Mike Pence: Classified documents found at former vice-president's home :: Dancehall Reggae :: Forums

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Posted January 25, 2023 08:28 AM

Classified files have been found at ex-US Vice-President Mike Pence's home in the latest discovery of secret papers at the homes of officials who have served in the top ranks of government.

The documents, discovered by a lawyer last week for Mr Pence at his Indiana home, have been handed over to the FBI.

Investigators are already looking into President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump's possession of files.

Mr Trump faces a criminal investigation for allegedly mishandling papers.

Representatives for Mr Pence sent a letter to the National Archives alerting them to the documents.

The FBI came to the former vice-president's home to collect the documents, bypassing "standard procedures" and requesting "direct possession" of them, lawyers added in a separate letter.

Under the Presidential Records Act, White House records are supposed to go to the National Archives once an administration ends. Regulations require such files to be stored securely.

A "small number of documents bearing classified markings" were "inadvertently boxed and transported" to Mr Pence's home at the end of Mr Trump's presidency, his lawyer wrote in a letter shared with US media.

The latest development emerged after Mr Pence sought legal help from specialists in handling classified documents "out of an abundance of caution".

He asked for help "after it became public that documents with classified markings were found in President Joe Biden's Wilmington residence", the letter read.

Lawyers found "a small number of documents that could potentially contain sensitive or classified information", which were locked by the former vice-president in a safe.

An aide to Mr Pence told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, the documents were stored in boxes in an insecure area of Mr Pence's home. The aide said they were taped shut.

According to US media, the documents are believed to have first been taken to Mr Pence's home in Virginia before later being sent to Indiana.

After the letter became public, Mr Trump came to Mr Pence's defence, taking to his Truth Social social media platform to say that he is "an innocent man".

"He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life," Mr Trump wrote. "Leave him alone!!!"

Mr Pence had repeatedly said over the last months that he did not believe he was in possession of classified documents.

Earlier this month, he told CBS that he was confident reviews of documents in his home were done "in a thorough and careful way".

Mr Biden previously said he had "no regrets" over not going public before the midterm elections with the news that classified documents had been discovered in his private office.

Six more classified files were found during a 13-hour search of President Biden's home in Delaware on Friday, his lawyer Bob Bauer said in a statement on Saturday.

The documents unearthed so far are believed to be related to Mr Biden's eight-year tenure as vice-president under former President Barack Obama.

Mr Biden offered access "to his home to allow DoJ [the Department of Justice] to conduct a search of the entire premises for potential vice-presidential records and potential classified material", Mr Bauer added.

Earlier this month, Mr Biden's lawyers said a first batch of classified documents had been found on 2 November at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank that the president founded in Washington DC.

A second batch of records was found on 20 December in the garage at his Wilmington home, while another document was found in a storage space at the house on 12 January, his lawyers said.

Representatives for former Presidents Obama and George W Bush told Reuters on Tuesday that their administrations had turned over all documents to the National Archives after leaving office.

The discoveries at the homes of Mr Pence and Mr Biden come as Mr Trump faces a special counsel inquiry over his alleged mishandling of documents.

Hundred of classified records were found at Mr Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago residence - Mr Trump and his lawyers resisted handing over the documents until the FBI raided the Florida holiday home last August.

He denied any wrongdoing, alleging that President Biden was being treated more favourably by the FBI.

Classified documents have been found in Mike Pence's private home

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Today we learned that yet more classified documents slipped out of the White House and into the private home of a top official. We're not talking about the residence of President Biden or former President Donald Trump. These documents were uncovered at the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence. For the latest, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myre. Hey, Greg.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.

KELLY: So another day, another tranche of classified documents turning up somewhere they should not have been. How were these documents found?

MYRE: They were found at Pence's home in Carmel, Ind., on January 16. That's eight days ago, and that's according to an aide to Pence, Greg Jacob. Now, he says Pence wasn't aware that he had this classified material at his home, but because of these recent document discoveries involving President Biden and President Trump, this prompted Pence to ask an outside lawyer to review the material stored at his home. And the lawyer found, quote, "a small number of documents that could potentially contain sensitive or classified information." Now, Pence's aide said these documents were inadvertently boxed and transported when Pence left the White House two years ago. And upon learning this, Pence put the documents in a locked safe. The FBI collected them from the safe last Thursday.

KELLY: OK. So the FBI has them now. Will this set off the same kind of investigation we are seeing with documents linked to President Biden and former President Trump?

MYRE: Well, we don't know yet, and we don't know what's in the documents, but this certainly seems possible. Now, Attorney General Merrick Garland has already named two separate special counsels. One is looking into the documents found at Biden's former office and residence, and the other one is reviewing the material found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Now, Pence is a possible Republican presidential contender in 2024. He'd certainly want to get this resolved before launching a campaign. With Trump declaring his candidacy and Biden likely to do so, we now have three possible candidates who need to sort out some issues with classified documents.

KELLY: Yeah. Well, and I have to note, both Democrats and Republicans seem extremely concerned when someone from the other party is found with classified documents. What are we hearing today?

