Former Vice President Mike Pence will reportedly not face criminal charges in the federal investigation into his handling of classified materials after an attorney for Pence found classified documents at his home earlier this year.
The news comes as Pence is expected to announce next week that he is entering the 2024 presidential race.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department’s National Security Division have conducted an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information,” the Justice Department wrote to Pence’s attorney in a letter obtained by several news organizations. “Based on the results of that investigation, no criminal charges will be sought.”
Former President Donald Trump responded to the news that Pence would not be charged by writing on social media: “That’s great, but when am I going to be fully exonerated? I’m at least as innocent as he is.”
However, in Pence’s case, once the documents were found at his Indiana home, the former vice president’s team quickly contacted federal authorities and turned them over. Pence cooperated with the investigation and his home was made available for the FBI to search for more classified material, in contrast with Trump’s defiant resistance to his documents being seized.
The DOJ has appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate Trump’s alleged mishandling of more than 100 classified documents that were discovered at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida last year. Those documents were seized during an FBI search last August after nearly two years of failed negotiations. The National Archives first alerted Trump in May of 2021 that it was seeking approximately two dozen boxes of records to be returned to it, as required by the Presidential Records Act.
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The criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of the classified material is ongoing, although reports have suggested that Smith is closing in on charging decisions.
Trump faces numerous felony charges in New York in a case that has been widely criticized as being politically motivated. He also faces a federal investigation and an investigation in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
