FBI Found One Classified Document After Searching Pence’s Home

The FBI found one classified document after searching the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence for five hours Friday, an adviser to Pence said.

Pence and his aides had agreed to the search after they discovered a small number of classified documents there last month.

“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,” Pence’s adviser, Devin O’Malley, said. “The vice president has directed his legal team to continue its cooperation with appropriate authorities and to be fully transparent through the conclusion of this matter.”

The Pences were traveling when the search took place.

It came a day after reports that Pence had received a subpoena from the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election.

After President Joe Biden disclosed that his aides had discovered classified documents from his time as vice president at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and a former think tank office in Washington, Pence’s aides searched his home out of caution.

They found documents with classified markings and notified the Justice Department. The FBI showed up while Pence was at the March for Life in Washington, Greg Jacob, a former adviser and Pence’s representative for dealing with records related to the presidency, wrote in a letter to the National Archives.

The disclosure renewed questions about how classified material is handled at the highest echelons of government, with both Biden and Trump the subject of special counsel investigations into the matter.

Still, Trump’s response to the discovery of sensitive government documents at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida, stands in stark contrast to that of Biden or Pence.

Trump for months resisted the government’s repeated attempts to retrieve the materials, including by defying a subpoena requesting their return. That prompted the FBI to obtain a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, where agents turned up more classified materials in August.

Biden has cooperated with the Justice Department and the National Archives since aides found classified documents at his think tank office and his home in Wilmington, where he often spends weekends. The FBI in recent weeks has searched that residence, as well as his vacation home in Rehoboth, Delaware.

Pence’s aides have also emphasized cooperation.

Last month, Jacob disclosed that a “small number of documents” with classified markings had been “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Pence’s home in Indiana during the waning days of the Trump administration.

“Vice President Pence immediately secured those documents in a locked safe pending further direction on proper handling from the National Archives,” Jacob wrote.

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.

Credit: The New York Times