After the FBI’s raid of Donald Trump’s Florida property in early August of 2022, investigations have been continuing throughout the government to locate more missing documents, some of which hold the highest possible classification of secrecy. Within the past month, both former Vice President Mike Pence and President Joe Biden have come forward, saying they also had classified documents that they had taken off the government premises. There has expectedly been much coverage and outrage in the media, namely conservative media, which seems to demand why the consequent procedures have been so different with the cases of the current and former presidents. While the situations may seem similar on the surface, the men have very different situations in each case.

Former president Donald Trump, after failing to concede the 2020 election to Joe Biden, uncustomarily refused to give up his position in the White House until the very day in January of 2021 when he ended his term. As a result of this, upwards of 15 boxes of various papers (with some boxes containing classified documents, not permitted to be taken off government grounds) were hastily taken to his beach club and home estate, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida. Some believe it was within his rights as president to do so, including the supposed authority to declassify the documents at will.

Those working closely with Joe Biden notified the Department of Justice of the existence of classified documents in Biden’s former personal office in early November of 2022, with more discovered in his home in January 2023.

While several distinctions have been made in the two men’s cases, the most significant variation is Biden’s team’s willingness to comply with the Department of Justice’s procedures. In the case of Trump, officials were mostly operating on suspicion that the former president was hiding something, but the Biden team complied before intrusions and investigations were ordered.

Another key point to refute is conservative demand for DOJ officials to raid Biden’s Delaware home and even the White House. The issue with this is that a raid, or an unexpected, war-like attack or invasion, should be unnecessary when the documents were given over willingly and Biden and his family consented to the past searches. As for raiding the entire White House, that is a logical error, as that is where the documents are supposed to be, albeit suspicious when they are out of order or kept in the wrong spots.

While the story is still unfolding, the most important thing to keep in mind about the documents is that “classified” has always had the same definition: that these certain documents must be protected carefully for the safety of the nation. There is no exception for the carelessness of the past two administrations.

While context does play a part in the severity of these cases, the principle remains the same: the documents never should have been taken in the first place.