Classified documents found at Mike Pence’s home too, his lawyer says
Documents with classified markings were discovered at former Vice President Mike Pence‘s Indiana residence last week, his lawyer says — the latest in a string of recoveries of papers meant to be treated with utmost sensitivity from the homes of current and former top U.S. officials.
“A small number of documents,” taken into FBI custody Thursday, had been “inadvertently boxed and transported” to the former vice president’s home at the end of the last administration, Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, wrote in a letter to the National Archives that was shared with the Associated Press.
Jacob said that Pence had been “unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence” until a search last week, and that he “understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information” and stands ready to cooperate with “any appropriate inquiry.”
The revelation came as the Department of Justice was investigating the discovery of documents with classification markings at the Delaware home and a former Washington office of President Biden, as well as at former President Trump’s Florida estate.
The newest discovery thrusts Pence, who had previously said he followed stringent protocols regarding classified documents, into the debate over the handling of secret materials by officials who have served in the highest ranks of government.
A personal lawyer says the Justice Department has searched the president’s home in Delaware and located six documents containing classification markings.
Trump is currently under criminal investigation after roughly 300 documents with classified markings, including at the top-secret level, were discovered at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Officials are trying to determine whether Trump or anyone else should be charged with illegal possession of those records or with trying to obstruct the months-long criminal investigation into them. Biden is also subject to a special counsel investigation after classified documents from his time in the Senate and in the Obama administration were found at his properties.
Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, reacted to the new development on his social media site: “Mike Pence is an innocent man. He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!”
Trump and Pence have clashed over Pence’s refusal to go along with Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump is already a declared presidential candidate for 2024, and Pence has been exploring a possible campaign that would put him in direct competition with his former boss. Biden has indicated he will seek reelection.
Pence‘s case could bolster the arguments of Trump and Biden, who have sought to downplay the significance of the discoveries at their homes. The presence of secret documents at all three men’s residences further underscores the federal government’s unwieldy system for storing and protecting the millions of classified documents it produces every year.
Pence’s lawyer, Jacob, said in his letter that the former vice president had “engaged outside counsel, with experience in handling classified documents,” to review records found at his home on Jan. 16 “out of an abundance of caution” amid the uproar over the discovery of documents at Biden’s home.
Jacob said the Pence documents with classification markings were immediately secured in a locked safe. FBI agents visited the residence Jan. 19 at 9:30 p.m. to collect the documents, according to a follow-up letter from Jacob dated Jan. 22. Pence was in Washington for an event at the time.
A total of four boxes containing copies of administration papers — two with “a small number” of papers bearing classified markings, and two containing “courtesy copies of vice presidential papers” — were discovered, according to the letter. Arrangements were made to deliver those boxes to the National Archives on Monday.
Congressional leaders were notified of the discovery by Pence’s team on Tuesday.
The FBI wouldn’t have broken hundreds of years of precedent over a misplaced memo, one expert said. A look at what the Justice Department may have sought and what it may have found at Trump’s home.
The boxes, according to a Pence aide, were not kept in a secure location, but were taped shut and were not believed to have been opened since they were packed. The former vice president’s staff also searched the Washington office of his advocacy group last week and did not discover additional documents, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the search.
Material in the boxes came mostly from Pence’s Naval Observatory vice presidential residence, which would not have been packed by the vice president’s office staff or its lawyers. Other material came from a West Wing office drawer, the person said.
The National Archives declined to comment on the discovery. A Justice Department spokesman also declined to comment, and a lawyer for Pence did not immediately respond to an email seeking elaboration.
Pence told the Associated Press in August that he did not believe he had taken any classified information with him when he left office.
Asked directly if he had retained any such information, he said, “No, not to my knowledge.”
In an interview this month with Fox Business, Pence described a “very formal process” used by his office to handle classified information, as well as the steps taken by his lawyers to ensure none was taken with him.
“Before we left the White House, the attorneys on my staff went through all the documents at both the White House and our offices there and at the vice president’s residence to ensure that any documents that needed to be turned over to the National Archives, including classified documents, were turned over,” Pence said.
Why did either president have potentially classified records? Erin B. Logan explains.
On Capitol Hill, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee expressed incredulity over the mishandling of documents by top U.S. officials.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas noted that locked bags are used to move classified documents out of the committee’s offices.
“In my book, it’s never permissible to take classified documents outside of a secure facility” except by a secure means of transport between such facilities, he said.
House Intelligence Chairman Michael R. Turner, an Ohio Republican, said he planned to request a formal intelligence review and damage assessment.
And Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, another potential 2024 presidential candidate, said, “I don’t know how anybody ends up with classified documents. ... I mean, every classified document I’ve ever seen has a big ‘Classified’ on it.”
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed to broader concerns with the classification system, saying it was “at the point where there is so much out there, it is hard to determine what ought to be classified, and then it is hard to determine what should be declassified.”
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