Ex-US Vice-President Mike Pence’s residence has been found to contain classified documents, marking the latest discovery of secret documents at the homes of former top-level government officials.
A lawyer for Mr. Pence discovered the records at his residence in Indiana last week and turned them over to the FBI.
The ownership of papers by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is already being investigated by investigators.
Mr. Trump is under scrutiny for potentially mishandling documents
Mr. Pence’s representatives notified the National Archives about the materials by letter.
Lawyers stated in a second letter that the FBI came to the former vice-residence president to take the documents, bypassing “normal processes” and demanded “direct custody” of them.
By the Presidential Records Act, White House records are to be transferred to the National Archives upon the conclusion of an administration. Such files are required by regulations to be stored securely.
At the end of Mr. Trump’s administration, a “limited number of documents carrying secret markings” were “inadvertently packaged and conveyed” to Mr. Pence’s house, according to a letter published by US media.
Mike Pence sought legal counsel from experts in handling sensitive documents “out of an excess of caution” before the new development.
The letter stated that he requested assistance “when it became apparent that secret materials were discovered in President Joe Biden’s Wilmington residence.”
The former vice-president locked away “a tiny number of documents that could contain sensitive or classified information,” which were discovered by attorneys.
A Pence aide told CBS News, the US partner of the BBC, that the records were housed in boxes in an unsecured location of the vice president’s residence. The assistant said that they were taped shut.
The records are believed to have been transported to Mr. Pence’s home in Virginia before being sent to Indiana, according to US media.
After the letter was made public, Mr. Trump defended Mr. Pence on his Truth Social social media platform, claiming that he is an “innocent man.”
Mr. Trump wrote, “He never did anything intentionally dishonest in his life.” “Leave him in peace!!!”
Mike Pence had stated numerous times over the past few months that he did not believe he possessed sensitive documents.
He told CBS earlier this month that he was certain checks of documents in his house were “thorough and diligent.”
Mr. Biden previously stated that he had “no remorse” about not disclosing the discovery of classified documents in his private office before the midterm elections.
Six additional classified files were discovered during a 13-hour search of President Biden’s Delaware residence on Friday, according to a statement released by his attorney on Saturday.
It is believed that the documents found thus far pertain to Mr. Biden’s eight-year term as vice president under former President Barack Obama.
Mr. Biden gave access to his residence so that the Department of Justice could undertake a thorough search for potential vice-presidential records and classified materials, according to Mr. Bauer.
Mr. Biden’s attorneys stated earlier this month that a first batch of classified materials had been discovered on November 2 at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank founded by the president in Washington, D.C.
On 20 December, a second batch of data was discovered in the garage of his Wilmington home, and on 12 January, another document was discovered in a storage area of the residence, according to his attorneys.
Tuesday, representatives for former presidents Obama and George W. Bush informed Reuters that their administrations had given over all records to the National Archives after leaving office.
The findings at the residences of Mr. Pence and Mr. Biden coincide with a special counsel investigation into Mr. Trump’s alleged misuse of materials.
Mr. Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate contained hundreds of sensitive documents; Mr. Trump and his attorneys refused to hand up the documents until the FBI raided the Florida vacation home last August.
Mike Pence denied any wrongdoing and claimed that President Biden was receiving preferential treatment from the FBI.
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