WASHINGTON (AP) – The FBI searched former Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Indiana on Friday as part of a secret tapes investigation, according to two people familiar with the search.
The people were not authorized to discuss law enforcement actions and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The search follows the discovery of classified documents by lawyers last month.
The FBI already has what Pence’s attorney described to the National Archives as “a small number of documents” that had been “boxed and transported” to Pence’s home in Indiana at the end of the Trump administration.
The search was described as consensual and came after extensive back-and-forth between Pence’s legal team and the FBI. Members of Pence’s legal team are at the home and expect the search to take several hours, according to one person familiar with the discussions. The person added that the FBI was given unrestricted access to the home.
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The former vice president and potential 2024 candidate is out of the country, visiting family in California after the birth of his grandson.
The Justice Department did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday.
The department is also investigating the discovery of classified documents at President Joe Biden’s Delaware home and former Washington office, as well as former President Donald Trump’s Florida property. Officials are also trying to determine whether Trump or anyone on his team obstructed the investigation by refusing to turn over the documents.
The Pence case is very different from the Trump case. Pence, according to his lawyer, Greg Jacob, requested to review records kept at his home “out of caution” during the uproar over the discovery of classified documents in his home and former private office. When the documents were discovered, Jacob said, they were immediately secured in a locked safe and reported to the National Archives. FBI agents then collected the documents that had been secured.
The material found in the box was mostly from the vice president’s residence at the Pence Naval Observatory, while other material was from West Wing office drawers.
Pence said he did not know the documents existed.
“Let’s be clear: Those classified documents are not in my house,” Pence said at Florida International University last week. “Mistakes were made, and I take responsibility.”
Pence said: “We act above politics and put the national interest first.”
Colvin reports from New York.