The Justice Department will not bring criminal charges against Mr. Pence over the classified documents

2023-06-02 22:50:41, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Justice Department will not bring criminal charges against Mr. Pence over

Mike Pence

The Justice Department has informed former Vice President Mike Pence's legal team that it will not file criminal charges related to classified documents found at his Indiana home.

The Justice Department sent a letter to Mr Pence's lawyer on Thursday informing his team that, following an investigation into the possible misuse of classified documents, no criminal charges would be sought.

A Justice Department official confirmed the existence of such a letter, which was also obtained by the Associated Press news agency.

The announcement comes before Mr Pence kicks off the campaign trail in Iowa on Wednesday for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, a direct challenge to Mr Trump, with whom he served in the White House for four years. .

No evidence has been found to suggest that Mr Pence deliberately withheld classified documents from the government or knew they were in his home, so he was not expected to face charges.

The Justice Department's decision is good news for the former vice president and his campaign team as he prepares to enter the Republican presidential race and air his differences with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president on November 15, 2022. Three days later, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special prosecutor to oversee the Justice Department's investigation into the discovery of hundreds of classified documents at Mr. Trump's home.

A special prosecutor was also appointed to investigate the discovery of classified documents at President Joe Biden's home in the state of Delaware and in an unsecured office in Washington, dating back to his time as vice president.

About a dozen classified documents were discovered at Mr Pence's home in January after he asked his lawyers to search his belongings from his time as vice president as a precaution following the revelation of Mr Pence's classified documents. Biden.

The documents were inadvertently packed up when he left office and sent to Mr. Pence's home, Mr. Pence's lawyer wrote in a letter to the National Archives.

A month later, the FBI found a classified document at Mr. Pence's home in Indiana during a search. Mr. Pence has repeatedly said that he was not aware of the existence of the documents, but that "mistakes were made" in the handling of classified materials. Two special prosecutors of the Department of Justice are conducting investigations related to the handling of secret documents by Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden./ VOA