The classified documents found at the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence included materials described as background briefing memos that were prepared for Pence’s foreign trips.
Roughly 12 classified documents were found at the former veep’s home. Experts say these classified documents were likely used to prepare Pence for foreign meetings while he was vice president.
The discovery of classified documents at the home of Pence, following similar incidents involving Joe Biden and Donald Trump, is bringing new scrutiny to government procedures for handling and securing its most delicate secrets.
The justice department and FBI are looking into how about a dozen classified-marked papers came to be found last week in an unsecured location at Pence’s Indiana residence, two years after he and Trump left office.
Sources told CNN that the documents may have been overlooked initially because they could have been tucked into old trip binders.
It is not unusual for presidents and vice presidents to have travel briefing binders prepared for foreign trips that include background memos on people they are meeting with in foreign countries.
While sometimes these briefing documents include basic information, such as biographical information on foreign leaders, sometimes they include more sensitive information.
The FBI is working with intelligence agencies to assess the documents, a process that involves determining how recent the information is, its level of classification, and the potential risks of having classified material stored in an unauthorized location.
The latest revelations have led to calls from politicians and analysts for a tightening of how classified documents are handled at the conclusion of a presidency and a demand for more oversight of the federal agency responsible for securing and transporting them during the handover.
Experts said that Republicans seeking to gain political capital from the discovery of papers at Democrat Biden’s home and office, from his two terms as Obama’s vice-president, were quelled by the revelation that Pence, their own party’s most recent vice-president, also apparently took sensitive papers with him.
Be the first to comment