The Justice Department has declined to pursue prices in opposition to former Vice President Mike Pence in its investigation into his retention of classified documents at his dwelling in Indiana, informing him in a short letter on Thursday evening, based on three folks aware of the scenario.

Word that the case can be closed got here days earlier than Mr. Pence, 63, was set to announce his marketing campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in Iowa.

The F.B.I. and the Justice Department’s nationwide safety division “conducted an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information,” the division wrote to Mr. Pence’s lawyer, based on an individual who had learn the letter. Based on the outcomes of that investigation, “no criminal charges will be sought,” that particular person mentioned.

The determination served as a reminder of an enormously consequential plotline that is still unresolved because the 2024 election season will get underway.

The most essential, by far, is the prison investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and whether or not he sought to hinder the inquiry now led by a particular counsel, Jack Smith, after Mr. Trump and his aides repeatedly resisted efforts to return delicate authorities paperwork. President Biden can also be below investigation by a particular counsel, Robert Ok. Hur, over the improper retention of supplies courting from his eight years as vp — though Mr. Biden has been way more cooperative with investigators.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to touch upon the Pence investigation. But Attorney General Merrick B. Garland didn’t deem the matter severe sufficient to nominate a particular counsel within the case, as he had carried out for the investigations into Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, senior legislation enforcement officers mentioned.

For Mr. Pence, a person who has made private probity — and a willpower to defend the rule of legislation in defiance of Mr. Trump after the 2020 election — the core of his long-shot presidential marketing campaign, the choice represented bittersweet vindication, ending an embarrassing episode that had threatened his status.

From the beginning, Mr. Pence and his workforce cooperated with the authorities, in stark distinction to Mr. Trump, who defied a federal subpoena to return supplies saved at his Florida residence and resort, Mar-a-Lago.

In January, a lawyer for Mr. Pence voluntarily searched the previous vp’s home in Carmel, Ind., for paperwork after aides to President Biden found delicate materials at an workplace the president had as soon as occupied in Washington and at his dwelling in Delaware.

About a dozen documents with classified markings had been “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Mr. Pence’s dwelling, based on considered one of his aides on the time, and subsequently returned to the National Archives and Records Administration.

After the F.B.I. searched his home in February and located one further categorised doc, his advisers continued to emphasise his cooperation.

“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,” his adviser, Devin O’Malley, mentioned then.

Mr. Pence and Trump stay in a authorized and political tangle ensuing from their odd-couple White House partnership.

In April, Mr. Pence testified for more than five hours earlier than a federal grand jury in Washington investigating the actions of Mr. Trump and his aides within the days main as much as the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. He had sought to limit his testimony and keep away from showing, citing the “speech or debate” clause of the Constitution to argue that he was shielded from authorized scrutiny.

Mr. Trump unsuccessfully sought to stop Mr. Pence from discussing their personal interactions, citing govt privilege.

It shouldn’t be clear what testimony Mr. Pence offered. But prosecutors had been absolutely keen on Mr. Pence’s account of his interactions with Mr. Trump and Trump advisers together with John Eastman, a lawyer who promoted the concept he may delay or block the congressional certification course of on Jan. 6 to present Mr. Trump an opportunity to stay in workplace.

Mr. Pence’s unwillingness to associate with that plan infuriated Mr. Trump, who assailed his vp privately and publicly on Jan. 6.

He subsequently turned a goal of the Trump loyalists who stormed the Capitol constructing that day, with some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” Someone erected a pretend gallows outdoors the constructing.

Mr. Pence, a former governor of Indiana, faces vital challenges in his bid for the presidency. He trails far behind his former boss and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida within the polls, and has made no effort to channel the harder-edged populist energies overtaking the Republican Party.

Instead, he’s anticipated to pitch himself as a “classical conservative” who would return his get together to its Reagan-era model of mainstream conservatism. He can also be more likely to enchantment to evangelicals, adopting a hard-line place in assist of a federal abortion ban and selling free commerce and authorities rules.