Classified documents were found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Carmel, Indiana, last week, according to CNN.
It is unclear what classified information exists in the documents.
Pence’s lawyer alerted the National Archives of the revelation. The Department of Justice (DOJ) was subsequently notified by the National Archives. The FBI and Justice Department have launched an investigation into the documents and how they were taken to Indiana.
The former vice president’s home in Washington, DC, was reportedly searched and no classified documents were found.
About a dozen classified documents were found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home and turned over to the FBI, sources tell CNN https://t.co/KjBR0SmnSB
— CNN (@CNN) January 24, 2023
CNN reported about the initial discovery in Indiana:
A lawyer for Pence told CNN that the FBI requested to pick up the documents with classified markings that evening, and Pence agreed. Agents from the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis picked up the documents from Pence’s home, the lawyer said.
On Monday, Pence’s legal team drove the boxes back to Washington, DC, and handed them over to the Archives to review the rest of the material for compliance with the Presidential Records Act.
In a letter to the National Archives obtained by CNN, Pence’s representative to the Archives Greg Jacob wrote that a “small number of documents bearing classified markings” were inadvertently boxed and transported to the vice president’s home.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, claimed Monday that his department has not applied a double standard of justice to Biden’s classified document scandal after reportedly agreeing with Biden’s personal lawyers to hide the scandal from the American people. (AFP)
The report of classified materials in Pence’s possession comes as President Joe Biden’s document scandal has continued to grow and dominate the news cycle. On Friday, more classified materials were found by the DOJ in Biden’s Wilmington home. The department had requested to search the premises after about 25 documents had been found by Biden’s personal attorneys.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, claimed Monday that his department has not applied a double standard of justice to Biden’s classified document scandal after reportedly agreeing with Biden’s personal lawyers to hide the scandal from the American people.
“Early on, Biden’s attorneys and Justice Department investigators both thought they had a shared understanding about keeping the matter quiet,” the Washington Post reported, noting the Biden administration’s attempt to conceal revelations of the second trove of stashed documents.
On January 9, the scandal was leaked to the press. Critics believe if the scandal was not leaked, the American people would not know of Biden’s wrongdoing. White House officials are reportedly suspicious about how Biden’s classified document scandal was leaked to the press after only a select group of White House and DOJ officials knew about the violation.
It’s unclear why Biden’s personal attorneys were initially searching for his illegally stashed materials. The White House and DOJ have failed to provide the initial reason or cause for the search.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
