CNN's Evan Perez joins us now so Evan this isgetting really really messy what more can you tell us about these documents foundat the former vice president's home yeah Victor and Biana this is uh very messyespecially for the vice president and everyone who's been handling these classified documents uhthe vice president's team was doing these searches out of an abundance of caution uh in part becauseof what they had seen develop in the case of the President Biden and the documents that have beendiscovered not only at the Penn Biden Center but also at his home and they did these searches lastweek they uncovered about a dozen documents which they then immediately reached out to the NationalArchives to alert they found documents that they thought might be also presidential records actresponsive documents and so that's how this all.
Got started at about 9 30 PM last Thursday iswhen the FBI came to the uh vice president the former vice president's home in Carmel Indianaand took possession of these documents about a dozen documents as you pointed out thathave classification marking things now we don't know very much about the documents wedon't know what specifically they entail the level of classification but this is somethingthat is now becoming a spiraling issue for the government for the justice department which isdoing a review of this to see what these are who owns this information which which intelligenceagency owns this information and to see whether there's been any damage done to National Securitythis is part of the standard process that happens when these documents are found in places thatthey're not supposed to be now what we know now.
Is that you know the addition in addition to theseclassified documents the vice president's team the former vice president's team has turned over fourboxes of documents they arrived here in Washington just yesterday handed over to the NationalArchives again this is just early in the process we don't know whether the FBI and the justicedepartment will need to uh to investigate further whether there are any other places and anyother documents that could be missing Victor Evan we're going to expand the conversation injust a moment we want you to be part of it but first let's go to the White House we know thatwe may hear from President Biden on this news concerning classified documents found at formerpresident Pence's private home in Indiana the president is meeting right now with the DemocraticCongressional leaders at the White House let's.
Bring in CNN's Phil Mattingly so the stories ofmishandling misplacing documents uh have been dug the president how's the White House Now reactingto this you know Victor publicly the White House is not commenting at all making clear that thisis an ongoing matter and they're not going to weigh in one way or the other privately they arevery cognizant of what's been happening over the course of the last several hours and I thinkwhen you talk to people inside the White House they recognize that there is a political elementhere in terms of having another example of the situation that has really kind of consumed thepresident the presidency over the course of the last several weeks one from a republican vicepresident in this case uh that shows very clear parallels and two I think there's a sense that forRepublicans that have been attacking the president.
And his actions while he was vice president orin the wake of his vice presidency on Capitol Hill now they have to look at one of their owndoing the same exact thing and I think probably more broadly look white as officials again notweighing in publicly making very clear that they don't want a new part of an ongoing matter herebut they recognize the political salience here and the idea that when you compare two differentvice presidents leaving both of whom have said that they had no knowledge that these classifieddocuments were in their possession or had been transferred to their property those parallelsare important to try and underscore I think a point that President Biden has been making overthe course of the last couple of weeks now how this plays out going forward obviously is anopen question but again for a white house that.
Has been dealing with this in isolation for themost part trying to draw contrast between their predecessor former president Donald Trump thiscertainly is a an example that very much aligns with how they've operated up to this point whichonce again draws the contrast that they want to point out very regularly with where the formerpresident has been on this all right filmmatically stay with us meantime lawmakers on Capitol Hillare now reacting to this discovery of classified documents that Mike Pence's home for more on thislet's bring in CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill so Manu what has the reaction been thus far well alot of members are stunned they really have at a loss at how this is continually happening andwanted to get information there's some questions that will be directed directly to the Directorof National Intelligence Avril Haynes tomorrow.
When she appears behind closed doors withthe Senate intelligence committee they have been asking for questions for ever since it wasrevealed last year that Donald Trump had records at Mar-A-Lago they renewed the requests of Bibleleaders a Republican and Democratic leaders of that committee when it came to light that Bidenhad these documents and now they're renewing that Crest again in the light of this aftermathwith Mike Pence coming to light and Marco Rubio one of those leaders of the committee said thiswill definitely come up tomorrow behind closed doors but there's also questions about what elseCongress can do and how these records appeared at Joe Biden's home even records from the time as aSenator questions about how that emerged I had a chance to just ask Senate Majority Leader ChuckSchumer about specifically what Congress should.
Do about this in light of these concerns andin light of the fact that this keeps happening given that we have learned about Mike Pence havingthese documents is it not incumbent on the Senate to investigate to have some sort of oversightto ensure that the nation's Secrets aren't being leaked out everywhere in people's privacy SenatorPeters is looking at bipartisan legislation in terms of classified documents I support um hisefforts in the meantime on the specific cases the place the appropriate thing to do is havespecial prosecutor and that's what's happening so Schumer is referring to an effort that washappening in the homeland security committee led by Gary Peters the chairman of that committeeto try to change overhaul record-keeping laws federal record-keeping laws that effort is stilltaking shape still coming to light we'll see if.
