Pence Reacts to Trump Criminal Targeting With Hopes DOJ Won't Indict

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to supporters as he formally announces his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president on June 7, 2023, in Ankeny, Iowa. Pence said during a town hall event Wednesday evening that he thinks that it would be “divisive” of the DOJ to charge former President Donald Trump in their investigation into the classified documents discovered at Trump’s home in Florida.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said that he hopes the Department of Justice (DOJ) can “move forward” in its investigation of ex-President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents without pressing charges.

Pence, who formally launched his bid for the White House on Wednesday, sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash hours later for a live town hall event in Des Moines, Iowa. The former vice president joins a large pool of candidates hoping to upheave Trump’s current lead for the 2024 GOP nomination.

During the forum, Pence was asked for his reaction to “breaking news” involving the DOJ probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents that were discovered in his Mar-a-Lago home in August. The New York Times on Wednesday night was among several outlets reporting that sources said federal prosecutors had informed Trump’s legal team that he is a target of their investigation, signaling that the former president is likely to face charges as the DOJ wraps up its case.

Pence initially told Bash that he understood that “the handling of classified materials is a very serious matter,” and thanked the DOJ for accepting his office’s full cooperation when classified documents were discovered at his Indiana home. However, in terms of Trump’s investigation, the former vice president said that he hoped his former boss would receive “equal treatment under the law.”

“I was very troubled last summer when for the first time in history, there was a search warrant executed at the home of the former president of the United States,” Pence said during the forum.

Bash later pushed Pence to clarify if he was saying that if the DOJ believes Trump “committed a crime, they should not go forward with an indictment.”

“Let me be clear that no one’s above the law,” Pence responded. “But with regards to the unique circumstances here … I would just hope that there would be a way for them to move word without the dramatic and drastic and divisive step of indicting the former president of the United States.”

“We’ve got to find a way to move our country forward and restore confidence in equal treatment under the law in this country. We really do,” he added.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s press team for comment on Pence’s town hall.

The DOJ alerted Pence’s legal team last week that the investigation into the classified documents found in his possession from his time as vice president was coming to a close. A probe into the classified materials discovered at President Joe Biden’s former office, as well as his home in Delaware, is still ongoing.

Regarding Biden and Pence, the federal government was alerted of the classified materials in their possession, and both fully cooperated in getting the documents returned. Trump, however, ignored several requests to relinquish classified documents to the National Archives and Records Administration. The DOJ investigation has focused on Trump’s handling of the documents and whether he tried to obstruct the federal government from retrieving them.

Pence has been vocal in recent months that he does not believe Trump should be in the White House again. During an interview with ABC News in November, the former vice president said he believed America would have “better options,” and on Wednesday night he told Bash that he does not think Trump should be the next Republican nominee.

“Anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should never be president in the first place. And anyone who asks anyone else to put themselves over the Constitution should never be president again,” Pence said.

However, Trump has remained somewhat cordial with his former running mate, compared to how he has treated other Republicans challenging him in the next election. After news dropped that Pence would not be charged in the DOJ investigation of documents found in Indiana, Trump called it “great news.”

“Just announced that they are not going to bring charges against Mike Pence on the document hoax,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “That’s great, but when am I going to be fully exonerated, I’m at least as innocent as he is.”

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