Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks during an event to advertise his recent book on the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank on October 19, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
Lawyers for former Vice President Mike Pence said a “small number” of classified documents were found at his home in Carmel, Indiana, last week.
Pence’s lawyers notified the National Archives and Records Administration of the invention on Wednesday, in keeping with a letter obtained by CNBC.
The classified documents were discovered on Jan. 16 after Pence had outside counsel with experience handling classified documents search his own residence and records “out of an abundance of caution,” following the news that classified documents were found at President Joe Biden’s home and office, an attorney for Pence told the Archives. The invention, which was reported earlier by CNN, got here after Pence said on several occasions he didn’t have any classified documents.
Gregory Jacob, an attorney at O’Melveny tasked with handling Pence’s records, said in a letter sent Sunday to the National Archives that the Justice Department sent FBI agents to Pence’s home at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday to retrieve the documents, which were being stored in a protected, while he was in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life.
“We have now not heard from the DOJ since then,” Pence spokesperson Devin O’Malley told NBC News.
Read Jacob’s letters to the National Archives here:
Congressional leaders were informed of the invention on Tuesday by Pence’s team.
O’Malley told NBC News that every one 4 boxes, “the 2 by which a small variety of [classified] papers appearing to bear classified markings had been found, and two separate boxes containing courtesy copies of Vice Presidential papers” were hand-delivered by Pence’s legal team to the Archives on Monday.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed two separate special counsels to research Biden and former President Donald Trump for his or her handling of classified materials.
The White House disclosed on Jan. 9 that documents were found on the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC on Nov. 2 by personal attorneys for Biden. The attorneys then notified the National Archives, resulting in an investigation by the Justice Department. Additional documents were later found by Biden’s attorneys at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Dec. 20, prompting a search of the house by FBI agents on Friday.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, was searched by the FBI in August, after months of discussions between the National Archives, Justice Department and Trump. Officials found 15 boxes containing a whole bunch of documents marked classified within the raid.
Unlike Biden, who agreed to the search, Trump refused to cooperate and was eventually issued a warrant for the search. Trump has repeatedly insisted that he did nothing flawed in his handling of documents after his presidency and has claimed any classified material was declassified by him before he left office, despite evidence pointing on the contrary.
Trump defended his former vp in a post on his Truth Social website.
“Mike Pence is an innocent man,” Trump wrote. “He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!”
Special counsel Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland, was tapped by Garland to research Biden’s handling of classified material on Jan. 12. Garland appointed Jack Smith, a former federal prosecutor, to look into Trump’s handling of classified documents on Nov. 18. Smith can also be investigating Trump’s involvement within the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The FBI declined to comment and referred to the Justice Department which didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the Pence revelations when asked by reporters about it on Tuesday, citing the continuing investigations.
“The Department of Justice is independent, and we is not going to politically interfere,” Jean-Pierre said. “We have been very, very clear about that.”
Biden told reporters in Mexico City on Jan. 10 he was “surprised” by the invention of the documents.
In an interview with CBS News on Jan. 10, before the documents were found at his home, Pence said that he was “confident” there have been no classified materials in his possession from his White House tenure.
“Our staff reviewed all the materials in our office and in our residence to be sure that there have been no classified materials that left the White House or remained in our possession,” Pence said. “I remain confident that that was done in a radical and careful way. Clearly, within the waning days of the Trump-Pence administration, that process was not properly executed by staff across the president of the USA.”
Pence told Fox Business on Jan. 12, before classified documents were found at his own residence, the situation was a “very serious matter.”
“The handling of classified materials and the nation’s secret is a really serious matter and as a former vp of the USA, I can speak from personal experience in regards to the attention that must be paid to those materials whenever you’re in office and after you allow office,” he told FOX Business. “And clearly that didn’t happen on this case.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., told reporters Tuesday the USA might be over-classifying information. Graham also said he believed the documents crisis was now moving beyond politics.
“What became a political problem for Republicans has now grow to be a national security problem for the country,” Graham said at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
— CNBC’s Kayla Tausche contributed to this text.