Former Vice President Mike Pence responded to reports that former President Donald Trump is the subject of a criminal investigation in a town hall but advocated “equal treatment under the law.”
Pence, who officially entered the race on Wednesday for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, refused to answer whether he would pardon his former boss if he was elected president. Trump was convicted of a crime related to classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort last August.
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“Let me say the handling of classified materials is a very serious matter,” Pence told CNN host Dana Bash. “I don’t know the facts of the former president’s case. But what we’ve got to have in this country is equal treatment under the law. And Dana, you may not know, I was very troubled last summer when for the first time in history, there was a search warrant executed at the home of a former president of the United States.”
Federal prosecutors reportedly notified Trump’s legal team that Trump was the subject of a criminal investigation on Wednesday, but Trump has denied any knowledge of it. The notification is the latest signal that special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation, is close to bringing charges against the former president.
Pence said he hoped the Justice Department would not indict Trump on charges related to the classified documents because it would be divisive to the country.
“We’re the symbol of justice in the world. And the serious matter, which has already happened once in New York, of indicting a former president in the United States sends a terrible message to the world,” Pence said. “I think it would be terribly divisive to the country. This kind of action by the Department of Justice, I think, would only fuel further division in the country.”
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The former president was indicted in Manhattan earlier this year, charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. He has pleaded “not guilty” to all charges.
If Trump is indicted on charges of allegedly mishandling classified documents, the indictment could come as early as next week.
