Former US vice president Mike Pence on Tuesday said that he had uncovered documents marked as classified at his home, the latest twist in a mushrooming scandal over politicians’ handling of the nation’s most sensitive secrets.
Pence, seen as an outside bet for the presidency next year, had his lawyer inform the National Archives last week of a “small number” of records that were “inadvertently boxed” and transported to his home in Indiana as he left office in 2021.
He informed the Republican-led US House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Accountability about the cache on Tuesday, committee Chairman James Comer said.
Photo: AFP
Comer said in a statement that Pence had agreed to “fully cooperate with congressional oversight and any questions we have about the matter.”
It was not immediately clear what information the documents contained or the level of classification they had been allocated.
The discovery comes in the wake of the revelations about classified material discovered in US President Joe Biden’s private office and residence, and allegations that Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, obstructed justice over an FBI probe of a much larger stash of government secrets found at his home.
“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,” Comer said, without mentioning the Trump case.
Pence had asked his lawyer to conduct the search of his home out of an “abundance of caution,” CNN reported, citing unnamed sources, and the attorney last week began going through four boxes stored at Pence’s house.
“Mike Pence is an innocent man. He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
The development came as Republicans ramped up their probe of classified documents in the possession of Biden, who was the vice president under then-US president Barack Obama when they were removed from the White House.
Records were unearthed in a private think tank office where Biden used to work in Washington in early November, in his Wilmington, Delaware, garage on Dec. 20 and in his home library on Jan. 12.
US Department of Justice officials found six more classified documents during a search of the Delaware house last week.
Comer has asked the think tank for all its communications related to security by Wednesday next week, along with a list of employees and others with keycard access and a log of Biden’s visitors.
Government officials can face action over civil or criminal violations for mishandling classified records, but sitting presidents cannot be indicted thanks to a justice department policy.
Justice department special counsels Robert Hur and Jack Smith are conducting criminal investigations into the Biden and Trump documents respectively.
Republicans have added the scandal to their growing pile of investigations of the Biden administration and accuse the federal government of holding Trump to a higher standard than his successor.
However, the White House has been trying to draw a contrast between the Biden and Trump cases, underscoring that the president’s alleged conduct is significantly less egregious than the actions of which Trump is accused.
“We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake,” Richard Sauber, special attorney to the president, said in a statement.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese