Classified files have been found at ex-US Vice-President Mike Pence’s home in the latest discovery of secret papers at the homes of officials who have served in the top ranks of government, writes BBC.

The documents, discovered by a lawyer last week for Pence at his Indiana home, have been handed over to the FBI. Investigators are already looking into President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump’s possession of files. Trump faces a criminal investigation for allegedly mishandling papers.

Representatives for Pence sent a letter to the National Archives alerting them to the documents. The FBI came to the former vice-president’s home to collect the documents, bypassing “standard procedures” and requesting “direct possession” of them, lawyers added in a separate letter.

Under the Presidential Records Act, White House records are supposed to go to the National Archives once an administration ends. Regulations require such files to be stored securely.

A “small number of documents bearing classified markings” were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Mr Pence’s home at the end of Mr Trump’s presidency, his lawyer wrote in a letter shared with US media.