FBI conducts 'consensual' search on Mike Pence's Indiana home

Ximena Bustillo

February 10, 2023 / 10:51 am

caption: Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks during an event at the Heritage Foundation think tank on Oct. 19, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

The FBI is searching former Vice President Mike Pence's Indiana home for classified materials, according to a source familiar with the matter as well as a Justice Department official. Both spoke on a condition on anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter.

The consensual search follows a discovery, relayed by Pence's representatives to the National Archives and Records Administration last month, that documents bearing classified markings had been, they said, "inadvertently" boxed up and found in the former vice president's home in Indiana. The Justice Department then requested "direct possession" of the documents and collected them from Pence's home.

This search is among the latest in a series over the past several months surrounding classified documents found in the belongings of the former leaders.

President Biden is facing an investigation by a Department of Justice special counsel into documents that date back to his time as vice president. Trump is facing investigation by a different special counsel into the improper handling of classified materials that led to an FBI raid in Mar-a-Lago last summer.