Former Vice President Mike Pence's handling of classified documents will not result in criminal charges being brought by the US justice department.
According to reports in US media, an investigation has now exonerated Mr. Pence of all charges.
Just a few days prior to his anticipated announcement of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, news of his campaign broke.
A "small number" of top-secret documents were allegedly discovered at his Indiana home in January, according to his attorneys.
The documents had been "inadvertently" stored in boxes at Mr. Pence's Carmel, Indiana, property that were not in a secure area, according to Mr. Pence's team, who claimed this from the outset of the investigation.
The former vice president and his counsel did not review the contents of the boxes, according to Mr. Pence's attorney in a letter to the National Archives in January. Soon after, FBI agents were able to get the documents.
Numerous members of Vice President Mike Pence's staff were reportedly questioned as part of the investigation, including former chief of staff Marc Short, according to CBS, the BBC's US partner.
Also reportedly interviewed was Mr. Pence.
On June 7 in Des Moines, Iowa, he is anticipated to make his 2024 presidential run official.
The declaration will put Vice President Pence in conflict with Donald Trump, his previous employer. Over time, tensions between the two have increased, especially after Mr. Pence refused to try to scuttle the certification of the 2020 presidential election on the day of the riot at the US Capitol on January 6.
Both former Presidents Joe Biden and Mr. Trump, who are both running for president in 2018, are still under investigation for having access to classified information.
A special counsel was appointed earlier this year by Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead a Justice Department investigation into the handling of hundreds of classified documents at Mr. Trump's Florida estate.
President Biden's Delaware home and a Washington, DC, office both contained classified documents, so another special counsel was appointed to oversee a separate investigation into those documents.