MYRE: Right. So Pence himself hasn't commented, but he did speak to CBS on January 11, and that was five days before the documents were found at his home. He said his staff, quote, "reviewed all the materials in our office and our residence to ensure there were no classified materials that left the White House." Now, he said that he was very confident that was the case, although five days later we find out the opposite took place. And the head of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said Pence has agreed to fully cooperate. And we should note that Biden and his staff have cooperated with the government while former President Trump resisted for months as the government sought to retrieve missing classified documents from him.

KELLY: Starting to feel like a safe bet, Greg, that this ain't the last case you and I may have occasion to discuss, that more classified material is out there somewhere. Speak to why it is so hard for the government just to keep a handle on this, track it all down.

MYRE: Yeah. It is actually very hard to do that unless somebody actually knows that it's gone. You know, with classified documents, one agency will create it, and then it gets shared with other parts of the government, including the White House. But there's no master list of every document, which can vary widely in terms of sensitivity. So documents do go missing, usually by accident. And the intelligence community even has a term for this. They call it spillage. It happens, and they know it happens.

KELLY: NPR's Greg Myre, thank you.

MYRE: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Classified Documents Found at Pence’s Home in Indiana

The documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to the former vice president’s home at the end of the Trump administration, Mr. Pence’s representative wrote in a letter to the National Archives.

Aides to former Vice President Mike Pence found a “small number of documents” with classified markings at his home in Indiana during a search last week, according to an adviser to Mr. Pence.

The documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Mr. Pence’s home at the end of President Donald J. Trump’s administration, Greg Jacob, Mr. Pence’s representative for dealing with records related to the presidency, wrote in a letter to the National Archives.

The discovery of the classified documents in Mr. Pence’s home was reported earlier by CNN.

The letter, dated Jan. 18, said that the former vice president was unaware of the existence of the documents and reiterated that he took seriously the handling of classified materials and wanted to help.

Mr. Jacob wrote that Mr. Pence relied on an outside lawyer after classified documents were found in recent days at the residence and former private office of President Biden. A person familiar with the search identified that lawyer as Matthew E. Morgan, who has a long history with the Pences and who worked as a lawyer on the 2020 re-election campaign. Mr. Jacob also said the lawyer could not specify anything more about the documents because the lawyer had stopped looking once it was clear the documents had classified markings.

“Counsel identified a small number of documents that could potentially contain sensitive or classified information interspersed throughout the records,” Mr. Jacob wrote of the search, which he said was conducted on Jan. 16. A person familiar with the matter said the lawyer who conducted the search previously worked with Mr. Pence in the Trump administration and had a security clearance while there.

“Vice President Pence immediately secured those documents in a locked safe pending further direction on proper handling from the National Archives,” Mr. Jacob wrote.

In a second letter dated four days later, Mr. Jacob wrote that despite having a conversation with archives officials on Jan. 19 about procedures for obtaining records from former presidents and vice presidents, the Justice Department that evening “bypassed the standard procedures and requested direct possession” of the documents.

Mr. Pence was in Washington attending the March for Life anti-abortion event, Mr. Jacob wrote, but he still granted permission to turn over the documents. Mr. Jacob also wrote that there were two boxes in which the records with classified markings had been found, as well as two additional boxes with copies of administration papers.

He said he would personally bring those boxes to the National Archives on Jan. 23. An archives spokesperson declined a request for comment.

Mr. Pence’s transition out of office was notoriously bumpy, after Mr. Trump spent weeks pressuring him to effectively overturn the results of the 2020 election so that Mr. Trump could stay in power.

Still, the disclosure brings more questions about how classified material is handled at the top levels of government at a moment when Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are both subjects of special counsel investigations on the matter.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland had no comment when asked about the retrieval of the documents from Mr. Pence’s house. He declined to say whether the Justice Department’s involvement in the matter signaled an impending criminal investigation that might warrant referral to a special counsel.

Mr. Trump has been under federal investigation for nearly a year for how hundreds of documents with classified markings, as well as hundreds of pages of presidential records, wound up at his private club and residence, Mar-a-Lago.

Mr. Trump resisted the urging of aides to give boxes of documents with unknown contents to the National Archives. When he eventually turned over 15 boxes, archives officials found hundreds of pages with classified markings. Mr. Trump later faced a grand jury subpoena to turn over any remaining documents, and one of his lawyers wrote a statement saying everything had been turned over. When investigators found evidence that was not the case, the F.B.I. searched his club in August.

Mr. Biden, by contrast, has cooperated since the discovery of documents at his nonprofit offices and then his home. However, he and the White House have faced questions about the timeline of the discoveries and the level of transparency with the public about when documents were found at Mr. Biden’s home.

On Friday, the F.B.I. searched Mr. Biden’s home for about 13 hours and found six additional items that were taken, his lawyer said. The president granted access to his Delaware house.

Mr. Jacob, who was Mr. Pence’s general counsel while he was vice president, stressed cooperation in the letter to the National Archives.

Still, Mr. Pence and his aides had previously said they were confident that the vice president had not retained any classified documents after he left office.

One of the people familiar with the matter said that the documents in question were largely previously held at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. Officials began briefing relevant congressional committee officials on Tuesday, the person said.

Mr. Pence is considering a presidential campaign for 2024, in a primary in which Mr. Trump is so far the only declared candidate. Mr. Biden has not yet said whether he will run for re-election, but all signs point to a likely candidacy for a second term.

maameika

Posted January 25, 2023 01:28 PM

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