MS. found in Pence’s home

As President Biden has thrown a lifeline to President Trump in the matter of possession of classified documents, former Vice President Mike Pence has thrown a lifeline to Biden. Lawyers representing Pence discovered “a small number of documents bearing classified markings that were inadvertently boxed and transported” to Pence’s new home in Carmel, Indiana. CNN reports on the discovery here, the AP here, the Wall Street Journal here.

Pence attorney Greg Jacob notified the National Archives of the discovery by letter dated January 18. Jacob wrote that Pence had retained counsel on January 16 to review records stored in his home. Jacob advised:

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.

Jacob added: “Vice President Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence,” Jacob wrote. Yesterday Pence provided notice to congressional leaders and relevant committees.

By letter to the National Archives dated January 19 Jacob updated the story. Jacob noted that “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 added that he would personally “deliver the [four] boxes [of Vice Presidential Records retained by Pence] to the Archives between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. on Monday, January 23.”

We don’t know the nature of the documents or their sensitivity. The FBI and the Department of Justice have undertaken a review.

I can report that President Biden sees Pence in a whole new light. He is grateful for Pence’s service. He now thinks that Pence may be instrumental to saving “our democracy.”®

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