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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Former Vice President Mike Pence has said he did not take any classified record with him when he left office. Mr. Pence’s statement Friday is coming more than one week after FBI agents raided Florida Mar-a-Lago home of former President Donald Trump and seized 20 boxes containing 11 sets of classified documents on August 8.
Asked
directly if he had retained any classified information when he left office,
Pence told The Associated Press in an interview, “No, not to my knowledge,”
“I honestly
don’t want to prejudge it before until we know all the facts.”
On Friday
Pence was in Iowa as part of a two day-trip to the state, which hosts the leadoff
Republican presidential caucuses, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Pence is
among top contenders for the 2024 White House race.
Trump dismisses recovery of "top secret" classified documents by the FBI as a "hoax and scam"
Trump dismissed
the recovery of “top secret” classified documents by the FBI at his Florida
Mar-a-Lago estate as a “hoax and scam”.
Mr. Trump was speaking following the unsealing of a search on August 12
by a federal judge that authorized FBI agents to enter his residence to recover
sensitive records.
The former
president also faces allegations of obstruction of justice and concealing
documents.
What did FBI agents recover from Trump's Mar-a-Lago?
Some of the
seized documents include some marked top secret as well as “sensitive
compartmented information,” according to The Associated Press. Sensitive
compartmented information is a special category meant to protect the nation’s
most important secrets that could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to U.S.
interests if made available publicly, according to The Associated Press. No
specific details were made about documents by the court records.
The warrant
says federal agents were investigating potential violations of three different
federal laws, governing gathering, transmitting or losing defense information
under the Espionage Act and another statute that addresses concealment,
mutilation or removal of records, according to The Associated Press. The third
statute addresses the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in
federal investigations.
Trump later issued
a statement saying the documents seized by FBI agents were “all declassified,”
arguing that he would have turned them over if the Justice Department demanded
for them.
The former
president faces between three and twenty years if charged and convicted on
anyone of the charges.