FBI searches Mike Pence's Indiana home in classified docs probe

The FBI searched former Vice President Mike Pence's Indiana home on Friday as part of the federal probe into classified records, according to two people familiar with the law enforcement action.

The search followed the discovery last month of documents with classified markings by attorneys at the residence.

Pence is the latest in a string of former top US officials who have been found in possession of sensitive records after leaving the White House — including former President Donald Trump and former Vice President, now President, Joe Biden.

Pence, who is a potential 2024 presidential candidate, and his aides have said that he was unaware the documents were at his home and that they have fully cooperated with law enforcement.

Read | Former US VP Pence says he takes responsibility for documents found at home

The FBI had already taken possession of what Pence's lawyer previously described as a "small number of documents" that had been “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Pence's Indiana home at the end of the Trump administration.

Police on Friday afternoon were blocking the road outside Pence's neighbourhood, in Carmel, Indiana, just north of Indianapolis.

The search was described as consensual and came after extensive back-and-forth between Pence's legal team and the FBI. A member of Pence's legal team was at the home and expected the search to take several hours, according to one of the people familiar with the discussions who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss law enforcement action.

That person added that the FBI was being given unrestricted access to the home.

Pence himself was out of the state, visiting family in California after the birth of a grandchild.

The Justice Department did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The department has also been investigating the discovery of documents with classification markings at Biden's home in Delaware and his former Washington office, as well as Trump's Florida estate.

Officials are trying to determine whether Trump or anyone on his team criminally obstructed the probe in refusing to turn over the documents before the FBI seizure.

Pence's case is very different from Trump's. Pence, according to his lawyer Greg Jacob, requested a review by his attorneys of records stored at his home “out of an abundance of caution” during the uproar over the discovery of classified documents at Biden's home and former private office.

When the Pence documents were discovered, Jacob said, they were secured in a locked safe and reported to the National Archives. FBI agents then collected the documents.

Material found in the boxes came mostly from Pence's Naval Observatory vice presidential residence, while other material came from a West Wing office drawer.

Pence has said he was unaware the documents had been in his possession.

“Let me be clear: Those classified documents should not have been in my personal residence,” Pence said recently at Florida International University. “Mistakes were made, and I take full responsibility.”

“We acted above politics and put national interests first," he said.

The National Archives last month asked former US presidents and vice presidents 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 US government and will be managed by the Archives at the end of an administration.