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Former Presidents and Vice-Presidents Asked to Review Personal Records for Classified Documents

The US National Archives have made a call to action to all the former presidents and their vice-presidents, with an urgent request for them to review the personal records in their possession for any classified-marked documents. This comes after a series of similar discoveries at the homes of Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

The NARA sent letters to their six previous administrations which are covered under the Presidential Records Act, asking them to take responsibility and look into whether any materials they kept were mistakenly assumed as ‘personal’ but may contain Presidential or Vice Presidential records. The requests were sent out to representatives of Barack Obama, George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Dan Quayle.

What We Knew About Classified Records

It has been confirmed by the representatives of four former presidents that no classified-marked documents were retained after they left office. However Mike Pence himself had claimed earlier that he had returned all materials back to NARA until it was discovered otherwise during a search at his home recently.

CNN first reported this news which comes after lawyers from Biden and Pence revealed that a search of their private properties revealed classified documents months after FBI seized around 100 such items from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2020.

The most recent discovery came about when Biden’s lawyer was cleaning up his office last November at University of Pennsylvania Biden Center for Diplomacy in Washington where he found several Top Secret/Secret Compartmented Information level papers marked as classified. This was reported immediately by both National Archives and Guardian who then alerted US justice department about the same thing.

Merrick Garland then asked John Lausch on 14 Nov 2020 (US attorney) to conduct an inquiry into this matter who then recommended on 5 January 2021 Garlands name special counsel so as to insulate Department from possible charges of political conflict due previously appointing special counsels against Donald Trump himself back when he was president.

Robert Hur (former top trump justice official), appointed Special Counsel by Garland on 10 Jan 2021 has now taken over this case with its aim being complete insulation between Dept & politics since the investigation is dealing with ex President Joe Biden's case & not involving current president Joe Bidens' case anymore!

After additional papers were found late last year; close aides for ex VP Pence took it upon themselves out of abundance to caution & searched his home in Indiana only recently (18th Jan 2021) where they stumbled across numerous classified papers; however details regarding content/dates/classification levels remain unknown due one aide stopping immediately upon finding such files/papers thus leaving rest uninspected!

Such incidents come off as embarrassing for former VP Mike Pence who assured ABC News back in Nov 2020 that none such materials had been removed improperly from White House itself saying "I did not". Whereas compared too him; both Ex President Joe Biden & Former President Donald Trumps' cases have been dealt differently - unlike pence moving quickly towards returning findings quickly - where trump resisted handing over material found illegally stored up at Mar A Lago leading DOJ turning his case into criminal investigation!

It is believed DOJ pursues cases related mishandling classifies info when 4 aggravating factors are combined together i:e wilful mishandling classifies info/$ quantity suggest possible misconduct /disloyalty towards USA& obstruction attempts done deliberately by person concerned so concealment etc! In Trump's case two such element are involved i:e obstruction ( preventing govt agency)/volume classifies docs @ mar A Lago proving him guilty if these accusations turn out true !