Mike Pence defends FBI over Mar-a-Lago search: 'Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police'



Former Vice President Mike Pence defended the rank and file of the FBI from criticism by those decrying the search warrant performed at the Mar-a-Lago residence of former President Donald Trump.

Pence made the comments while giving a speech at an event at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday. Pence expressed concern at the possibility that the Biden administration was politicizing the FBI in order to seek its own political agenda before defending the bureau.

“I also want to remind my fellow Republicans, we can hold the attorney general accountable for the decision he made without attacking the rank-and-file law enforcement personnel at the FBI,” he said at the Politics & Eggs event.

“The Republican Party is the party of law and order,” Pence added. “Our party stands with the men and women who stand on the thin blue line at the federal and state and local level, and these attacks on the FBI must stop. Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police.”

On Thursday, a man tried to breach the FBI offices in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a nail gun before fleeing. Police later tried to apprehend the man after an hours-long standoff that ended in a shootout where the man died. He was later identified as Ricky Walter Shiffer, who had been present at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack.

Pence also made headlines when he said he would consider testifying before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 rioting. Pence had been the target for some of the rioters who believed he had the constitutional power to reject the official results of the 2020 presidential election.

“It would be unprecedented in history for a vice president to be summoned to testify on Capitol Hill, but as I said, I don’t want to prejudge,” he said during the speech. “If ever any formal invitation was rendered to us, we’d give it due consideration.”

Some saw the comments as a part of a possible Pence campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Here are the comments from Pence:

Mike Pence tells Republicans to stop attacking the FBI after Mar-a-Lago raidwww.youtube.com

Breaking: DOJ asks judge to  keep Mar-a-Lago affidavit sealed to preserve its ongoing criminal investigation



The Department of Justice asked a judge to keep the affidavit sealed for the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in order to preserve an ongoing criminal investigation.

The development comes during a national debate over whether the FBI search at the residence of former President Donald Trump was a justifiable law enforcement action or if it was inappropriately motivated by politics.

“Disclosure of the government’s affidavit at this stage would also likely chill future cooperation by witnesses whose assistance may be sought as this investigation progresses, as well as in other high-profile investigations,” the Justice Department argued.

“The fact that this investigation implicates highly classified materials further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the investigation and exacerbates the potential harm if information is disclosed to the public prematurely or improperly,” they added.

CNN, the Washington Post, NBC News and various other news organizations have asked for the affidavit to be unsealed.

The Department of Justice added that unsealing the affidavit could “cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation.”

Law expert Neal Katyal tweeted his approval of the request from the DOJ.

"DOJ is appropriately resisting disclosure of the Mar A Lago search affidavit because it will compromise their ongoing investigation," Katyal wrote. "This is very standard and right. That said, what they said -- especially about witnesses -- will invariably drive Trump to be even more worried."

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said that the request was a "cover up" in a statement on Twitter.

"Biden DOJ refuses @JudicialWatch court request to release affidavit used to justify warrant for sham raid on Trump's home," he tweeted.

Trump has blasted the search at his home and accused the Biden administration of corrupting the law enforcement powers of the executive branch for the sake of political expedience.

On Friday, a judge unsealed the search warrant and property receipt for the search and revealed that 11 sets of classified documents had been removed from Mar-a-Lago.

Here's a news report about the development:

Federal Prosecutors Ask To Keep Trump Search Warrant Affidavit Sealedwww.youtube.com