FBI searching Mike Pence’s home for classified documents

The FBI discovered an additional classified document at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home Friday during a voluntary five-hour search of the house, a Pence adviser said in a statement.

The adviser, Devin O’Malley, said “the Department of Justice completed a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours and removed one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice president’s counsel.”

“The vice president has directed his legal team to continue its cooperation with appropriate authorities and to be fully transparent through the conclusion of this matter,” O’Malley said. He also noted that Pence and his legal team had “agreed to a consensual search of his residence that took place today.”

A source familiar with the search said DOJ was given unrestricted access to Pence’s home, and a member of his legal team was present through its duration.

The scope of the search included looking for documents that DOJ believed might be considered original documents that should have been sent to the National Archives, the source said, which could explain the six pages of additional material that were taken.

Pence and his wife Karen Pence were not home at the time, the source said. The former second couple went to the West Coast to be with their son and daughter’s military families, the source said, adding that both of the families had welcomed a new baby this week — the Pences’ second and third grandchildren.

The search came weeks after Pence reported finding a “small number” of classified documents in his home in Carmel and a day after it was revealed he had been subpoenaed in a separate federal probe — the special counsel’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s effort to stay in office after the 2020 election and role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

A Justice Department official confirmed to NBC News the search was a “consent” search agreed upon by the department and Pence’s lawyers, and there were no search warrants issued in advance. All the ground rules for the search were stipulated to during negotiations between the Justice Department and the Pence team, the official said.

The other classified documents were found at Pence’s house last month after the discovery of Obama-era classified documents in the possession of former Vice President Joe Biden, and also following an FBI search of Trump’s home after his lawyers claimed he’d returned all documents with classified markings from the White House.

More than 100 such documents were found during the August search of Mar-a-Lago, Justice Department officials said in court filings.

In a letter to the National Archives last month, Pence lawyer Greg Jacob said they’d found a “small number” of classified documents at the former vice president’s home after Pence asked “outside counsel” to look for documents in the wake of such papers being found in Biden’s Delaware home.

Jacob said the documents had been “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Pence’s home at the end of the Trump administration and that the former vice president “was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence.”

Pence’s team “immediately” secured the classified documents in a locked safe after their Jan. 16 discovery, and FBI agents came to Pence’s home to retrieve the documents a few days later, the letter said.

“Vice President Pence understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information and stands ready and willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry,” he said.

Separately, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News on Thursday that Pence had been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing probes into Jan. 6 and the Trump classified documents case.

The source said the subpoena related to Jan. 6 and not the documents investigation. Spokespeople for Smith and Pence declined comment.