According to a letter obtained by CNN, the Justice Department has concluded its investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents discovered at former Vice President Mike Pence’s home and will not file any charges.
The decision comes ahead of Pence’s planned announcement of a presidential run in 2024 next week. It allows Pence to draw a further distinction between himself and former President Donald Trump, his political rival who is being investigated by the Justice Department and others.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department’s National Security Division have conducted an investigation into potential classified information mishandling,” the Justice Department wrote to Pence’s attorney. “No criminal charges will be sought based on the findings of that investigation.”
Pence’s attorney discovered about a dozen classified documents in Pence’s Indiana home in January after the former vice president asked his lawyer to search his records following the disclosure of classified documents in Joe Biden’s possession in Delaware.
Following their discovery, Pence turned over the classified records to the FBI, and the FBI and Justice Department’s National Security Division launched an investigation into how they ended up at Pence’s home. Pence stated that he was unaware the documents were at his residence, but that “mistakes were made” and that he accepted responsibility for them.
The Justice Department is still looking into Trump and Biden’s handling of classified documents. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel in each investigation, citing the candidates’ presidential candidacy.
The DOJ declined to comment but confirmed that the letter was sent.
According to a Pence adviser, Pence and his team were pleased but not surprised by the DOJ decision.
According to Pence’s advisers, the former vice president’s discovery of classified documents contrasted sharply with Trump’s, both in terms of the initial process Pence’s team followed when his documents were packed up at the end of the Trump administration – when a small number of classified papers were accidentally packed – and Pence’s immediate cooperation with the FBI and the National Archives.
While Pence’s attorney contacted the National Archives and quickly returned the documents to the FBI, Trump refused to turn over the classified documents in his possession, which resulted in a subpoena last year and a court-authorized August 2022 FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort.
In recent months, special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents and possible obstruction of investigators has resulted in interviews with dozens of Trump’s aides and employees, as well as extensive grand jury activity, indicating that a charging decision could be imminent. When the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago last August, it found more than 100 classified documents after Trump’s attorneys attested that the former president had turned over the classified material in his possession in response to a subpoena.
CNN first reported this week that prosecutors obtained an audio recording from the summer of 2021 in which Trump admits to keeping a classified Pentagon document about a possible attack on Iran.
When Garland appointed Smith to oversee both the classified documents and the January 6 investigations into Trump in November, he stated that he did so “in the public interest” because Trump was now a presidential candidate.
Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur in January, two months after Smith’s appointment, in response to reports that classified documents were discovered at Biden’s home and former private office.
Hur is still in charge of an ongoing investigation into the classified documents discovered in Biden’s possession, and he has spoken with at least one witness in that investigation since his appointment in January.
When the classified documents were discovered last fall, Biden’s team immediately notified the National Archives, which then notified the Justice Department. Biden’s lawyers claim that the documents were “inadvertently misplaced” rather than illegally mishandled.
On June 7, the day he is expected to announce his presidential campaign, CNN will host a town hall with Pence.
