FBI finds another classified document in Pence’s home
FBI agents discovered a document with classified markings Friday during a five-hour search of former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home, adding to a batch discovered last month.
The document, and an additional six pages not discovered during the Jan. 16 review, were removed by the agents, according to a statement from Pence adviser Devin O’malley. The six other pages were not marked classified, according to the statement.
Pence had agreed to Friday’s search and directed his legal team to continue cooperating with appropriate authorities and “to be fully transparent through the conclusion of this matter,” O’malley said in the statement.
The search was conducted with a member of Pence’s legal team present, and the FBI was given unrestricted access to the home, according to a person familiar with the situation. Pence and his wife weren’t home at the time, the person said.
Pence had brought in a lawyer to search his home on Jan. 16 “out of an abundance of caution” following recent reports about the discovery of classified material at President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware. The same scope for the search for Biden’s home was applied to the search of Pence’s, the person said.
The FBI declined to comment. Friday’s search was earlier reported by Politico.
Pence’s lawyer Greg Jacob told the National Archives in a letter last month that Pence had “a small number” of documents marked as classified at his home that were turned over to the FBI following a search, saying that the materials were “inadvertently boxed” and sent to Pence’s home after he left office in January 2021.
In a second letter to the National Archives in January, Jacob said that on Jan. 19, the Justice Department asked to retrieve the documents, and that Pence agreed. FBI agents came to his home that evening to get the records, which were being kept in a safe.
Pence has said he was unaware that any classified or sensitive documents were sent to his home.
“During the closing days of administration, when materials were boxed and assembled, some of which were shipped to our personal residence, mistakes were made,” Pence said on Fox News
on Jan. 27. “We were not aware of it at the time until we did the review just a few short weeks ago. But I take full responsibility for it and we’re going to continue to support every appropriate inquiry into it.”
The Justice Department has appointed special counsels to investigate how documents with classification markings ended up at private residences of Biden and former President Donald Trump.
While Biden and Pence have cooperated with authorities to find and return the documents, Trump refused, arguing he had declassified the papers when he took them to his Mar-a-lago home in Florida. The FBI conducted the search of his home under a subpoena on Aug. 8, 2022.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has declined to say whether the Justice Department’s involvement in the matter signaled an impending criminal investigation that might warrant referral to a special counsel.
Pence is weighing a bid for the White House in 2024, making him a potential rival to Trump for the Republican nomination. Biden has not yet said whether he will run for reelection, but he is widely expected to declare his candidacy for a second term.