Fox News’ Juan Williams and Martha MacCallum got into a near-shouting match over former President Donald Trump’s indictment on Tuesday.
Trump was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to a 37-count indictment in a Miami courthouse related to his alleged possession of over 300 pages of classified documents. Williams criticized conservatives for alleging a double standard between the Justice Department’s treatment of Trump versus former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or President Joe Biden.
“Joe Biden’s team made those documents known to the government. The government didn’t go to Biden. And in the case of Hillary Clinton, there was no effort to obstruct or lie about her activities. I mean, this is a clear difference with this case—”
“The servers were smashed and the emails were destroyed, Juan,” MacCallum interjected. “The question- here’s the problem.”
“They were destroyed under the rules of law, Martha, under the rules of law,” he said.
“That’s not true,” MacCallum interjected.
“The person who’s being investigated has the right to look at her emails or his emails, and decide which ones are relevant for the government to scrutinize,” he said. “And now all of a sudden, Trump brings this up because again, it’s smoke and mirrors and say oh, it’s unfair.” (RELATED: Newt Gingrich, Juan Williams Spar Over Hunter Biden’s Alleged Crimes)
MacCallum said the public has only heard one side of the case after Special Counsel Jack Smith released the indictment. She said some of the allegations in the indictment, which include 31 alleged violations of the Espionage Act, appear very serious.
She then pointed to the delayed investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop and alleged tax violations.
“You may have confidence that those cases were investigated clearly. A lot of Americans don’t have that confidence. My goodness, so how could it take five years to investigate Hunter Biden’s taxes and his laptop? Can you explain that to me? What is taking five years, Juan, if it isn’t back-burnered?”
“We can make a case and feel confident in making this case that it wouldn’t be viewed as political and that a jury would convict this really lost child of a crime here. That it wouldn’t be seen as [if] we were just going after him just because he’s the president’s son,” Williams said.
“I mean, don’t make him sound like the victim,” MacCallum said.
“Think about it, who’s the prosecutor in the Delaware case? A Trump appointed prosecutor. Who was the prosecutor when we were looking into all of this stuff? Again, Bill Barr,” he said.
“Listen, if there’s nothing there, the case should be closed,” MacCallum added. “It’s still open. That’s the question. And I think many people believe it’s still open because it’s the president son, active president. Now you’ve got an active political campaign going on, a former president, somehow we’re gonna be super expeditious and everything’s gonna wrap up, we’re going to do a speedy trial on this one. All I’m saying is that these things raise a lot of questions in the minds of Americans, Juan, and I think we all need to have our eyes open about what’s going on.”
“I’m all for it. If you have proof,” Williams said.
MacCallum pointed to an FBI record alleging that a Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, offered Biden and Hunter $5 million in bribes during Biden’s vice presidency. Williams continued to call for “proof” that Hunter committed any crime and for any alleged double standard.
“Nepotism is not a crime,” he said.
“No, we’re talking about a bribery that may have taken place between an executive in Ukraine in order to have an outcome in U.S. policy. That’s what we’re talking about,” MacCallum said.
“Nobody has ever offered any proof,” Williams said, talking over MacCallum.