Since President Joe Biden did not appropriately turn over all classified material when he ceased being vice-president in January 2017, he is being rewarded with a Special Counsel. Attorney General Merrick Garland is applying to goose/gander standard.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Thursday appointed Robert K. Hur, a veteran prosecutor who worked in the Trump administration, to handle the investigation into how classified documents from President Biden’s time as vice president ended up at his private office and home.

Mr. Hur, who previously served as the U.S. attorney for Maryland during the Trump administration, is responsible for investigating “the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered” at the office of Mr. Biden’s think tank in Washington and his residence in Wilmington, Del., according to the order signed by Mr. Garland on Thursday.

Mr. Hur, who also served as a top department official in the deputy attorney general’s office in 2017 and 2018, is authorized to prosecute any crimes arising from the inquiry or to refer matters for prosecution by federal attorneys in other jurisdictions, the order said.

The decision to select a special counsel to look into the handling of the documents, which include briefing materials on foreign countries, comes at an extraordinary moment for Mr. Garland, who in November tapped Jack Smith, a former war crimes and public corruption, prosecutor, to lead the investigations into former President Donald J. Trump’s mishandling of government documents and his actions related to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

Obviously, as the sitting president, Biden could have legal access to any of the documents in question, but he was certainly not entitled to have that access during his time as a civilian between 2017 and 2021. Just as Trump is rightfully under investigation, Biden must be investigated to determine how the documents wound up where they were, what motives he may have had for retaining them, who else had access to them, and what possible damage/risk to national security may have occurred.

Trump might take some comfort in the fact that he’s not alone in having unauthorized possession of classified documents after leaving office, but this appointment actually makes it more likely that he will be prosecuted. The reason is that Garland has equalized the situation, meaning that he can feel comfortable that the Justice Department is not employing a double standard.

Based on what we know right now, Biden is not in the same kind of legal jeopardy as Trump. After all, if Trump had responded appropriately to requests from the National Archives for documents, he wouldn’t be under investigation. If he had responded appropriately to the Justice Department’s request for documents, he wouldn’t be facing prosecution. He’s not in legal peril because some classified files were stored at Mar-a-Lago but because he refused to give them back and lied about it.

If Garland did not expect Trump to face charges on these matters, he’d have less incentive to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Biden’s situation.

Now, a major part of the decision on whether to prosecute Trump on the documents case hinges on whether they believe they can secure a conviction. The fact that Biden also had classified information in an office and in his home might change the DOJ’s assessment of their odds in Trump’s case. But the actual charges are likely to focus on obstruction of justice rather than the mishandling of classified information, so I’m not sure the calculus changes much.

Of course, Biden gets credit for being cooperative but we still must know more about his case before we can say he’s in the clear. Equal justice means equal justice for ex-presidents and ex-vice presidents alike.