One consideration for Merrick Garland is how Donald Trump’s alleged actions stack up against other cases DOJ has brought or not brought over mishandling classified information.
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It’s unclear how big an obstacle prosecutors will consider Trump’s claims, but some legal observers aren’t impressed.

“It’s hogwash,” Smith said. “You have nothing beyond the president deciding it was his …. It has all the earmarks of a post-action justification.”

Prosecutors appear to agree, noting in their Tuesday night filing that during the back-and-forth about the documents Trump’s lawyers never said anything about a declassification.

The dangers of going too easy

While Trump allies are already pressing Garland to forgo any prosecution, going easy in any publicized classified-information case can have real consequences down the road.

The relatively light charge and punishment Petraeus received has been cited by defendants in numerous classified information cases since as grounds for leniency or evidence of a double-standard for high-ranking officials.

Use of the presidential pardon power has also fueled that perception: In 2001, President Bill Clinton pardoned former CIA Director John Deutch as he was on the verge of pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for keeping top secret codeword information on computers at his homes in Maryland and Massachusetts.

And in 2017, President Barack Obama pardoned one of his favorite military officers, Gen. James Cartwright, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in an investigation of leaks of highly classified information about how the Iranian nuclear program was severely set back through a computer virus. Prosecutors wanted Cartwright sent to prison for two years.

Although none of the prior episodes is identical to what Trump allegedly did, the key challenge for Garland in making the high-stakes decision about the former president is captured in another of the attorney general’s favorite phrases: “We treat like cases alike.”