Former US Vice President Mike Pence said he did not take any classified information with him when he left office.
Friday’s revelation — usually nothing special for a former vice president — is notable now given that FBI agents seized top-secret and classified documents from his former boss’s Florida residence on Aug. 8 as they investigated potential violations of three federal laws. federals. Former President Donald Trump has said that the documents seized by the agents were all “declassified.”
Asked if he had withheld any classified documents after leaving office, Pence told Associated Press in an interview: “No, not that I know of.”
Despite the inclusion of material marked “top secret” on the government’s list of documents recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, Pence said, “Honestly, I don’t want to prejudge until all the facts are out.” .
Pence was in Iowa on Friday as part of a two-day visit to the state, which is holding the first GOP presidential primary. It comes as the former vice president has made stops in other early-voting states, with his sights set on a 2024 presidential campaign.
Pence also spoke about Republican Rep. Liz Cheney’s primary loss this week to a Trump-backed rival. Cheney, who is the party’s biggest critic of Trump, has called the former president “a very serious threat to our republic” and caused anger in her role as deputy chair of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 assault on Capitol Hill. of 2021.
“My reaction is that the people of Wisconsin have spoken out,” said Pence, who was the target of fury from assailants on Capitol Hill, including some who yelled “Hang Pence!”
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