Language can be terribly subtle, and word order is just as important as tense in terms of the framing the idea. But the reason it is important to emphasise the time order is that it clarifies who, if anyone is being hypocritical. The Democrat approach can be read as "We will treat you exactly as you treated us", where as the Trump order - I apologise for implying it was all Republicans - is "We insist on being treated better than we treated you".

Each individual leak is illegal, or it is not. I don't think we have any evidence which of the various leaks were ok, dubious or outright against the law, but I am confident there were a mix on both sides.