Greta Van Susteren: Base Justice on Fairness, Not Politics

Basing justice on politics and not fairness leads to division in a nation and "undermines our system of justice moving forward," Newsmax host Greta Van Susteren said after former President Donald Trump's indictment and arrest on charges related to possession of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

"When we treat people differently who had the same bad behavior or when we split hairs from political advantage, half the country thinks it's a witch hunt," she said on her program, "The Record with Greta Van Susteren," on Tuesday night.

"No one is above the law," she said. "Absolutely no one. This includes everyone caught with classified documents."

This applies not only to Trump, but to President Joe Biden, including when he was a senator and a vice president, said Van Susteren, adding that former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Vice President Mike Pence also had that issue.

She also mentioned Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's former deputy chief of staff "who somehow put classified documents on her husband's laptop."

"Each of the above had classified documents they should not have had," she said. "Each broke the law even though you might like them and make excuses or forgive them."

Van Susteren also stressed that it's important to remember that the indictment against Trump is serious, as it charges him with 37 counts rising from the alleged improper possession of classified documents, but it doesn't mean he's been proven guilty.

"Indictments are 100% one-sided, meaning they only represent what the prosecutor thinks or believes and what he then presented to the 16 to 23 grand jurors," said Van Susteren. "A trial is also an opportunity, if the defense elects, to present evidence of its own and even for the defendant to testify if he so chooses."

Van Susteren also noted that she doesn't know what the evidence will be in Trump's case, but she urged her audience to "wait for all the evidence and not get your hair set on fire by an electrifying indictment, with an even more electrifying word, espionage."

And then, there is the matter of prosecutorial discretion, said Van Susteren.

"Just because a prosecutor can [indict] and even if the prosecutor believes a crime was committed, it doesn't mean a prosecutor should always indict," she said. "There's no bright line defining prosecutorial discretion. It's simply good judgment and, most importantly, a sense of fairness."

Fairness maintains confidence in the nation's criminal justice system, while unfairness destroys it, Van Susteren continued.

In the case of Trump, "there is a lot of hair-splitting going on, and for the most part, it's been done along party lines," she said. "Politics have no place in the courtroom, but Trump is the only one indicted from the list I named. It's fair to ask now, whether you like Trump or not, but rather why Trump got indictment and the others I named did not."

Trump, Van Susteren acknowledged, "seemed to thumb his nose at the DOJ and make the DOJ jump through hoops to get a subpoena to get the documents at Mara Lago."

"I think he was obnoxious about it," she said.

But Van Susteren added that she thinks it was "obnoxious" that Biden and his team learned about his possession of classified documents on Nov. 2, 2022, six days before the midterm election but didn't inform the public until January.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, unlike Trump or Biden, never gave people a chance to see what was on her server before she deleted 33,000 emails, said Van Susteren.

Van Susteren also pointed out that none of the people she named packed their own boxes with the documents, but she does think they were "irresponsible" and "violated the law," but at the same time, "not one of them was ever going to hurt our country."

"They don't need documents," she said. "They have years of classified information locked in their memories. They could just whisper it to someone."

And the nation gains nothing by indicting them, except "maybe a little political blood," said Van Susteren.

"P.S." she concluded. "The world is watching us."

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