Former Vice President Mike Pence has said he takes “full responsibility” for the existence of classified documents in his Indiana home, and has spoken publicly for the first time since the documents were publicly revealed. earlier this week.
CNN first reported, and Pence’s team quickly confirmed, that documents with hashtags had been found at his home in Carmel, Indiana. Sources told CBS News that classified documents found in the middle of the month at Pence’s residence included briefings from overseas trips. Pence’s team turned over the records to the authorities.
“Those classified documents should not have been in my personal residence, I made mistakes,” Pence told a crowd in Miami on Friday. “And I take full responsibility,” Pence said on Friday. “I direct my attorney to work with the National Archives, the Department of Justice, and Congress to cooperate fully in any investigation.” “I know that when things go wrong, it’s important to fix them quickly and detect them.”
Pence said it was “a very humbling week for us, but I know we did the right thing” in turning over the documents and making them public. The former vice president said he knows the proper handling of classified information is “extremely important to the national interest.”
In the final weeks of the Trump administration, Pence said they “conducted a thorough review of all documents” at the vice president’s office and residence, and he was “confident that it was done in a professional manner.”
“But with news in recent weeks of repeated disclosures of classified documents at President Biden’s personal residence, dating back to his service as Vice President, I simply thought, out of an abundance of caution, that it would be appropriate to review my personal records kept on our residents in Indiana.” And we’ve started that process.”
He added that “a small number of documents bearing confidential or sensitive marks” were “interspersed” with his personal papers. So, Pence said, his team turned the documents over to the FBI, alerted the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and notified Congress.
The documents found at Pence’s residence come as the White House deals with the fallout Secret documents were found In President Biden’s former office, home and garage in Wilmington, Delaware. The White House continues to confirm that it is cooperating with investigators, with Special Counsel Robert Hoare taking charge of the investigation. But Mr. Biden has taken a more challenging approach to discovering classified documents in his spaces.
Mr. Biden said last week that he did “no regret” On handling confidential documents since their discovery. The president asked why the White House had not disclosed the existence of the documents in November, before midterm electionsHe told reporters that he thought they would discover that “there is no”.
Mr. Biden replied, “We found a bunch of documents that were filed in the wrong place.” “We promptly turned them over to the Department of Archives and Justice. We are cooperating fully, and we look forward to resolving this issue quickly. I think you’ll find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets. I follow through with what the attorneys tell me they want me to do. That’s exactly what we do.” . There are no. “
NARA asked representatives of the past six most recent presidential administrations to comb through their personal records again to check for any Secret records or other presidential recordsAccording to a transcript of a speech obtained by CBS News. This request to review the documents was prompted by documents classified as classified that were found at the residences of Biden, Pence, and former President Donald Trump.
“The responsibility to comply with the peace-restoration agreement does not diminish after the end of the administration,” the letters said. “Therefore, we ask that you conduct an assessment of any material held outside of NARA that relates to a department for which you act as designated representative under the PRA, to determine whether collections of material previously assumed to be personal in nature may inadvertently contain records of the presidency or vice president subject to the PRA, Whether confidential or not.
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