On Thursday, President Joe Biden's Department of Justice made its long-anticipated move and filed a criminal indictment against his chief political rival, former President Donald Trump, in relation to his retention of allegedly classified documents after he left the White House.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) responded to that move by saying it would "disrupt this nation" and reeked of a double standard in terms of the bedrock principle of equal justice under the law, The Hill reported.

McCarthy asserted that other top Democrats have allegedly done the same things that Trump is now indicted for but rather than be treated equally were instead spared of facing any criminal charges.

"A very dark day in America"

In an exclusive interview with Fox News on Friday, Speaker McCarthy said of the DOJ's indictment of former President Trump, "This is going to disrupt this nation because it goes to the core of equal justice for all, which is not being seen today. And we're not going to stand for it."

"This is a very dark day in America when you think about what they're trying to indict President Trump on," he continued. "You've got a sitting president right now in the exact same situation. You have a former first lady, senator, secretary of state, that had the same situation that nothing was done to."

That was, of course, a reference to President Biden's own unauthorized possession of classified documents scandal as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of an unsecured private email server to handle official government business, including classified materials.

"In America, some of our greatest strength is equal justice, and today it shows that it is not," the Speaker said. "But what's even worse upon this -- this is a leading contender to run for office with an administration of a current president that has the exact same documents. Even worse from the aspect there are documents that President Biden has that he had when he was a senator."

McCarthy referenced his time as a member of the so-called Gang of Eight -- top leaders from both parties in the House and Senate -- and how carefully classified materials are handled in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF), and said of Biden, "You do not remove any documents from the SCIF. How does he even have the possibility of a document from the Senate?"

Impending revelations could undermine the indictment of Trump

Axios reported that President Biden's DOJ, by way of Special Counsel Jack Smith, unveiled a criminal indictment against former President Trump that includes 37 felony counts, mostly in relation to alleged violations of the Espionage Act and the retention of documents related to defense or national security, as well as a few charges related to obstruction of justice and making false statements.

During the Fox News interview, Speaker McCarthy revealed that he has held discussions with both House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) about the DOJ's investigation and now prosecution of Trump, and suggested that their committees could soon reveal certain information that could prove damning and undermine the DOJ's efforts.

"You've got to treat people equally," the Speaker said. "What's going to be very concerning here -- I've already talked to Chairman Comer and Chairman Jim Jordan of things that we can do to ensure equal justice -- but there's something interesting in some of our investigations we just had earlier this week, a retired FBI agent that was a part of the investigation here."

He added, "When you learn -- and I think Jim Jordan is going to bring it out tonight -- when you learn of some of the things that he had said of how this investigation was carried out, you'll see then that this judgment is wrong by this DOJ, that they treated President Trump differently than they treat others, and it didn't have to be this way."

Former FBI agent alleges improper misconduct during Trump documents probe

According to The Hill, the retired FBI agent that Speaker McCarthy mentioned is Steven D’Antuono, who previously served as an assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office.

D'Antuono, who has spoken out against the FBI raid of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, reportedly provided sworn testimony recently before the Judiciary Committee and alleged that the investigation into Trump's retention of classified documents had been improperly conducted in various ways.