Former President Donald Trump responded to the revelations that classified documents were discovered at the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence’s lawyer announced on Tuesday that documents with classified markings were found at his personal residence last week but that the former vice president was unaware of their presence.
Trump issued a brief but impassioned response on Truth Social, his preferred social media platform.
“Mike Pence is an innocent man,” Trump wrote. “He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!”
His message garnered more than 4k reposts and more than 16k approvals from other users.
Attorneys for Pence said that he had ordered a review of documents at his home out of an abundance of caution and found a “small number” of classified records. They indicated that the documents were handed over the FBI on Thursday and returned to the National Archives and Records Administration.
“We have not heard from the DOJ since then,” said Pence spokesperson Devin O’Malley.
Pence is just the latest politician to admit that he had possession of classified documents. Trump was in a legal battle with the Department of Justice about documents he possessed when the FBI raided his residence at Mar-a-Lago and seized hundreds of records in August.
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was hampered by revelations that she had unlawfully retained classified emails at a personal email server at her home. President Joe Biden also admitted that he had possession of classified documents from his time as vice president, but he returned them to the National Archives.
U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to review the classified documents recovered from Biden for a possible criminal referral.
Pence is considered one of the possible candidates for the 2024 Republican primary race, but so far, only Trump has declared his campaign. A recent poll found that Pence garnered support from only 9% of likely GOP primary voters, compared to 46% that said they would support Trump.
Here’s more about Pence’s classified mistake:
Documents marked classified found at Mike Pence’s homewww.youtube.com
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