Pence was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky from 1990 to 1995 where he prosecuted a series of high-profile corruption cases, including those in Operation BOPTROT, an FBI investigation that ended in the convictions of over 20 legislators and lobbyists.
Pence was appointed by President George W. Bush as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to this position on September 24, 2001.
[1][2] He left the U.S. Attorney's Office in May 2003,[3] to be the Republican Party's nominee for lieutenant governor when Ernie Flecher's original running mate, Hunter Bates, was disqualified from the ticket.
As lieutenant governor, he served at various times as Secretary of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, Commissioner of State Police and Director of Homeland Security.
Although Pence maintained that he did not separate himself from Fletcher's re-election effort in order to run for public office himself, there was speculation that he has not ruled out the possibility at some point in the future.
As momentum for Kentucky's gubernatorial race began to build, Pence announced in January 2007 that he would not be a candidate for governor, and planned to return to the practice of law once his term of office ended.