Pence adviser Devin O’Malley mentioned the Department of Justice accomplished “a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours” and removed “one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice president’s counsel.”
The search, described as consensual after negotiations between Pence’s representatives and the Justice Department, comes after he was subpoenaed in a separate investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election and as Pence contemplates a Republican bid for the White House in 2024.
Pence is now the third current 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 search 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 inspect his Florida property.
Police blocked 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 after 2 p.m. Pence and his wife were out of state, visiting family on the West Coast following the birth of their second and third grandchildren.
A member of Pence’s legal team was at the home during the search and the FBI was given what was described as unrestricted access to search for documents with classified markings, documents that could be classified but without markings and any other documents subject to the Presidential Records Act.
O’Malley said Pence has directed his legal team to continue to cooperate with the DOJ and “to be fully transparent through the conclusion of this matter.”
The FBI had already taken possession of what Pence’s lawyer beforehand described as a “small number of documents” that had been “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Pence’s Indiana dwelling on the finish of the Trump administration.
The Justice Department didn’t instantly return a name in search of remark.
Separate particular counsels have been investigating the invention of paperwork with classification markings at Biden’s dwelling in Delaware and his former Washington workplace, in addition to Trump’s Florida property. Officials are attempting to find out whether or not Trump or anybody on his crew criminally obstructed the probe in refusing to show over the paperwork earlier than the FBI seizure. The FBI recovered greater than 100 paperwork marked categorized whereas serving a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago final August.
The circumstances of the Biden and Pence circumstances are markedly totally different from that of Trump.
Pence, in response to his lawyer Greg Jacob, had requested a evaluation by his attorneys of information saved at his dwelling “out of an abundance of caution” through the uproar over the invention of categorized paperwork at Biden’s dwelling and former non-public workplace. When the Pence paperwork have been found on January 16 amongst 4 packing containers that had ben transferred to Pence’s dwelling through the transition, Jacob mentioned, they have been secured in a locked secure and reported to the National Archives. FBI brokers then collected them.
Material discovered within the packing containers got here principally from the Naval Observatory residence the place Pence lived whereas he was vp. Other materials got here from a West Wing workplace drawer.
Pence has mentioned he was unaware the paperwork had been in his possession.
“Let me be clear: Those classified documents should not have been in my personal residence,” Pence mentioned not too long ago at Florida International University. “Mistakes were made, and I take full responsibility.”
“We acted above politics and put nationwide pursuits first,” he mentioned.
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The National Archives last month asked former U.S. presidents and vice president s to recheck their personal records for any classified documents following news of the Biden and Pence discoveries.
The Presidential Records Act states that any records created or received by the president while in office are the property of the U.S. government and will be managed by the Archives at the end of an administration.
Source: www.9news.com.au
