FBI Finds Additional Classified Document At Mike Pence’s Home, Reports Say

Topline

The FBI found one additional classified document during a search of former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home Friday in cooperation with Pence’s legal team, multiple news outlets reported, just weeks after several classified records were found at the Pence residence—following searches at President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s private residences.

Key Facts

Pence adviser Devin O’Malley told the Associated Press the Department of Justice completed an “Unrestricted search of five hours” and removed “one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings.”

These documents were not found during the initial review by Pence’s team, O’Malley said.

A private attorney for the former vice president was at Pence’s Carmel, Indiana, residence while the search took place, CNN reported.

Pence is currently on the West Coast, after the birth of his second grandchild, a spokesperson told CNN.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes, while Pence could not be reached for comment.

Key Background

In mid-January a lawyer for Pence found about a dozen documents marked classified at Pence’s home. In a letter to the National Archives, Pence’s attorney said he was “unaware of the existence of the records.” The National Archives then referred the matter to the Justice Department. The documents were previously stored at Pence’s temporary home in Virginia before they were moved to his Indiana home, CNN reported. And Pence isn’t alone. The FBI reportedly searched Biden’s former office at the Penn Biden Center in November, after the president’s staff found classified documents in the office (the FBI search was consensual, but it wasn’t disclosed to the public until January). Last week, the Justice Department searched Biden’s vacation property in Rehoboth, Delaware, and did not find any classified documents. A number of classified records were also recovered during an August FBI raid of Trump’s home Mar-A-Lago. Prosecutors said Trump had spent months avoiding a subpoena that required him to over those records. While both the former and the current president are said to have held classified documents in their private spaces, Biden said his lawyers voluntarily alerted authorities that he had the documents.

Tangent

On Thursday Pence received a subpoena from a special counsel investigating Trump, according to to multiple reports, as part of the Department of Justice’s probe into the January 6 attack on the Capitol. During last year’s House January 6 committee hearings, Pence was brought up repeatedly as a force working against Trump’s plans to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The former vice president criticized Trump’s January 6 actions in an ABC interview, calling him “reckless” and saying in part that “it was clear he decided to be part of the problem.” It’s unclear what documents special counsel Jack Smith has requested. The Justice Department’s probe, spearheaded by Smith, is a different investigation from the House’s January 6 committee.

Further Reading

Classified Documents Found At Mike Pence’s Home (Forbes)

Biden’s Team Finds Another Batch Of Government Records After Discovering Classified Docs In Private Office, Report Say (Forbes)