Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Aug. 19 that, when he left office, he didn’t take with him any information that was classified.
Pence made the remarks in an interview with The Associated Press, eleven days after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence to seize what an inventory list identified as classified and top secret materials. Trump has insisted that all the seized materials had all been declassified.
Pence was asked by an Associated Press reporter whether he had retained any classified materials when he left office, to which he replied, “No, not to my knowledge.”
Asked further about materials labeled “top secret” in the FBI’s list of items recovered from Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Pence said, “I honestly don’t want to prejudge it before until we know all the facts.”
The former vice president made the remarks while on a two-day trip to Iowa, where leadoff Republican presidential causes will be held. While Pence is considering a run for the White House in 2024, his attention was focused on boosting Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.
“In 2022, Americans aren’t just choosing which party controls your government,” Pence said in a statement Friday. “We will decide whether our children and grandchildren stand tall as citizens of the freest nation on earth, or whether they are forced to live in the economic, moral, and spiritual poverty of socialism!”
The Raid
Trump on Aug. 8 revealed that the FBI had executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago home and portrayed the raid as an act of political retribution.“Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
In a later statement, Trump called the search a “surprise attack, POLITICS, and all the while our Country is going to HELL!”
‘Illegally Possessed’ Documents?
The raid is part of a probe into whether Trump unlawfully removed White House records as he left office, some of which investigators suspect were classified, according to the FBI search warrant made public on Aug. 12.The warrant was issued in relation to a possible violation of federal laws, including the Espionage Act. The warrant authorized the seizure of documents and records at Mar-a-Lago that may have been “illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. § § 793, 2071, and 1519.”
The most serious of the violations carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, though the listing of the statutes in the warrant is not equivalent to a formal charge.
Trump has not been accused of any crimes in connection with the raid.
‘Unprecedented’ and ‘Unnecessary’
FBI agents seized around 20 boxes from Trump’s residence, including materials marked classified, secret, and top secret, according to an inventory list attached to the unsealed warrant.According to Trump’s lawyers, he used his presidential authority to declassify all the materials before he left office in 2021.
“This raid of President Trump’s home was not just unprecedented, but unnecessary—and they are leaking lies and innuendos to try to explain away the weaponization of government against their dominant political opponent. This is outrageous,” Budowich said.
Trump has said the documents the FBI seized were “all declassified” and on Friday, the former president said that a “major motion” would come in light of the raid.
“A major motion pertaining to the Fourth Amendment will soon be filed concerning the illegal Break-In of my home, Mar-a-Lago, right before the ever important Mid-Term Elections,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
