Mike Pence Classified Documents Probe Ends With No Charges

Facts

• Coming days before former VP Mike Pence is expected to announce a 2024 US presidential campaign, the Justice Dept. (DOJ) and the FBI have reportedly completed their probe into his potential mishandling of classified documents, deciding not to file charges against him.¹
• In January, "a small number" of classified documents were found at Pence's home in Indiana, after which the FBI conducted a voluntary search of the house and found one additional document. Pence's home in Washington, DC, was also searched, but nothing was found.²
• The DOJ hadn't previously indicated who was conducting the probe, though the letter to Pence's lawyer announcing its culmination suggested it was separate from special counsel Robert Hur's investigation into documents found at Pres. Joe Biden's home.³
• After serving as Donald Trump's vice president for one term, Pence has since opposed the former president's 2020 election denial and is expected to join several other candidates in the race to replace him as the 2024 GOP nominee.⁴
• Pence's document probe is the first one to conclude, with the statuses of Pres. Biden's and of former Pres. Trump's still unknown. Pence is expected to launch a campaign video next week and make an announcement in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 7.⁵

Sources: ¹CBS, ²Breitbart, ³POLITICO, ⁴Guardian, and ⁵FOX News.

Narratives

• Anti-Trump narrative, as provided by Raw Story. According to former government attorneys and legal experts, Mike Pence is facing no charges because he immediately handed his documents to the government upon finding them and took responsibility for his mistake. This is the next step toward Trump's indictment, and once Biden is cleared, the DOJ will have the time, resources, and evidence to distinguish between Biden and Pence's honest mistakes and Trump's blatant violation of the law.
• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by Washington Examiner. The continued targeting of Trump over this is ridiculous. Currently, there’s another special counsel investigating Biden’s possession of classified documents from when he was vice president, and former VP Mike Pence also faced a document controversy. Biden, Pence, and every president since Reagan has been found to possess classified documents, yet none of these other former or current officials are being attacked like Trump.