Mike Pence Turns Over Classified Documents After Finding Them In His Home

Former Vice President Mike Pence voluntarily handed over classified documents to FBI officials after finding them at his home in Indiana last week.

Pence told the National Archives that he had hired outside counsel “out of an abundance of caution” to look through his home for classified documents after the news that top secret documents were found in President Joe Biden‘s personal think tank in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.

It is unclear what kind of information the classified documents contained, but they are now under review by the Justice Department’s National Security Division and the FBI.

Pence is now the third high-profile political figure to wrongfully be in possession of classified documents following a tenure in the White House.

Biden lawyers located classified documents in his office at the beginning of November, but the information was not disclosed to the public until earlier this month. Additional documents were also found at his home in Delaware in late December. Biden said he was “surprised” by the finding of the records and that he and his team will cooperate with the investigation.

Former President Donald Trump is currently under investigation by the Justice Department for the 15 boxes of classified documents found in an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago residence. Trump maintains that he did not violate the Presidential Records Act, which requires all presidents to hand over all documents from their time in the White House to the National Archives, because he declassified the materials before his administration was over.