The Justice Department searched the offices of former Vice President Mike Pence’s political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, on Friday to look for more classified documents, according to multiple reports.
“The Department of Justice today completed a thorough and unrestricted search of Advancing American Freedom’s office for several hours and found no new documents with classified markings,” Pence adviser Devin O’Malley said in a statement. “One binder with approximately three previously redacted documents was taken.”
The documents in the binder were believed to be from the former vice president’s 2020 debate preparations, according to the same reports.
“The vice president has consistently cooperated with appropriate authorities, has been fully transparent, and looks forward to the imminent conclusion of this matter,” O’Malley said in a statement.
The search of his advocacy group comes one week after Pence’s Indiana home was searched for more classified documents. While his house was being searched, he was on the West Coast with his family after his daughter had a baby. According to the Hill, the search of his home turned up one more additional document with classified markings.
The two searches come after he voluntarily provided classified documents to federal authorities that were discovered at his Indiana home last month after the discovered documents were “inadvertently packed up and transported, and Mr. Pence was unaware of their existence.” Pence’s private search came after law enforcement agencies have recently increased scrutiny of how government officials handle classified material.
Pence voluntarily looking and turning over classified documents to federal authorities roped him into the same scandal simmering around President Joe Biden after multiple reports showed that between 2o-25 documents were found in Biden’s vice-presidential office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C., and other places such as his home in Delaware. Since the discovery of the documents, federal authorities searched Biden’s two homes in Delaware in recent weeks.
This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and redacted by in part by the FBI, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 search by the FBI of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The discovery of classified documents at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence is scrambling the blame game in Washington. Now, lawmakers from both parties seem united in frustration with the string of mishaps in the handling of the U.S. government’s secrets.(Department of Justice via AP, File)
The document disclosures from Pence and Biden came as former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, Mar-A-Lago, was raided by FBI agents last summer. The FBI searched his residence for classified material that the former president could have removed from the White House when he moved out. The search reportedly included agents going through Melania Trump’s bedroom and closets. Following the raid, some of the seized materials the FBI took included over 50 empty folders.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
