Now it’s Pence ’fessing to docs
Former Vice President Mike Pence turned over two boxes of records with classified markings that were found at his Indiana home to the FBI — despite previously denying taking any sensitive files — in the latest instance of a high-ranking official potentially mishandling secret documents.
Pence, 63, said he found the records after the bombshell revelation earlier this month that President Biden stashed classified records dating to his vice presidency at a DC office and next to his classic car at his Delaware home — sparking a special counsel investigation.
Classified files
The FBI took the records from Pence’s home on Jan. 19, while he was in Washington to attend the annual anti-abortion March for Life, his office disclosed Tuesday.
The Justice Department’s National Security Division and the FBI have launched a review of about a dozen documents that were in Pence’s possession, acCNN, cording to which first reported on the find.
Pence attorney Greg Jacob informed the National Archives of the discovery in a Jan. 18 letter provided to The Post — with the notification coming two days after Jacob said the documents were found.
“The additional records appear to be a small number of documents bearing classified markings that were inadvertently boxed and transported to the personal home of the former vice president at the end of the last administration,” Jacob wrote to Archives official Kate McClure.
Pence is a possible 2024 presidential candidate — and according to press reports lacked a permanent residence and was living with relatives immediately after he left office as vice president in January 2021. Jacob wrote to McClure, “Following press reports of classified documents at the personal home of President Biden, out of an abundance of caution, on Monday, Jan. 16, Vice President Pence engaged outside counsel, with experience in handling classified documents, to review records stored in his personal home.
Turning them in
“Counsel identified a small number of documents that could potentially contain sensitive or classified information interspersed throughout the records. Vice President Pence’s counsel, however, is unable to provide an exact description of the folders or briefing materials that may contain sensitive or classified information because counsel did not review the contents of the documents once an indicator of potential classification was identified. Vice President Pence immediately secured those documents in a locked safe pending further direction on proper handling from the National Archives.”
In a Jan. 22 letter to a different Archives official, Jay Bosanko, Jacob wrote that “on the evening of Jan. 19, the Department of Justice bypassed the standard procedures and requested direct possession. Even though the vice president was in Washington, DC, to attend the March for Life, he still immediately agreed in the interest of ensuring an expeditious collection. FBI agents came to the Indiana residence of Vice President Pence at 9:30 p.m. to collect the documents that had been secured in his safe.” Jacob also wrote that “two boxes in which a small number of papers appearing to bear classified markings [were] found.” Pence’s attorney wrote that he would provide additional boxes without classified markings to the Archives for review.
The report comes amid a mushrooming controversy over Biden’s handling of classified material — with sensitive items dating back to his time as a senator and vice president found in recent months at his home in Wilmington, Del., and a vacant office in DC.
The FBI raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., last Aug. 8 to retrieve documents. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Nov. 18 appointed prosecutor Jack Smith to serve as a special counsel to determine if Trump violated any laws.