It actually comes to pass but lawmakers reallyat the moment trying to figure out exactly what happened here calls for an investigation on theSenate side and of course the House Republicans already investigating what Joe Biden has donewe'll see how they press forward on the Pence matter as well all right Manu stay with uswe have also Phil and we have uh Evan with us and let's add Josh school he's a former FBIexecutive assistant director for intelligence uh Josh to you whatever system there is at the WhiteHouse or the vice president's residence obviously is not working well the former vice presidentand the president say they didn't know about these documents their lawyers discovered themthey handed them over Trump's a different story but is there a simple easy fix sothat this doesn't continue to happen.
Well Victor I'm not sure there's a simple fixfor this but clearly what's going on across both administrations is the fact that the policies andprocedures in the White House are not effective uh it looks like that most of this is happeningduring transition and a rush to get out of the White House I would call on the Director ofNational Intelligence to do a review to see what policies are in place what else needs to be inplace and really do a holistic look and make sure that this is not continuing to happen so Evan arewe in a scenario now where you have the clintons and the bushes and perhaps the Cheney's nowscrambling through their private homes to see if they inadvertently have some classified materialof their own I mean because these things seem to we keep getting these headlines every few days Iwould be shocked if it was just limited to to just.
Two administrations at this point right exactlyI think that's the big concern you know at this point we know that you know this happens from timeto time people find documents sometimes uh someone passes away and a spouse is going through theirtheir belongings and comes across something that they no one knew was there and and so this happensfrom time to time but you know the the discovery of these documents or rather the the the legalfight uh and the the protracted litigation with between Donald Trump and the National Archivesand the justice department has really kind of changed the way everyone approaches these thingsand this is why you know vice president's Pence team didn't really take take any action afterthe Trump situation because they just thought that was a complete outlier it's after the thishappened with Joe Biden uh and you know that they.
Decided to do this search and it does raise someimportant questions that I think you guys are are trying to get at and I think we don't really knowuntil people you know do these sort churches to see whether there's anything missing I thinkyou know it's going to be a working progress Phil we've heard from uh former president Trump onhis social media about this Mike Pence Discovery and of course we know the history between thesetwo uh up to and since January 6th and former president Trump said Mike Pence is an innocentman he never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life I wonder your thoughts on if thesediscoveries at Pence's home and who Pence is and what the country knows about Mike Pence shiftsthis conversation from a criminal exclusive to how do we fix the system and not just you know werethese men trying to use these for some nefarious.
Purposes you know I think it's important toseparate what the former president has done when it comes to these documents and his effortsto Shield some of those documents or not give them back and where the two vice presidents theformer vice president now the current president uh Joe Biden have been on these specific issueshowever I think when you look at the comparative if you separate the former president fromthis if you look at the parallels between the current President and Vice President pencefrom both of their times transitioning out of the vice presidency I think what mana'sreporting has been throughout the course of this day not just in this conversation uhwith Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer but also with the other lawmakers that he sent inuh to our operation our his Hill colleagues.
Have as well it seems or at least has appears atthis initial moment and keep in mind people were pretty stunned throughout the course of this daywhen this news came out that that's the direction things are headed now to be very clear there isstill a special counsel investigation and there were still new discoveries of documents in thepresident's home just a couple of days ago during a search by the FBI but I think this is a momentright now where I think people are grasping the fact that this is a broader issue one that'salways existed in Washington over the course certainly in the last couple of decades but whenit comes to this transition process and perhaps there needs to be legislative fixes perhapsthere needs to be fixes from the intelligence Community here not necessarily a central Focus ora an isolated focus on the investigation itself.
This shit is loopy. It appears treasure it’s no substantial predicament. for them!! SMH
Merrick Garland is late. He has limitless sources and would possibly well more than likely accumulated have also centered on the increased level of gamers concurrently. If he doesn't indict now, Trump's trial will roam into 2024… the election year. Indictment is finest the starting, with all the appeals which can well more than likely be going to come, the total project will roam into 2024 (when he would possibly well more than likely be the leading candidate, maybe even the presumptive nominee? Garland must indict now.
Trump intentionally took 50 plus boxes of highly categorized medical doctors and had his minions ship them to Mara Lago. WHY!!!!!! a man who never reads day to day briefings' wants militia secrets, nuclear secrets and extremely negative dos that if bought out would hurt The usa