The FBI discovered an additional document with classified markings atĀ former Vice President Mike PenceĀ ās Indiana home during a search Friday, following the discovery by his lawyers last month of sensitive government documents there.
Pence adviser Devin OāMalley said the Department of Justice completed āa thorough and unrestricted search of five hours" and removed āone document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice presidentās counsel."
The search, described as consensual after negotiations between Pence's representatives 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 and as Pence contemplates a Republican bid for the White House in 2024.
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. The willingness of Pence and Biden to permit the FBI to search their homes, and to present themselves as fully cooperative, reflects a desire by both to avoid the drama that enveloped Trump last year and resulted in the Justice Department having to get a warrant to inspect his Florida property.
Police blocked the road outside Penceās neighborhood in Carmel, just north of Indianapolis, on Friday afternoon as the FBI was inside the home. They were seen leaving shortly after 2 p.m. Pence and his wife were out of state, visiting family on the West Coast following the birth of their second and third grandchildren.
A member of Penceās 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.
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OāMalley said Pence has directed his legal team to continue to cooperate with the DOJ and āto be fully transparent through the conclusion of this matter.ā
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The FBI had already taken possession of what Penceās lawyer previously described as a "small number of documents" that had been āinadvertently boxed and transportedā to Pence's Indiana home at the end of the Trump administration.
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 Bidenās home in Delaware and his former Washington office, as well as Trumpās Florida estate. Officials are trying to determine whether Trump or anyone on his team criminally obstructed the probe in refusing to turn over the documents before the FBI seizure. The FBI recovered more than 100 documents marked classified while serving a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last August.
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 presidentās 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 āout of an abundance of cautionā during the uproar over the discovery of classified documents at Biden's home and former private office. When the Pence documents were discovered on Jan. 16 among four boxes that had ben transferred to Penceās 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.
āLet me be clear: Those classified documents should not have been in my personal residence,ā Pence said recently at Florida International University. āMistakes were made, and I take full responsibility.ā
āWe acted above politics and put national interests first," he said.
The National Archives last month asked former U.S. presidents and vice president s to recheck their personal records for any classified documents following news of the Biden and Pence discoveries.
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.
