Letters

Reader Ed Surgan again shows his blatant disregard of the facts while trying to push his political agenda [“Unequal Treatment,” Letters, February 15].

From the very start of his letter (“Joe Biden was found guilty ...”), we find Mr. Surgan to be factually incorrect. No guilty finding was made by special counsel Robert K. Hur or any court of law. Mr. Hur, in fact, concludes that “the few classified documents found in Mr. Biden’s Senate papers were there by mistake” (page 325).

Mr. Surgan next turns his attention to former President Donald Trump and tries to alibi his actions regarding retaining classified documents. Mr. Surgan claims a “very unequaI standard of justice” when comparing President Joe Biden to Mr. Trump.

Facts, however, have a way of refuting the hyperbole spewed by Mr. Surgan. We only need to turn to the special counsel’s report once again.

Mr. Hur, who was appointed to a previous job in the Justice Department by President Trump, makes it a point to contrast the cooperation of President Biden with the actions of Mr. Trump. The special counsel’s report states: “Several material distinctions between Mr. Trump’s case and Mr. Biden’s are clear. Unlike the evidence involving Mr. Biden, the allegations set forth in the indictment of Mr. Trump, if proven, would present serious aggravating facts.”

The report continues, “Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite. 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. In contrast, Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations, including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview, and in other ways cooperated with the investigation” (page 250).

I don’t feel a need to refute Mr. Surgan any further. My point in submitting this letter was to show the one-sided and misleading take from last week’s letter.

As I have tried to show by using actual excerpts from the special counsel’s report, we can all bring down the temperature by using facts. I’m all for a civilized debate regarding our political differences. I just hope we can avoid using inflammatory language and misleading statements masquerading as facts.

Harry Mainzer

East Quogue