Former President Donald Trump is facing a "vindictive prosecution" because his vice president, Mike Pence, was not indicted for holding classified documents, Trump's lawyer claimed.
In a court filing on Thursday, Trump attorney Chris Kise claims that Trump was indicted for hoarding classified documents because of political bias.
Judge Aileen Cannon is overseeing the case, in which Trump is accused of illegally retaining classified documents, hoarding them at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and obstructing attempts by federal officials to retrieve them.
Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has denied any wrongdoing and has said the documents he retained were personal.
Newsweek sought email comment from attorneys for Trump and Pence on Thursday.
Kise's filing outlines that Pence was found to be holding on to classified documents yet was not indicted. It says that Pence made a number of disclosures to the National Archives and Records Administration [NARA] after leaving the White House.
"On January 18, 2023, counsel for Mike Pence disclosed to NARA that 'a small number of documents bearing classified markings ... were inadvertently boxed and transported to the personal home of the former Vice President at the end of the last Administration."
Kise's filing adds that Pence started looking for the documents after he saw that President Joe Biden was being questioned about classified documents he was holding.
"Pence had undertaken a search for those records in response to reports relating to President Biden's mishandling of classified information," Kise's filing states.
"The following day, DOJ [Department of Justice] bypassed the standard procedures under the Presidential Records Act" and "requested direct possession of the documents, and sent FBI agents to Pence's Indiana residence to collect the documents late at night," Kise adds.
Kise then said that, on January 20, 2023, Pence's counsel agreed to turn over to NARA four additional boxes "containing copies of Administration papers." These comprised two boxes "in which a small number of papers appearing to bear classified markings had been found, and two separate boxes containing courtesy copies of Vice Presidential papers."
He adds that on February 10, 2023, the FBI conducted "a consensual search of Vice President Pence's residence, which resulted in the seizure of an additional classified documents."
Finally, "on June 2, 2023, DOJ reportedly notified Pence that no charges would be filed related to the classified documents."
Relations between Trump and Pence have been strained since Pence refused to overturn Trump's loss to President Joe Biden in Congress on January 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol riot. Pence announced in March that he would not endorse Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Pence bowed out of his own campaign for president in October.
"It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year," Pence said on Fox News. "During my presidential campaign, I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues."
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Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more
