Controversies surrounding the discovery of classified documents in the personal quarters of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence have helped some misperceptions flourish about how those documents wind up in places they shouldn’t be. The fact that classified documents have been located in storage areas belonging to the three leaders doesn’t mean they were the ones who packed them up and hauled them away. Much as Republicans want to demonize Biden and Democrats want to vilify Trump for the documents’ discovery, there’s much more to the story of how they got mishandled.
If willful disregard of the law was involved, there absolutely should be legal accountability regardless of the person’s current or former standing. It also matters whether the people under investigation deliberately withheld documents or obstructed federal authorities from retrieving them. On that score, Trump so far appears to be the only one who claimed a right to keep documents that belong to the government.
Pence has decided to fall on his sword. “During the closing days of the administration, when materials were boxed and assembled, some of which were shipped to our personal residence, mistakes were made,” Pence told Fox News last week, adding, “I take full responsibility for it, and we’re going to continue to support every appropriate inquiry into it.”
