Pence remarked during an interview with The Associated Press in Iowa a week and a half after the FBI seized what it described as classified and top secret information during a raid at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Asked directly if he took any classified information upon leaving office, Pence said, “No, not to my knowledge.”
The statement— which would generally be commonplace for a former Vice President — is significant given that FBI agents took 11 records from his former boss’s estate on Aug. 8 while investigating potential violations of three different federal laws. Trump has argued that the documents taken by agents were “all declassified” and that he would have turned them over if the Justice Department had asked.
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Despite including material labeled “top secret" in the government’s list of items recovered from Mar-a-Lago, Pence said, “I honestly don’t want to prejudge it before until we know all the facts.”
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Pence on Friday also reflected on Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney's primary defeat earlier in the week to an opponent endorsed by Trump. Cheney, who is arguably Trump's most prominent Republican critic, has called the former president “a very grave threat and risk to our republic" and further raised his ire through her role as vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
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“My reaction was, the people of Wyoming have spoken," said Pence, who was targeted at the Capitol that day by angry rioters. “And, I accept their judgment about the kind of representation they want on Capitol Hill.”
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Pence said he has “great respect" for Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served two terms under President George W. Bush.
“And I appreciate the conservative stance Congresswoman Cheney has taken over the years,” Pence continued. “But I’ve been disappointed in the partisan taint of the Jan. 6 committee from early on.”
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Speaking more about the search of Mar-a-Lago, the former vice president presented the notion, as he has previously, that the investigation was politically inspired and called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to disclose more details on what led authorities to search.
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“The concern millions of Americans felt is only going to be resolved with daylight,” Pence said Friday. “I know that's not customary in an investigation. But this is an unprecedented action by the Justice Department, and I think it merits unprecedented transparency.”
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