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About a dozen classified documents have been found in former Vice President Mike Pence‘s Indiana home – despite his repeated denials that he had such information.
Pence’s lawyer discovered the material when conducting a search at Pence’s request last week. The boxes was immediately turned over to the FBI and the Justice Department is investigating.
It is the third time classified documents have been found on the private property of a recent president or vice president and comes as special counsels are investigating Joe Biden and Donald Trump over similar incidents.
The bombshell discovery was revealed as President Biden’s own crisis is escalating with more and more classified material found in his possession. Republicans have heavily criticized Biden for having the documents and the House Oversight committee has launched an investigation.
About a dozen classified documents were found in Mike Pence’s Indiana home
Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, said in his letter to the National Archives, that the former vice president had “engaged outside counsel, with experience in handling classified documents” to review records stored at his home on Jan. 16 “out of an abundance of caution” amid the uproar over the discovery of documents at Biden’s home.
In a follow-up letter from the lawyer dated Jan. 22, FBI agents visited Pence’s residence the night of Jan. 19 at 9:30 p.m. to collect the documents that had been secured. Pence was in Washington for an event at the time.
A total of four boxes containing copies of administration papers —- two in which “a small number” of papers bearing classified markings were found, and two containing “courtesy copies of vice presidential papers” — were discovered, according to the letter. Arrangements were made to deliver those boxes to the National Archives Monday.
Former President Donald Trump rants on his social media platform that his former Vice President is ‘an innocent man…leave him alone!’
Republican Congressman James Comer of Kentucky and chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Pence reached out to offer his assistance.
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‘Former Vice President Mike Pence reached out today about classified documents found at his home in Indiana. He has agreed to fully cooperate with congressional oversight and any questions we have about the matter,’ he said in a statement.
‘Former Vice President Pence’s transparency stands in stark contrast to Biden White House staff who continue to withhold information from Congress and the American people,’ he added.
The White House wouldn’t weigh in on whether a special counsel should investigate Pence’s findings.
‘That’s for the Department of Justice to decide,’ said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday.
Pence bought the home in Carmel for $1.93 million
The documents were discovered in Pence’s home in Carmel, Indiana, after the former vice president repeatedly said he didn’t have any classified material in his possession.
The documents were discovered in Pence’s home in Carmel, Indiana, after the former vice president repeatedly said he didn’t have any classified material in his possession.
Pence told the AP in August that he did not take any classified information with him when he left office.
Asked directly if he had retained any such information, he said, ‘No, not to my knowledge.’
The boxes originally went to a home the Pences had in Virginia and then went to the Indiana location after they purchased their residence there. Pence’s Washington D.C. office also was searched but no classified material was discovered.
Pence and Karen Pence purchased the home for $1.93 million in May 2021. The ‘picturesque’ 10,300 square-foot home sits on a five-acre lot and has seven bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms and an in-ground pool, according to the listing for the home on realtor.com.
The lower level of the house features a media room next to a ‘beautiful’ handcrafted bar, another large sitting area and an area for a pool table.
Also on the lower level of the home is a gym room with an accompanying full bath next to it.
Pictures of the home, built in 2008 according to the listing, also show the home has four garages, and a stone fireplace on the main floor.
The purchase came not long after Pence signed a $3 million to $4 million publishing contract with Simon & Schuster to author two books in early April.
The home is located in the city of Carmel, which was recently named the second wealthiest city in the Midwest, according to a study by personal finance site nerdwallet.com
The spacious study with wood paneling and a fireplace in Pence’s home
The lower level of the house features a media room next to a ‘beautiful’ handcrafted bar, another large sitting area, the listing for the home said
The finding of classified material raises questions on how the government handles classified material and the packing up of administration officials after a presidency ends.
Republican Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida told Fox News that the transition process ‘is broken.’
‘But I think the difference with Biden here is just how long this goes back,’ he added.
And Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Fox that ‘when it’s all said and done maybe we are overclassifying things, that may be part of the problem. But count me in for getting this fixed.’
Pence and many other Republicans had accused the Justice Department of a double standard in how they handled Biden’s case versus classified documents in Trump’s possession.
Pence, in the past, denied having classified material in his possession.
‘I did not,’ he told ABC News in November when asked if he took any classified documents with him when he left the Trump administration.
This was shortly after Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion was searched by FBI agents who were seeking classified material from his administration.
‘Well, there’d be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area,’ Pence said at the time. ‘But I will tell you that I believe there had to be many better ways to resolve that issue than executing a search warrant at the personal residence of a former president of the United States.’
Former President Donald Trump, who is under investigation for keeping classified documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago, is defending his former VP, Mike Pence after documents were found in his home last week
After ignoring requests to turn over presidential records, the Department of Justice authorized a warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. As a result of the search, a Special Counsel to oversee the probe was appointed.
A photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The probe into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago continues.
The discovery of documents in Pence’s possession comes after he criticized President Biden for having classified material.
Pence called it ‘troubling’ and accused federal agencies of having a ‘double standard’ when it came to handling Biden’s situation and Trump’s possession of classified documents.
He told Howard Hewitt a few weeks ago that the FBI was guilty of a ‘massive overreach’ in its raid on Trump’s home.
‘But having now created that standard and now abandoned that standard when the current president of the United States is found to have had classified documents in his possession after leaving office, I have no words right now,’ he said, comparing their treatment between Trump and Biden.
The National Archives had requested material from Trump. All presidents turn over the documents to the federal government at the end of their tenure. Trump eventually handed over 15 boxes. The archives found classified material in them and, suspecting Trump hadn’t handed everything over, turned to the Justice Department, which ultimately got a federal warrant to search the property.
Ultimately Trump was found to have hundreds of documents with classified documents in his possession.
In total, there have been five discoveries of classified materials in Biden’s possession: at the Penn-Biden Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C.; in Biden’s garage at his Wilmington, Del., home; one document discovered in his ‘personal library’ in the same home; four more documents found in his home; and then another six found when the Justice Department did another search of his Wilmington residence.
Biden turned over his documents when his lawyers found them and voluntarily gave the FBI access to his Wilmington, Delaware, home, to search for more. Those agents found six more classified documents on Friday after a 13-hour search of the home.
Ultimately, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to look into both Trump and Biden.
Earlier this month Pence described to Fox Business how classified materials were handled when he was vice president.
‘Early in the morning, I received a presidential daily brief at the vice president’s residence,’ he said.
‘I’d rise early. I’d go to the safe where my military aide would place those classified materials. I’d pull them out, review them. I’d receive a presentation (on) them and then, frankly, more often than not…I would simply return them back to the file that I’d received them in. They went in commonly into what was called a burn bag that my military aide would gather and then destroy those classified materials—same goes in materials that I would receive at the White House.’
He went on to add: ‘The handling of classified materials and the nation’s secret is a very serious matter and as a former vice president of the United States, I can speak from personal experience about the attention that ought to be paid to those materials when you’re in office and after you leave office. And clearly that did not take place in this case.’
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