CNN Exclusive: Classified documents found at Pence's Indiana home

[erpowers]

Source: CNN

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

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/politics/pence-classified-documents-fbi/index.html

---

I wonder if Republicans will want to investigate this incident.

[DURHAM D]

1. lol

I have no doubt that Cheney has thousands of classified documents at his house.

[rurallib]

20. and his top employee, George W., no doubt does also

After all, George W. looked into Putin's eyes............

[Harker]

45. Now with crayon drawings on the back. n/t

[DENVERPOPS]

59. Does anyone remember

the picture of a semi trailer and an industrial sized paper shredder backed up to the front door of Cheney's home a few days before him leaving office????

I certainly do...................

[Evolve Dammit]

79. Well, war criminals do need their privacy...

[GreenWave]

2. This is like a baseball game.

Bottom of the second, at the Obama residence...

[underpants]

5. I'm sure Trump declassified them with his mind

Just like he won his own golf tournament without playing both days of it.

[tinymontgomery]

27. Who's on third?

[KS Toronado]

41. Iran-Contra

[calimary]

77. And who's struck out?

Somebody whose name starts with “t” and ends with “p”?

[underpants]

3. I'd like to be a fly on the wall while Fox figures out how to cover this

[maxsolomon]

6. They'll ignore it and focus on Biden.

My Dad watches Fox (and Sinclair local news). He had no idea who George Santos was until I told him on Sunday.

[underpants]

30. I know. They've never mentioned the seditious conspiracy convictions as far as I know

They do have the Pence story on their website.
https://www.foxnews.com/

[NJCher]

38. who cares?

what magats do. And who cares what their media does?

Makes no difference whatsoever, so why pay attention to it?

They're going to do what they're going to do. No amount of lamenting it will alleviate the situation.

[maxsolomon]

42. well, I was answering the question.

i don't pay much attention to RW media, but i can't help but care that they are poisoning the minds of millions with propaganda, including my elderly father who always votes.

[maxsolomon]

4. SEARCH JIMMY CARTER'S FARM!

Top Secret is a joke now; Trump will never suffer a single consequence.

[Beartracks]

22. Willful removal is different than accidental, but... yeah.

In the general public's mind, this is just going to water down Trump's obvious culpability in the deliberate theft of documents he had absolutely no right to take with him when he left office.

==============

[ColinC]

26. In public opinion, perhaps

But in the eyes of the law, a crime is a crime is a crime.

[maxsolomon]

43. Ideally. There are different rules for Ex-POTUS & VPOTUS. A higher bar, if you will.

It is political, and the DOJ cannot ignore that. They will not indict * over this.

[thesquanderer]

55. There's still a big difference between cooperation and obstruction. n/t

[ColinC]

58. Exactly

[ificandream]

7. Gotta wonder ...

... how Marjorie Traitor Trash Greene, the other Congressional mega-dope idiots and the clowns at Fox will react to this. Well, we know, but it'll make their reactions to Biden more phony than they already were.

[Mira]

8. How about under the couches

in the homes of the friends who put them up after the lost election? Should we send out cautionary alerts?

[Walleye]

13. And all the rooms at the Trump Hotel

[Captain Zero]

67. Pences did go to IN Gov Holcomb's lake home as

As I understood it at the time.

I'm guessing Lake Wawasee or something around there.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. LOL

They should check with Shrub since he was in for 2 terms. And Darth too!

[twodogsbarking]

10. We sure pay a lot of taxes for this level of ineptitude.

[Skittles]

84. agreed

it's just ridiculous that ALL these folk cannot seem to keep track of CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

[Diamond_Dog]

11. Fox viewers will never be told about this.

[AkFemDem]

25. Link

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vice-president-mike-pence-discovered-classified-documents-indiana-home.amp

[Gidney N Cloyd]

48. Fox's web site is more "fair and balanced" than its cable TV news.

I've often wondered why that is but even the Media Bias Chart confirms the web site leans more to the middle ground.
https://library.uco.edu/c.php?g=849951&p=7853058

[markodochartaigh]

57. I would imagine that the website viewership leans

more toward a younger demographic and that TV caters more to older and more rural demographics.

[33taw]

12. The National Archives is responsible for following the chain of custody of these docs.

What is up with them?

[erpowers]

40. Leader Needs to Be Fired

For a few days now I have been thinking the leader of the National Archives needs to be fired. All if this is a result of the National Archives failing at its job. There needs to be a leadership shakeup.

[Captain Zero]

68. Yeah NA has to be suspect BUT

It looks to me that Trump took SO MANY and at such a high level that it can't be Inadvertant. That is why the NA noticed those and asked and asked for them back until finally DOJ had to get involved and still needed subpoena and search warrant with a raid to get them.

[friend of a friend]

71. I wonder what percentage of classified material is sent to The National Archives.

I doubt that any of the TOP SECRET NSA CODEWORD documents I wrote ever went there. In the 9 months I was overseas, I wrote and then coded about 270 documents, 1 each morning. They were then sent to communications where they were coded and then sent to NSA headquarters.

