The appointment of a special counsel immediately lumped Biden together with Trump in the public’s mind. Now Pence’s document discovery might shift the politics.
The discovery of classified documents in former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana residence is a clarifying and pivotal event that throws into sharp relief conduct that in recent weeks has been lumped together.
Pence ordered the investigation of his home, which turned up some 12 documents marked classified, in the wake of the brouhaha over similar discoveries of classified documents at President Biden’s Delaware home and former office.
The Pence documents shed more light on a critical question: How easy is it for classified documents to find their way out of the White House and become mixed into the private papers of former government officials?
Anecdotal evidence already suggested that it’s easy enough to do inadvertently, especially on the part of higher government officials, who rarely have a personal role in packing up their offices. Pence’s experience strengthens that idea.
There is no reason to doubt the assertion by Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, in a letter to the National Archives that “Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence.”
That explanation, of course, is the same as Biden’s response to a rolling discovery of classified documents at his office and residence — to which conservative pundits and opponents have cried “scandal!”
Of course, there is a very bright line to be drawn between the unknowing conduct of officials like Biden and Pence on the one hand, and the intentional and likely criminal behavior of former President Donald Trump, who, from the available evidence, not only was aware that he had classified documents but purposefully spirited them away, and, more importantly, engaged in a 20-month campaign to stonewall legitimate efforts by the U.
