GOP Rep. looking into Biden's mishandling of classified docs said he won't do the same for Trump

• The new GOP oversight chair is looking into Biden's mishandling of classified documents.
• But James Comer said it was unnecessary to do the same for Trump.
• Republicans have alleged a double standard, despite large differences in the two cases.

The GOP's new chair of the House Oversight Committee, who is calling for accountability in the President Joe Biden classified documents case, has said he was not interested in investigating Donald Trump.

On CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Rep. James Comer said: "I don't feel like we need to spend a whole lot of time investigating President Trump because the Democrats have done that for the past six years."

A portion of the exchange was posted to Twitter by journalist Aaron Rupar:

—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 15, 2023

Comer wrote to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain on Sunday over the Biden case, asking for a list of visitors to Biden's Wilmington home, and pressing him on why Biden's personal lawyers had been allowed to continue looking for documents after the possibility of a special counsel being appointed to the case was raised.

Speaking to CNN, he said: "We just want equal treatment here, with respect to how both former President Trump and current President Biden are being treated with the document issue."

He raised concern about the fact that the public did not learn about the mishandled documents until January — two months after the midterms. (Per Tapper, the White House has said it didn't want to take any action that would disturb the DOJ's investigation, which Comer found unconvincing.)

Comer asked why Trump's Mar-a-Lago home was searched by the FBI and why Biden's home wasn't, saying: "it's not fair."

Experts have told Insider that factual differences in the case explain why there has been no raid on Biden — most significantly that Biden voluntarily disclosed the lapse and returned the documents, where Trump refused.

On CNN, Tapper produced an old clip of Comer seeming to contradict his neutral position, in which he also argued against scrutinizing Trump.

In the November 2022 clip, Comer said of investigating Trump: "I don't know much about that, that's not something that — we've requested information just to see what was going on, because I don't know what documents were at Mar-a-Lago. So that's just something we're just waiting to see what comes out on that.

Asked if seeking more information of Trump would be a priority, Comer said: "That will not be a priority."

Indicating the clip, Jake Tapper asked him: "Do you only care about classified documents being mishandled when Democrats do the mishandling?"

Comer responded with a denial, suggesting that Biden could be holding on to many more documents than the roughly 20 unearthed so far. (Trump is said to have had more than 300 documents.)

He said his "biggest concern" was not the documents themselves but what he described as a "discrepancy" between how the two figures were treated.