[Renew Deal]

14. Why isn't there better document control?

Every document should be "checked out." Someone should be responsible for its chain of custody. Every document should be returned or reported missing. It's crazy that there are confidential documents sitting all over the country without anyone paying attention except to all but the most extreme cases (Trump).

[H2O Man]

17. +1

[thenelm1]

36. +100 - NARA has some serious housekeeping to get up on.

Makes you wonder what kinda Mickey Mouse tracking system is actually in place? And is it computerized?

[sab390]

47. The documents don't go to the archive until

They are no longer in use by the department. Until then it is the department which is responsible. The White House is responsible for the documents or the DOD or CIA etc. When no longer in use they go to the archive. This is a much larger failure and not the archives fault.

[Marthe48]

15. The whataboutism is pulsing in this one

n/t

[ToxMarz]

16. I'm Spartacus!

[Marthe48]

18. Next big D.D. souvenir

sample document marked "CLASSIFIED" in big red letters. traitor co. can get right on it.

(sarcasm, irony, whatever)

[GB_RN]

19. As A Nurse Who Handles Narcotics...

I have tighter controls on me than these people handling sensitive information do, apparently.🤷?♂️🤦?♂️🙄

[MontanaMama]

21. We clearly do not have a process in place

to manage documents. Each discovery of classified documents lying around where they shouldn’t be illustrates this. Our enemies must know this too.

[wnylib]

75. The fact that our enemies know this

is the worst part. Anyone from any country could get ahold of classified documents.

At the risk of getting into conspiracy theory territory, both the timing and the people involved raise questions in my mind. In Trump's mind, both Biden and Pence are top level enemies of his. But Trump has "friends in high places."

Considering how Trump operates and how these revelations affect the possibility of charges against him, I do wonder if there is a larger picture yet to come out.

[AkFemDem]

23. How many regular folk

Have lost clearances and jobs over these kinds of “mistakes”? Why the heck are our elected officials walking around with classified documents outside of cleared work areas anyway?!?

[chowder66]

24. I bet this has been more common than we know throughout our history.

It was probably just handled behind the scenes because it was unintentional. Now that TFG grabbed as much as he could carry and refused to cooperate they are being transparent about this.

[Bayard]

28. They're everywhere!

Seriously, if they are not packing the boxes themselves (like TFG did), they don't know what's going in there. And staff are just packing up everything indiscriminately, (after all, they're about to be out of a job.) I can see why its a surprise when they're discovered.

I'm sure there is not malicious intent to profit or blackmail, like trump.

[Ocelot II]

29. I'll bet this happens often when outgoing officials pack up their stuff.

In almost all cases it will be inadvertent. With TFG, not so much - he regarded everything he touched was his and that he was entitled to keep it (or whatever else he wanted to do with it).

[Rebl2]

31. Start

searching house and senate republicans homes. Search fbi agents homes including wray. That won’t work since they do the searching.

[inwiththenew]

32. Does anybody track these documents?

Or is it just on the honor system to report it when you find you've taken them? How many more of these are out there in the homes and offices of politicians and their staff who used to work in Washington?

[Shipwack]

53. The really important/interesting stuff has serial numbers...

… and gets tracked more closely. That might be how the Archives knew about some* of the stuff Trump took.

Stuff that’s “merely” top secret, etc, not so much.

Then again, my experience is from 25 years ago on a a submarine; things might be different now.

*Some things, while maybe not classified, were well known to exist, such as the Sharpie corrected weather map, or the "live letters" from Kim Jong-Un.

[agingdem]

33. as with Biden, I suspect haphazard packing..

Trump intentionally stole documents..remember he was in a hurry to get documents declassified on his way out the White House doors...

[cilla4progress]

34. Hey - I'm gonna look

around here!

Who knows?!

🤣

[cilla4progress]

35. Hey - I'm gonna look

around here!

Who knows?!

🤣

[SledDriver]

37. Either this is a systemic problem or someone's been putting classified documents in everyone's house

Or they're trying to make it seem that way.

[caraher]

39. I think this is bad news

All these finds will serve to obscure the egregious and intentional nature of Dolt 45's theft and distribution of sensitive materials. You know and I know that there's no comparison between Biden's documents (and probably Pence's) and what Trump has done, but in the minds of the less attentive and discerning the message will be "I guess everyone winds up with classified documents so what's the big deal?"

[Ocelot II]

52. Nope, big difference. TFG refused to give them back so the government

got a search warrant to find and retrieve them, and he even fought that. What it will do is point out that there needs to be some serious improvement in the way classified docs are kept track of. TFG took documents back to the residence, even shredded and flushed a few, and nobody stopped him or kept track of what he took. That has to be emphasized. I think it even helps because of the contrast between inadvertently keeping a few items and intentionally refusing to return hundreds of them.

[caraher]

83. Of course there's a big difference

I'm not disputing that - there's no comparison in the behaviors. But there are actually people who are, incomprehensibly, somewhere in the middle. People who mostly don't pay close enough attention. The media have not held Trump's feet to the fire before, and this story just extends the lazy false equivalency narrative and as a result diminishes Trump's crimes in the minds of the low-information swing voter.

