The US justice department will not pursue criminal charges against former Vice-President Mike Pence over his handling of classified documents.
An investigation has now cleared Mr Pence of any wrongdoing, according to US media reports.
The news comes just days before he is expected to announce his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
In January, his lawyers said a “small number” of classified documents were found at his Indiana home.
From the outset of the investigation, Mr Pence’s team said that the documents had been “inadvertently” stored in boxes that were not in a secure area at his Carmel, Indiana property.
In a letter to the National Archives in January, Mr Pence’s attorney said neither the ex-vice-president nor his counsel reviewed the contents of the boxes. Soon after, the documents were retrieved by FBI agents.
Citing sources familiar with the investigation, CBS, the BBC’s US partner, reported that multiple members of Mr Pence’s staff were interviewed as part of the investigation, including former chief of staff Marc Short.
Mr Pence was also reportedly interviewed.
He is expected to announce his 2024 presidential bid at an event in Des Moines, Iowa on 7 June.
The announcement will put Mr Pence on a collision course with his former boss, Donald Trump. The relationship between the two has become strained over time, particularly after Mr Pence refused to try to derail the certification of the 2020 presidential election on the day of the 6 January US Capitol riot.
Both President Joe Biden and his predecessor Mr Trump, who are running for the White House next year, are still being investigated for possessing classified material.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to oversee a justice department investigation into the handling of hundreds of classified documents at Mr Trump’s Florida estate.
Another special counsel was also appointed to overlook a separate investigation into classified documents found at President Biden’s Delaware home and a Washington DC office.
Source – BBC News
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