FBI Searches Home of Former Vice President Mike Pence

(Trends Wide) — The FBI is currently conducting a search of former Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Indiana, a source familiar with the situation told Trends Wide.

Pence is currently on the West Coast with his family after his daughter had a baby, according to his spokesperson. A private attorney for Pence is at the Indiana home while the search is underway, the spokesperson added.

The FBI is also expected to search Pence’s Washington office in the coming days, sources told Trends Wide.

On Thursday, special counsel Jack Smith investigating former President Donald Trump and his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection subpoenaed Pence.

The search comes after the FBI and the Justice Department’s Homeland Security Division began a review of the documents and how they ended up at Pence’s home. It is not yet clear what the documents refer to or how sensitive or classified they are.

Mike Pence’s attitude towards the discovery of documents

In conversations with the Justice Department prior to the record, Pence’s team expressed that it wanted to cooperate fully. The team does not believe there are any classified documents at his home or office, as they carried out what they considered a comprehensive search themselves, a source said.

Pence has previously acknowledged that “mistakes were made,” while taking responsibility for any classified documents ending up at his home and pledging to “fully cooperate” with any FBI investigation. She said the documents found had been secured “immediately” and the National Archives had been notified.

Trends Wide initially reported last month that Pence had discovered classified documents at his Carmel, Indiana, home after he instructed a lawyer to search his files as a precaution following news of Biden’s classified documents breaking.

His lawyer, Matt Morgan, found about a dozen documents marked classified in four boxes that came from Pence’s vice presidential residence and his White House office.

What were in the boxes?

Pence’s team notified the Archives of the discovery, and Archives officials notified the FBI. The FBI asked Pence to immediately turn over the classified documents, to which he agreed. The four boxes of unclassified material were flown to Washington so the Archives could review their compliance with the Presidential Archives Act, which requires that all presidential documents be turned over to the Archives at the end of an administration.

The 12 or so classified documents included materials described as background informational memos that were prepared for Mike Pence’s foreign trips, and the sources described the classification categorization as “lower tier.” The boxes in question had not gone through the detailed procedures that Pence’s office had in place for documents because they were packed at the last minute, the sources said.

The documents in the houses of Biden and Trump

Biden’s team discovered classified documents in his Washington office in November. Biden has said they immediately notified the National Archives, which in turn notified the Justice Department, but the discovery did not become public for weeks. Material was also found at Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware. On Wednesday, FBI agents also searched Biden’s Rehoboth Beach home and uncovered no further classified documents.

The FBI recovered hundreds of documents from Trump’s Florida residence last August after he failed to comply with a subpoena to turn over classified material. Trump had in his possession more than 300 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago that were turned over to the Archives and recovered by the FBI.