[intheflow]

44. I honestly don't understand how sloppy classified info tracked.

At this point, I’m more worried about lack of oversight at the National Archives. If it has been classified, how come no one follows up to make sure all items have been returned. I work at a public library and we know who has checked out books in our collection. Once something becomes classified, when removed or allowed to stay with some government agent, it should be like a library book. I’m a librarian and we are constantly checking and rechecking if what we have on the shelf matches what’s in the online catalog. It’s not rocket science and there is no excuse for this to happen.

[Lonestarblue]

49. Will Garland now appoint a special counsel for Pence? He is guilty of exactly he same thing as

Biden. And he’s doing exactly as Biden has done by handing over documents immediately. The Pence and Biden cases are similar, while Trump’s is not.

[markodochartaigh]

51. Well, Mr Garland, are you going to trot out another special counsel?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

54. Both Pence & Biden notified Archives & FBI. tRump stonewalled, obstructed, lied, got lawyers to lie,

Never let anyone attempt to pretend the cases are comparable.

[OverBurn]

70. I know, you know, most logical folks know, the cases are not comparable, I bet it still gets tRump

off the hook.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

72. Nope. tRump will draw things out, but he will lose to Garland/Smith. . . .nt

[Javaman]

56. tinfoil hat time!!!

I find the timing, of both pence and Biden's documents being found, interesting.

suddenly they are found AFTER the repukes take control of the house.

moreover, it's no secret that there are halfwit secret service and halfwit fbi agents that are 'sympathetic' to the orange asshole.

whose to say that one or a dozen of these agents are actually planting these docs?

[Bengus81]

60. Lets see how FAST that Special Council gets trotted out by Garland for Pence

[BonnieJW]

61. I read somewhere that NARA

is not a lending library. Maybe it should be. Record what is checked out and to whom and then record when it's returned and who returns it. If something doesn't come back, you know who has it.

[cstanleytech]

62. I am sure House Republicans will be investigating this.

Not to mention the current head of the FBI appointing a special investigator

[mcar]

63. I expect CNN, et al, to breathlessly report on this "scandal!!11"

with as much vigor as they've been reporting on Biden.

[BadgerMom]

64. A few thoughts...

1. The right will view additional discoveries of classified documents at other office holders’ homes and offices as exoneration of Trump. But, if so, it will make it all the easier for us to treat Biden’s classified issues as a nothingburger.

2. Jack Smith will not consider it exoneration of Trump. He’ll follow the law.

3. It makes the National Archives look inept and in need of new procedures.

4. I take Seth Abramson with a large helping of salt, but I found this piece interesting. Apparently NARA rules for Veeps is unnecessarily complicated. Watch out Dick Cheney?
https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/update-two-days-after-proof-framed?utm_medium=email

[patphil]

65. This appears to be a systemic problem.

I'll bet you can find classified documents in the personal files of George "W" Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama...virtually everyone who has held the President or VP positions.
The way documents are classified and handled needs to be looked into because current procedures don't appear to be robust enough to insure all classified documents are properly handled, tracked and accounted for.
When the government changes over, a team from the National Archive needs to be the ones who review any documents the outgoing POTUS and VP are going to take with them. At least that way the National Archive takes the heat if classified documents are found later.

The fact that Pence had classified documents takes a little pressure off President Biden, but also damages the case against TFG.

[wryter2000]

66. Good

Now the issue is about the system, and what Trump has done goes way beyond anything anyone else has done.

[onetexan]

69. This whole fiasco is a reflection on the incompetence of the National Archives' ability to track

Documents checked out to users who need to have them checked in, not on Biden, & i dont think Pence did this on purppse either. I'm willing to bet if other leaders' offices & residences were searched other classified docs wld be found too.

In the Con's case, however, it's a different beast altogether. His is a case of criminality in that he knowing stole them, not a case of inadvertent oversight.

Big difference.

[usaf-vet]

73. That is good news! Especially given they were immediately turned over to The Feds.

Two former officeholders did the right thing.

The third one lied and continues to lie, and it appears that the authorities still do not know how many he had and how many were $disposed$ of. Oh, did I mention that the third one is only interested in $$$$$$$?

[JohnSJ]

74. Will Dick Durbin come out and tell us how "troubled" he is by this like he did for President Biden?

Will our illustrious media give us 24/7 coverage of this like they did President Bide?

Will our illustrious media finally tell us that there is a difference between the way trump dealt with the classified documnets verses President Biden?

[electric_blue68]

76. HEHHH!

[Wonder Why]

78. Oh no! Classified documents were found at my house. Does this mean I'm an

important person?

Bet the Congressional Maggots are getting jealous that nobody found anything of value at their homes - like educational records indicating they graduated from Elementary School or medical records indicating they had brains or even church records that they ever donated money or showed up before the service was over.

[DENVERPOPS]

80. I still think it is more than curious

why Trump's ex-wife's coffin took so many pall bearers, and even more curious, is why did he have her buried on his personal property????

[OneCrazyDiamond]

81. They would hang Mike Pense if they had him.

He is 1 of their traitors, like Cheney is.

[machoneman]

82. Classified docs found.....at Abe Lincoln's Springfield, IL home! I shit you not......