New document found at Pence’s
Federal agents searched ex-vice president’s home for 5 hours
WASHINGTON — The FBI discovered an additional document with classified markings at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home during a search Friday, after the discovery by his lawyers last month of sensitive government documents there.
Pence adviser Devin O’Malley said the Department of Justice completed “a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours” and removed “one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice president’s counsel.”
The search, described as consensual after negotia- tions between Pence’s rep- resentatives and the Justice Department, comes after he was subpoenaed in a separate investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election.
Pence is now the third current or former top U.S. official, joining Trump and President Joe Biden, to have their homes scoured by FBI agents for classified records.
Police blocked the road outside Pence’s neighborhood in Carmel as the FBI was inside the home Friday afternoon. They were seen leaving shortly after 1 p.m.
Pence and his wife were out of state, visiting family on the West Coast after the birth of their second and third grandchildren.
A member of Pence’s legal team was at the home during the search and the FBI was given what was described as unrestricted access to search for documents with classified markings, documents that could be classified but without markings and any other documents subject to the Presidential Records Act.
O’Malley said Pence has directed his legal team to continue to cooperate with the Justice Department and “to be fully transparent through the conclusion of this matter.”
The FBI had already taken possession of what Pence’s lawyer previously described as a “small number of documents.”
The Justice Department did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Separate special counsels have been investigating the discovery of documents with classification markings at Biden’s home in Delaware and his former Washington office, as well as at Trump’s Florida estate.
Officials are trying to determine whether Trump or anyone on his team criminally obstructed the investigation in refusing to turn over the documents before the FBI seizure.
The FBI recovered more than 100 documents marked classified last August at Mara-Lago.
In yet another document development, emails released late Friday revealed that after the National Archives became aware of the discovery of the classified papers at Biden’s former Washington office, Archives officials requested and received papers that had been shipped to a law office in Boston by the president’s personal attorney.
No classified documents were believed to be in the Boston documents.
The circumstances of the Biden and Pence cases are markedly different from that of Trump.
Pence, according to his lawyer Greg Jacob, had requested a review by his attorneys of records stored at his home “out of an abundance of caution” during the uproar over the discovery of classified documents at Biden’s home and former private office.
When the Pence documents were discovered Jan. 16 among four boxes that had been transferred to Pence’s home during the transition, Jacob said, they were secured in a locked safe and reported to the National Archives. FBI agents then collected them.
Material found in the boxes came mostly from the Naval Observatory residence where Pence lived while he was vice president. Other material came from a West Wing office drawer.
Pence has said he was unaware the documents had been in his possession.
“Mistakes were made and I take full responsibility,” Pence said recently.
The National Archives last month asked former U.S. presidents and vice presidents to recheck their personal records for any classified documents.
The Presidential Records Act states that any records created or received by the president while in office are the property of the U.S. government and will be managed by the Archives at the end of an administration.