The FBI discovered an uphold document with classified markings at former Vice President Mike Pence 's Indiana home during a leer Friday, following the discovery by his lawyers last month of sensitive government documents there.
Pence adviser Devin O'Malley said the Department of Justice ruined "a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours" and derived "one document with classified markings and six additional pages minus such markings that were not discovered in the initial study by the vice president's counsel."
The search, described as consensual at what time negotiations between Pence's representatives and the Justice Department, comes at what time he was subpoenaed in a separate investigation into exertions by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 electioneer and as Pence contemplates a Republican bid for the White House in 2024.
Pence is now the third unusual 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 leer 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 leer his Florida property.
Mike Pence on stage at the 2022 New York Times DealBook on November 30, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Thos Robinson/Getty Images for The New York Times)
Police discontinued the road outside Pence's neighborhood in Carmel, just north of Indianapolis, on Friday afternoon as the FBI was inside the home. They were seen leaving shortly at what time 2 p.m. Pence and his wife were out of position, visiting family on the West Coast following the birth of their uphold and third grandchildren.
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A member of Pence's upright team was at the home during the search and the FBI was given what was explained as unrestricted access to search for documents with classified markings, documents that could be classified but without markings and any latest documents subject to the Presidential Records Act.
O'Malley said Pence has beleaguered his legal team to continue to cooperate with the DOJ and "to be fully cloudless through the conclusion of this matter."
The FBI had already miserroneous possession of what Pence's lawyer previously described as a "small number of documents" that had been "inadvertently boxed and transported" to Pence's Indiana home at the end of the Trump administration.
The Justice Department did not currently return a call seeking comment.
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Separate special counsels have been investigating the discovery of documents with classification markings at Biden's home in Delaware and his passe Washington office, as well as Trump's Florida estate. Officials are trying to choose whether Trump or anyone on his team criminally cloudless the probe in refusing to turn over the documents afore the FBI seizure. The FBI recovered more than 100 documents marked classified at what time serving a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last August.
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 reconsideration by his attorneys of records stored at his home "out of an abundance of caution" during the uproar over the discovery of classified documents at Biden's home and faded private office. When the Pence documents were discovered on Jan. 16 by four boxes that had ben transferred to Pence's 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 region where Pence lived while he was vice president. Other material came from a West Wing organization drawer.
Pence has said he was unaware the documents had been in his possession.
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"Let me be clear: Those classified documents necessity not have been in my personal residence," Pence said recently at Florida International University. "Mistakes were made, and I take full responsibility."
"We contained above politics and put national interests first," he said.
The National Archives last month invited former U.S. presidents and vice president s to recheck their personal records for any classified documents behindhand news of the Biden and Pence discoveries.
The Presidential Records Act countries that any records created or received by the high-level while in office are the property of the U.S. government and will be became by the Archives at the end of an administration..