(RepublicanNews.org) – The ranks of current and former White House executives with classified documents in their hands continue to grow, with former Vice President Mike Pence telling Congress he, too, found some at his home.
Perhaps to forestall a more adversarial investigation, Pence had members of his team search his Indiana home. On January 24, he told Congress his staff found two boxes containing papers marked classified, while another two boxes contained “vice presidential papers.”
Pence’s staff said they alerted the National Archives, which then alerted the FBI according to protocol.
Earlier in January, White House lawyers found classified documents at President Joe Biden’s think tank, the Biden Penn Center in D.C., and also at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. The Delaware documents were kept in a box in Biden’s home garage along with his classic Corvette Stingray.
The situation was significantly less friendly for former President Donald Trump. Despite Trump’s cooperation with a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation, the FBI launched a full raid on his Mar-a-Lago home in September 2022.
With both Biden and Pence, the papers have been discovered by staff and lawyers working for these men. There have been no FBI raids on properties owned or occupied by Biden despite continuing revelations of yet more classified documents discovered by White House lawyers.
Pence’s team said they boxed up the documents after discovering them and put them in a safe. The FBI collected them from Pence on January 19.
Staff for Pence said that the documents they found bore “classified markings” but that it would be up to the DOJ to determine if they are classified and subject to secrecy rules.
Attorney General Merrick Garland last week launched a full investigation into the Biden documents, upgrading the DOJ’s effort from a mere “review.”
James Comer, the Kentucky Republican chairing the House Oversight Committee, said Pence’s transparency about the papers in his possession “stands in stark contrast” to the reluctance of President Joe Biden’s White House staff.
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