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Documents with classified markings were found at the home of former US vice president Mike Pence in Indiana last week, according to his lawyer, the latest in a series of recoveries from the homes of current and former US officials.
The memo “appears to be a series of classified documents that were accidentally packed and transported to the former vice president’s private home at the end of the last administration,” Pence’s attorney, Greg Jacob, wrote in a letter to the National Archives shared with The Associated Press.
He said Pence was “aware of the presence of sensitive or confidential documents in his private residence,” until last week’s search and “understands the importance of protecting sensitive and confidential information and is ready and willing to cooperate fully with National. Archives and appropriate inquiries.”
The revelation comes as the US Department of Justice has been investigating the discovery of classified documents at President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware and his former Washington office, as well as former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate. Biden, a Democrat, has said he will seek re-election while Pence, a Republican, has explored the possibility of a 2024 presidential campaign that would put him in direct competition against his former leader.
The latest findings have thrust Pence, who has previously insisted he follows strict protocol on classified documents, into a debate over the handling of classified material by officials who have served in the highest ranks of government.
A special counsel has been named to investigate US President Joe Biden’s handling of two troves of classified documents after more sensitive government material was found at his private home.
Trump defended Pence
Trump is currently under criminal investigation after approximately 300 classified documents, including at the top secret level, were found at his Florida home.
Officials have been trying to determine whether Trump or others should be charged with illegal possession of the records or trying to obstruct a criminal investigation for months. Biden is also subject to a special counsel investigation after secret documents from his time as a senator and in the Obama administration were found on his property.
Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, reacted to the new development on the social media site: “Mike Pence is an innocent man. He has never done anything intentionally dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!”
While the case is very different, Pence’s development may dilute or increase attention to Trump and Biden, who seek to downplay the importance of the discovery in their home. The presence of classified documents in all three men’s homes further underscores the dysfunctional federal government system for storing and protecting the millions of classified documents produced each year.
Pence’s lawyer, Jacob, said in his letter that the former vice president had “engaged an outside counsel, with experience handling confidential documents” to review records kept at his home on January 16 “out of caution” after Biden. documents become public.
Jacob said Pence’s documents were immediately secured in a locked safe. According to a follow-up letter from the lawyer dated Sunday, FBI agents visited Pence’s home on Thursday night to collect the documents. He was still in Washington at the time.
‘don’t know me’
A total of four boxes containing copies of administrative papers – two in which “a small number” of papers with classified markings were found, and two containing “copies of the vice president’s letter” were found. Arrangements were made to send the box to the National Archives on Monday.
The National Archives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discovery, which was first reported by CNN.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment Tuesday, and Pence’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking elaboration.
Pence told The Associated Press in August that he did not take classified information with him when he left office.
Asked directly if he had withheld classified information when he left office, he said, “No, I don’t know.”
In a January interview with Fox Business, Pence described the “very formal process” his office uses to handle classified information as well as the steps lawyers take to ensure nothing is taken.
“Before we left the White House, the lawyers on my staff went through all the documents in the White House and our office there and at the vice president’s residence to make sure that any documents that needed to be sent to the National Archives, including classified documents, were turned over. So we did a careful process on this,” Pence said.
Not a crime
A spokesman for former US president Barack Obama cited a 2022 statement from the National Archives that said the agency controlled all of Obama’s records after he left office and was “not aware of any missing boxes.”
Freddy Ford, a spokesman for former US president George W. Bush, told the AP that “all presidential records – classified and unclassified – have been turned over to [the National Archives] when leaving the White House.”
Bill Clinton’s spokesman said all classified documents are in the custody of the National Archives and have not been found elsewhere since he left office in 2001.
President Joe Biden’s team is doing damage control after more classified documents were found at his Delaware home. Republicans were quick to call Biden a hypocrite for condemning former president Donald Trump for taking classified files at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
A spokesman said former US vice president Dick Cheney did not leave the office with classified materials and none were found.
Mike Pompeo, who served in the Trump administration as secretary of state and is considering his own 2024 Republican presidential bid, said during a stop in South Carolina in late August that the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property “is a very political use of the FBI.”
Asked if he took classified material with him after leaving the administration, Pompeo replied, “no,” adding, “No one should declassify information from a place that is classified as classified information, at any time, stop, period.”
Public records show Pence and his wife, Karen, bought a seven-bedroom, 10,300-square-foot home in Carmel, Ind., in May 2021 — about four months after moving out of the vice president’s home in Washington. The Indiana property is spread over about five acres north of Indianapolis.
Possession of classified material is not a criminal offence. While some government officials and contractors have been indicted, others such as former attorney general Alberto Gonzales and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton have been admonished in reports for negligence but not prosecuted.
The defendants were prosecuted for violations related to three classifications of documents, in ascending order: secret, secret and confidential. The top secret classification, according to the Department of Justice, describes the type of information where “unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause extraordinary harm to the national security of the United States.”
Documents in various government agencies are classified for national security purposes. In 2010, Congress passed the Over-Classification Reduction Act in an attempt to address the often confusing and complex process.
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