(FixThisNation.com) – On Sunday, former Vice President Mike Pence claimed that had not been informed about any “broad-based effort” from former President Donald Trump to have documents declassified before leaving the White House. This is one of the key claims that Trump has made to defend his handling of classified documents following his exit from the White House. However, Pence’s statement effectively destroys that argument.
During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Pence argued that he had never been made aware of any efforts to declassify documents. He added that the White House follows a specific process for declassifying documents and that as far as he knows Trump had not issued a “broad-based directive” to declassify documents. He proceeded to state that this might have occurred but that he had not been made aware of it.
Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of Staff according to an ABC News report had allegedly also told federal investigators that as far as he recalled, Trump had not ordered or talked about potentially declassifying all the documents. The report further noted that following the National Archives’ first request for the documents, Meadows had offered to help Trump with locating and returning the documents, but Trump had turned his offer down.
Pence stated that he would have expected Meadows would know about any declassification order.
In June former President Donald Trump was indicted over his alleged mishandling of the classified documents that were recovered from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the documents in question were declassified and he had committed no wrongdoings. He pleaded not guilty to all charges in this case.
Copyright 2023, FixThisNation.com
