The discovery of documents with classified markings at former Vice President Mike Pence's home in Indiana follows the revelation of classified materials at President Joe Biden's Delaware home and former office — and the seizure last year of hundreds of documents marked classified from Mar-a-Lago, the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump.
A look at similarities and differences among the various situations:
HOW MANY CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
PENCE: “A small number of documents bearing classified markings” were discovered last week at Pence's home north of Indianapolis, Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, wrote in a Jan. 18 letter to the National Archives and Records Administration shared with The Associated Press.
In all, four boxes containing copies of administration papers — two in which “a small number” of papers bearing classified markings were found, and two containing “courtesy copies of vice presidential papers” — were discovered, according to Jacob. The discovery came almost two years after Pence left office.
BIDEN: It's unclear precisely how many classified papers have been recovered from Biden's home and former office. Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, said earlier this month that “a small number of documents with classified markings” were discovered on Nov. 2, 2022, in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a think tank in Washington, as Biden's personal attorneys were clearing out the offices.
Sauber said Jan. 12 that a second batch of documents with classified markings — a “small number," he said — had been found in a storage space in Biden's garage near Wilmington, Delaware, along with one document located in Biden's personal library in his home. Days later, Sauber clarified that six pages, not a single one, had been found in the library.
During a nearly 13-hour search on Jan. 20, FBI agents searching Biden’s Delaware home located six additional items that contained documents with classified markings and also took possession of some of his handwritten notes, the president’s lawyer, Bob Bauer, said Saturday.
TRUMP: Roughly 300 documents with classification markings — including some at the top secret level — have been recovered from Trump since he left office in January 2021.
In January 2022, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents, telling Justice Department officials they contained “a lot” of classified material. In August, FBI agents took more than 33 boxes and containers totaling 11,000 documents from Mar-a-Lago, including roughly 100 with classification markings found in a storage room and an office.