JUSTICE DEPT. SEARCHES PENCE’S D.C. OFFICE
Aide to former VP says no classified items were found
Justice Department officials searched former Vice President Mike Pence’s Washington office and found no documents with classified markings, an aide to Pence said Friday.
The officials removed one binder containing three redacted documents from the office of Pence’s political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, according to Pence aide Devin O’Malley.
O’Malley said that Pence had granted law enforcement permission to search the office and gave officials unrestricted access to the property. It follows another consensual search last week of Pence’s Indiana home, in which the Justice Department recovered one document with classified markings.
“The vice president has consistently cooperated with appropriate authorities, has been fully transparent, and looks forward to the imminent conclusion of this matter,” O’Malley said.
Pence, who is contemplating a 2024 presidential bid, is the latest politician to face scrutiny for potentially mishandling classified materials after leaving elected office. The Justice Department has
launched separate criminal probes into classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s and former President Donald Trump’s personal properties.
Pence revealed last month that he decided to search his property for classified materials after news broke that sensitive materials were discovered at Biden’s home while the investigation into Trump’s possible mishandling of government materials was ongoing. After that initial search, Pence turned over to the FBI “a small number of documents” bearing classified markings, his lawyer said in a statement.
The former vice president’s team then worked with the Justice Department to conduct consensual searches of his home and office.
In the several-hours-long
search of Pence’s office disclosed Friday, the binder that officials removed is believed to be from debate preparations for the 2020 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about a sensitive matter. A member of Pence’s legal team was present during the search.
The person familiar with the matter said that law enforcement was looking for both documents bearing classified markings and materials that were not classified but protected by the Presidential Records Act. Documents covered under that act belong to the government, and elected officials are not allowed to keep them once they leave office.
Lawyers for both Pence and Biden have stressed that their clients have been forthcoming and cooperative with law enforcement and have turned over any classified or government materials found in their possession.
They appear to be trying to draw a distinction with Trump’s case, in which the former president seems to have resisted government attempts to obtain official documents for months, including after a grand jury subpoena demanded the return of any material marked classified. That alleged resistance led to the FBI obtaining a search warrant and executing an unannounced search of his property last August, in which more than 100 additional classified documents were found.
In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned veteran federal prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee day-to-day operations of the criminal probe of Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. Smith is also managing aspects of the Justice Department’s investigation of the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that are closely linked to Trump.
In January, Garland appointed Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney in Maryland, as a special counsel to oversee the Biden investigation.