Mr. Pence made the comment during an interview with theAssociated Press in Iowa a week and a half after the FBI seized classified and top-secret information during a search of ex-President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
When asked directly if he retained any classified information upon leaving office, Mike Pence replied: No, not that I know of.
The disclosure – which would generally be trivial for a former vice-president – is significant since agents of the FBI seized 11 sets of classified documents from the property of his former boss on August 8, while investigating potential violations of three different federal laws. Donald Trump claimed the documents seized by officers were all declassified
and argued that he would have turned them over if the Department of Justice had asked him to.
Despite the presence of marked material top secret
in the government’s list of items recovered from Mar-a-Lago, Mr Pence said: Honestly, I don’t want to pass judgment until I know all the facts.
Warm support for Liz Cheney
Friday, Mr Pence also spoke about the primary defeat of Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, earlier this week, against a rival backed by Mr. Trump. Ms. Cheney, who is arguably Mr. Trump’s most prominent Republican critic, called the ex-president a very serious threat and risk to our republic
and angered him because of her role as vice chair of the House of Representatives committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising on Capitol Hill.
My reaction was this: the people of Wyoming have spoken
said Mr. Pence, who had been targeted in the Capitol that day by angry rioters, some of whom had shouted Pendez Mike Pence
. And, you know, I accept their decision on what kind of representation they want on Capitol Hill.
Mr Pence said he had great respect
for Ms. Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served two terms under President George W. Bush.
<q data-attributes="{"lang":{"value":"fr","label":"Français"},"value":{"html":"Et j'apprécie la position conservatrice que la députée Cheney a adoptée au fil des ans, a poursuivi Mike Pence. Mais j'ai été déçu par l'aspect partisan de la commission du 6January from the start.”,”text”:”And I appreciate the conservative stance that Congresswoman Cheney has taken over the years, Mike Pence continued. But I was disappointed by the partisan aspect of the January 6 commission from the start.”}}”>And I like the conservative stance that Congresswoman Cheney has taken over the years, Mike Pence continued. But I was disappointed by the partisan aspect of the January 6 commission from the start.
Potential political motivation, Pence repeats
Speaking in more detail about the search of Mar-a-Lago, the ex-vice president raised the possibility, as he has before, that the investigation was politically motivated and called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to release more details about what led authorities to conduct the search.
The anxiety felt by millions of Americans will only be eased with daylight, Mike Pence said on Friday. I know that’s unusual in an investigation. But this is an unprecedented action by the Department of Justice and I believe it deserves unprecedented transparency.
A few days ago, while speaking at a policy breakfast in New Hampshire, Mr Pence urged fellow Republicans to stop attacking members of the FBI about the search of Mar-a-Lago. At Wednesday’s event, he sought to mitigate some of the growing threats to the FBI by ardent supporters of Donald Trump, who are furious that his home was searched.
Possible candidature
The Republican Party is the party of law and order
, Pence said on Wednesday, adding that this party always stands with those who enforce the law. He said that these attacks on the FBI must cease.
Mike Pence was in Iowa Friday on a two-day trip to the state, which is set to host the first Republican presidential caucuses of 2024. Pence said Friday he will make a decision early in the next year in terms of whether to run for the White House, a decision his aides say will be independent of what Donald Trump decides to do.
After visiting the Iowa Agricultural Fair State Fair Friday afternoon, Mr. Pence also headlined a fundraiser earlier in the day for Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. He was to address a conservative Christian group as well as another Republican Party fundraising group in northern Iowa before leaving on Saturday.