On Tuesday, documents with classified markings were discovered in the private Indiana home of former president Mike Pence.
As Michael Scott from The Office might say, “My how the turntables.”
It wasn’t that long ago that Mike Pence was eviscerating his former boss Donald Trump during the fake news saga that once purported Trump had nuclear secrets locked up in Mar-a-Lago. Pence even made the requisite rounds on corporate media outlets to make sure consumers of “mainstream” media knew he was one of the good Republicans.
Now, however, that video is coming back to both haunt and humiliate Trump’s former running mate. Whereas Trump had the legal authority to declassify documents and thus had a viable excuse for bringing them home, Pence did not.
For those that need a reminder, here was Mike Pence in November of 2022 sitting down with ABC’s David Muir flat out denying he had any classified documents of his own.
FLASHBACK:
Muir: "Did you take any classified documents with you from the white house?"
Pence: "I did not."
Muir: "Do you see any reason for anyone to take classified docs from the White House."
Pence: "There would be no reason." pic.twitter.com/VsUUntiwU1
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 24, 2023
The captions in the tweet serve as a transcript.
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Muir: “Did you take any classified documents with you from the white house?”
Pence: “I did not.”
Muir: “Do you see any reason for anyone to take classified docs from the White House.”
Pence: “There would be no reason.”
CNN was one of the first outlets to break this sensational story implicating Mike Pence in a Biden-esque scandal. CNN wrote Tuesday morning:
A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and how they ended up in Pence’s house in Indiana.
The classified documents were discovered at Pence’s new home in Carmel, Indiana, by a lawyer for Pence in the wake of the revelations about classified material discovered in President Joe Biden’s private office and residence, the sources said. The discovery comes after Pence has repeatedly said he did not have any classified documents in his possession.
Here at The American Tribune, I wrote that little is still known about the contents of the documents. We also don’t know at this time how or why Pence ended up with them at his Indiana home.
While the details of documents are unknown at this time, including how they found their way to the former vice president’s home and what information they contain, Pence has indicated he is cooperating with the appropriate authorities to be transparent.
Pence indicated he would notify Congress of the situation as well.
Trump’s former running mate said the process began after he asked them to search his home “out of an abundance of caution,” CNN reported. Lawyers evidently went through several boxes and uncovered the classified documents in the process.
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