Documents marked as categorized had been found at former US Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana dwelling final week.
The discovery places Pence within the firm of his former boss, former President Donald Trump, and President Joe Biden, after paperwork with categorized markings had been discovered at their residences.
His lawyer, Greg Jacob, despatched a letter to the National Archives on January 18 notifying them of the paperwork and in a separate letter on January 22 notified the Archives that the FBI got here to the previous vice chairman’s dwelling to gather them.
Jacob mentioned within the letter to the National Archives that “out of an abundance of caution” Pence had engaged outdoors counsel to overview data saved in his dwelling after stories in regards to the supplies discovered at Biden’s residence.
“Counsel identified a small number of documents that could potentially contain sensitive or classified information interspersed throughout the records,” Jacob wrote within the letter.
“Vice President Pence immediately secured those documents in a locked safe pending further direction on proper handling from the National Archives,” he mentioned. Pence’s counsel didn’t overview the contents of the paperwork as soon as they had been decided to be marked categorized, the letter mentioned.
Biden, whose paperwork dated from his time as vice chairman, and Trump, who resisted turning over the gadgets, resulting in an FBI raid, are each dealing with particular counsel investigations by the Justice Department over improper dealing with of categorized supplies.
During a presidential transition interval, the data from every administration are speculated to be turned over to the authorized custody of the U.S. National Archives.
It is illegal to knowingly or willfully take away or retain categorized materials. Failure to correctly retailer and safe categorized materials poses dangers to nationwide safety if it ought to fall into the improper palms.
