Former US Vice President Mike Pence refused to condemn ex-President Donald Trump for allegedly shipping classified White House documents to his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, which was raided by the FBI earlier this month.
Justice Department’s warrant and two critical supporting memos, which were first leaked then unsealed, revealed that the FBI recovered documents that were labeled ‘top secret’ from the Mar-a-Lago estate. The court records did not provide specific details about the documents or what information they might contain.
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Trump, in a statement, argued that that the documents seized were ‘all declassified’. The former President added that he would have turned over the documents to the Justice Department if asked.
During his visit to the Iowa State Fair on Friday, Trump’s VP, Mike Pence, clarified that he has shipped no documents from the White House. However, the 63-year-old refused to accuse Trump of doing the same.
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“I honestly don’t want to prejudge it before, until, we know all the facts,” Pence said Friday. On Wednesday, in New Hampshire, Pence was booed by Trump supporters for denouncing their calls to ‘defund the FBI’.
Pence claimed that the raid on Trump’s residence and the probe of his handling of the documents was politically motivated.
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“The concern that millions of Americans felt is only going to be resolved with daylight,” Pence told the Associated Press. “I know that’s not customary in an investigation. But this is unprecedented action by the Justice Department, and I think it merits an unprecedented transparency.”
A Florida federal judge ruled Thursday that portions of the affidavit allowing the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago will soon be made public.
“After the first of the year my family and I will do as we’ve always done, and that is to reflect and pray on where we might next serve,” Pence told KCCI Des Moines