings after their term expires, they have immediately contacted the current executive, told them about it, and asked them to double check that they don’t have more. I don’t think it would be good to prosecute, say, Mike Pence or Joe Biden for this, because they cooperated with the investigation and the nature of their office makes it likely things will slip through the cracks.

But if they start showing off the classified info they found and bragging that it’s classified to people without clearance? Throw the book at them, that’s 100% crossing the line.