The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the Carmel, Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday morning after classified government documents were found there weeks earlier. The FBI is also expected to search Pence’s office in Washington, DC, CNN reported.
Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, had noticed a dozen “lower level” classified documents in four boxes in Pence’s vice presidential residence and his White House office. Jacob then contacted the National Archives about these documents on January 18, The Hill reported.
The documents, which were returned to the archives, included “background briefing memos that were prepared for Pence’s foreign trips,” CNN noted. Jacobs said that Pence had taken them by accident.
The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division spoke with Pence’s team days before the Friday search; the team offered its full cooperation and said they had unsuccessfully searched for more documents in Pence’s home beforehand, finding nothing.
The FBI found one additional classified document during their search of Pence’s home. Classified documents were also found in Biden’s old Washington, D.C. office in November, at his Wilmington, Delaware home in December and early January, and in the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday of this week, the FBI also searched Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Delaware residence, but didn’t find any additional classified documents.
Last August, the FBI retrieved over 300 classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence after he ignored a subpoena to return the classified documents. The FBI retrieved the documents and returned them to the National Archives.
Former presidents and vice presidents are required to submit classified documents to the National Archives for proper storage after their presidential terms end.
On Thursday, Pence was subpoenaed by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith. While Smith is overseeing probes into the retrieval of classified documents from Trump, Pence was subpoenaed in relationship to the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol.