An attorney for former Vice President Mike Pence reportedly found about a dozen documents marked classified at Pence’s home in Indiana last week.
Pence has since turned the documents over to the FBI, according to CNN. The reported discovery comes as the Justice Department has already tapped two special counsels to investigate classified document handling by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Pence directed his team to search his home in Indiana and office at his political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom (AAF), following revelations that classified documents had been discovered in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center, a Washington think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. No classified papers turned up in the search of Pence’s offices at AAF, according to Fox News.
The former vice president informed the National Archives of the discovery of classified government documents at his home on January 18, Pence’s team told Fox News. The National Archives then informed the FBI about the discovery.
Pence’s team found classified documents in two small boxes. Two other boxes contained copies of papers from Pence’s time as vice president. The FBI collected the documents from Pence’s home on the evening of January 19. The documents were held in a safe until the FBI’s arrival, the Pence team told Fox News.
The discovery of classified documents at Pence’s house comes on the heels of another classified document scandal that has embroiled the White House. Attorneys for Biden found classified documents in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center last year days before the 2022 midterm elections.
Attorneys for Biden found more sensitive papers at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on three separate occasions. Attorneys found a cache of documents in Biden’s garage, a group of five documents in his study, and then a lone document in his study again.
The FBI found more classified documents in a subsequent sweep of Biden’s home on Friday. Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, announced the findings of search.
“DOJ took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President. DOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years,” Bauer said in a statement.