A small number of classified documents was found in former Vice President Mike Pence’s personal residence in Indiana earlier this month, according to reports.
Pence officials found two boxes of possible classified materials inside the home on Jan. 16, as well as another two boxes that contained copies of vice presidential papers, according to CNN. The vice president’s team notified the National Archives and Records Administration upon its discovery on Jan. 18, officials said. The National Archives then informed the FBI, which then obtained the documents on Jan. 19.
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Pence’s team conducted a search of the former vice president’s Indiana home and his office at the Advancing American Freedom group shortly after it was reported that classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement that were stored there following President Joe Biden’s time as vice president, the outlet reported.
The documents were not stored in a secure area, prompting officials to store the documents in a safe until they were handed over to the National Archives, according to CNN.
Pence was in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life at the time of the discovery.
Lawyers for Pence said the documents were initially stored in his temporary home in Virginia before they were inadvertently boxed and transported to the vice president’s Indiana home without his knowledge. It’s not clear how long the documents have been stored there.
“Vice President Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence,” wrote Pence lawyer Greg Jacob in a letter to the National Archives. “Vice President Pence understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information and stands ready and willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry.”
It’s not clear what information the documents contain or what their level of classification is, according to Pence officials. Although the materials had classified markings, that determination will be left to the Department of Justice, they said. Pence plans to notify Congress of the discovery officially on Tuesday.
No classified documents were found during the search at his Advancing American Freedom office.
Reports of the discovery mark the latest in the monthslong saga of officials investigating classified documents that have been discovered in top officials’ homes, including Biden and former President Donald Trump. The latest discovery at Pence’s home also comes as the former vice president mulls a White House bid in 2024, possibly throwing his campaign into uncertainty.
Shortly after the discovery of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August, Pence has repeatedly said that he did not take any sensitive materials from the White House after leaving office.
“Well, there’d be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area,” Pence told ABC News in November. “But I will tell you that I believe there had to be many better ways to resolve that issue than executing a search warrant at the personal residence of a former president of the United States,” he added, referring to the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
FBI agents recovered about 33 boxes of roughly 11,000 documents during its August raid of Mar-a-Lago. Roughly 100 of those documents contained classified markings, with some being considered at the top secret level. Before that, the National Archives recovered 15 boxes from Trump in January 2022 containing “a lot” of classified materials. In total, officials have obtained roughly 300 documents with classified markings from the former president.
Biden faces similar scrutiny earlier this month after the classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and his personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware. That criticism only intensified over the weekend after six more classified items were found in his Delaware home on Friday.
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It’s not clear how many classified documents were found in Biden’s possession, with White House officials only describing it as a “small number.”
Biden faces a slew of investigations into his handling of classified documents by the Department of Justice, as well as congressional Republicans. Trump faces a number of similar investigations.
