Mike Pence’s Home Contains Classified Documents: DOJ Appoints Special Counsel to Investigate
Former Vice President Mike Pence informed Congress on Tuesday that he discovered documents bearing classified markings in his Carmel, Indiana, home on Jan. 16 from his time as vice president.[0] It has been months since the Mar-a-Lago raid and only days since multiple items were found at President Biden's homes, and now there is a new disclosure.[0]
It was revealed by the White House on the 9th of January that papers had been discovered at the Penn Biden Center situated in Washington, DC on the 2nd of November by the private lawyers of Biden.[1] Additional documents were later found at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Dec. 20, prompting an FBI search of the home on Friday.
After Biden's residence was found to contain classified documents earlier this month, Greg Jacob — the lawyer representing Pence — sent a letter to the Archives. In this letter, Jacob mentioned that Pence had hired an outside counsel, who had experience with classified documents, to examine records stored in his personal residence.[2] In the course of the search, documents which “potentially contain sensitive or classified information interspersed throughout the records” were discovered.[1] On Thursday night, FBI agents visited the Indiana home of Pence to retrieve documents that Jacob had mentioned.[3] Pence's personal lawyer conducted a prior review of the documents on Jan. 16, thereby facilitating their transfer.[2]
Merrick Garland, the Attorney General, has assigned a special counsel to determine if any laws were violated in the way Biden and Trump handled confidential information when no longer in office.[4] On Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence informed the House Oversight and Accountability Committee of a newly discovered issue, as reported by its Chairman, Republican Rep. James Comer.[5]
The documents are undergoing a review by the Department of Justice's National Security Division and the FBI, the sources said.[6] In an interview Jan. 11 with CBS, prior to the discovery of the documents, Pence said his staff “reviewed all of the materials in our office and in our residence to ensure that there were no classified materials that left the White House or remained in our possession.”[7]
CNN was the first to report that documents with classified designations were discovered at Vice President Pence's residence.[8] The team of Pence stated that, even though the documents display classified markings, the Department of Justice or the agency that issued them must ultimately decide whether they are classified or not.[9]
After Pence assuredly told ABC News last year that he had not taken any documents out of the White House unlawfully, the unveiling of classified-labeled documents is a mortifying incident for him.[1] Lawyer Greg Jacob wrote on Jan.[3]
0. “WH classified documents are exposed to many people and can be ‘mishandled,' Bush's chief of staff says” Fox Business, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/classified-documents-exposed-many-people-mishandled-bush-chief-of-staff
1. “Mike Pence: Classified documents found at former vice-president's home” BBC, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64392871
2. “Classified documents found at Pence’s Indiana home” The Hill, 24 Jan. 2023, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3828327-classified-documents-found-at-pences-indiana-home/
3. “Documents marked classified found at Pence's Indiana home” Yahoo Entertainment, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/documents-marked-classified-found-pences-175020107.html
4. “Donald Trump: Pence is ‘innocent' after classified records discovery” Business Insider, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-mike-pence-innocent-man-classified-records-truth-social-2023-1
5. “Mark Warner warns previous presidents, vice presidents to ‘check your closets' for documents” Washington Examiner, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/mark-warner-warns-presidents-vice-presidents-to-check-closets
6. “Mike Pence: Classified Documents Found at Former Veep's Indiana Home” The Daily Beast, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-pence-classified-documents-found-at-former-veeps-indiana-home
7. “Classified documents found at Pence's Indiana home, recovered by FBI” NPR, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/01/24/1151065195/pence-classified-documents-indiana-home-archives-fbi
8. “Classified documents discovered at Pence's Indiana home” Axios, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/01/24/mike-pence-classified-documents
9. “Vice President Mike Pence discovered classified documents in Indiana home” FOX 5 Atlanta, 24 Jan. 2023, https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/vice-president-mike-pence-discovered-classified-documents-indiana-home