Former vice president Mike Pence will not face criminal charges in connection with the discovery of classified documents at his Indiana home.
Pence, who is expected to launch his presidential campaign next week, was told by the Department of Justice that the investigation into him will be closed, according to a DOJ letter first obtained by NBC News. Pence and several of his aides were interviewed as part of the investigation.
The former vice president voluntarily initiated a review of documents at his Carmel, Ind. home after reports emerged of classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s residence. Pence’s counsel soon discovered “a small number of documents that could potentially contain sensitive or classified information interspersed throughout the records.”
“Vice President Pence immediately secured those documents in a locked safe pending further direction on proper handling from the National Archives,” wrote Pence’s attorney in January.
At Pence’s invitation, the FBI conducted a search of his home and found one other classified document. A Pence advisor told NBC the vice president’s team is pleased that no charges were filed and expected this outcome.
The probe into the documents discovered in Biden’s personal residence is still ongoing. Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Robert Hur to lead that investigation.
The DOJ is simultaneously conducting an investigation into former president Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents. Special Counsel Jack Smith appears close to making a decision on charges in that case. The FBI conducted a raid on Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago to recover classified documents last year.
CNN reported on Wednesday that federal prosecutors have obtained a recording of Trump acknowledging he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran. Multiple sources told CNN he understood he had taken a classified document, potentially undercutting Trump’s argument that he had declassified all documents in question as he left office.
The discovery that Trump, Biden, and Pence have all retained classified documents — as well as adjacent issues with security classification — has made it clear to Congress that the archaic system must be reformed.
A group of senators unveiled a robust set of reforms last month. According to Senate Intelligence chairman Mark Warner (D., Va.), the group is acting to create a formal step in which an archivist comes in to make sure classified documents are not improperly marked as personal documents in the “mad rush to get things boxed up” that occurs at the end of an administration. Warner clarified the authority of presidents to declassify documents through proper channels is not being challenged.
“If any of these individuals did not have an intent to take something inappropriate, this process would have solved that problem,” Warner added.