Global Courant 2023-04-28 02:26:41
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence testified Thursday before a federal grand jury investigating the then-president’s efforts Donald Trump and its allies to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The individual requested anonymity to discuss the private appearance before the grand jury.
Pence’s appearance before a grand jury in Washington scrutinizing the president he once faithfully served is a landmark in the Justice Department’s investigation and likely gives prosecutors an important first-person account of certain conversations and events in the preceding weeks. the deadly uprising of January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol. It also has significant political implications, as Pence hints at entering the 2024 presidential race and a possible run against Trump, the Republican front-runner.
The testimony came hours after a federal appeals court entered a sealed injunction rejected an offer from Trump’s lawyers to block Pence’s appearance.
Pence was subpoenaed to testify earlier this year, but Trump’s lawyers objected, citing concerns about executive privileges. A judge in March refused to block Pence’s performancethough he supported the former vice president’s constitutional claims that he could not be compelled to answer questions about anything related to his role as chairman of the Senate’s Jan. 6 certification of votes.
“We will obey the law, we will tell the truth,” Pence said in an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” which aired Sunday. “And the story I’ve told the American people across the country, the story I’ve written in the pages of my memoir, that will be the story I tell in that setting.”
Pence has spoken at length about Trump’s press campaign urging him to reject Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the days leading up to Jan. 6, including in his book “So Help Me God.” Pence, as vice president, had a ceremonial role in overseeing Congress’ counting of the Electoral College votes, but had no power to influence the results, despite Trump’s claim otherwise.
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Pence, a former Indiana governor and congressman, has said that Trump endangered his family and everyone who was in the Capitol that day and history will hold him “responsible.”
“We had a close working relationship for four years. It didn’t end well,” Pence wrote of their time in the White House.
Pence’s attorneys had issued their own, more limited challenge. They argued that because Pence served in his capacity as President of the Senate while the electoral votes were counted in Congress on January 6, he was protected from being coerced into testifying at that trial under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.
A judge agreed with that argument, effectively limiting the scope of his expected testimony.
The Department of Justice’s special counsel leading the investigation Jack Smithhas cast a wide network at interviews, seeking the testimony of a long list of former Trump aides, including ex-White House attorney Pat Cipollon and former consultant Stephen Miller.
Smith is separately investigating Trump over the possible assault of hundreds classified documents at his Palm Beach, Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, as well as possible attempts to impede that investigation. On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers in that inquiry called the Justice Department’s investigation “seriously botched” and “politically infected” and urged the House Intelligence Committee to intervene by holding hearings and introducing legislation to enforce procedures for correct the handling of classified documents in the White House and to standardize procedures for presidents and vice presidents for when they leave office.
“DOJ should be ordered to step down, and the intelligence community should instead conduct an appropriate investigation and issue a full report to this committee, as well as your counterparts in the Senate,” the lawyers wrote.
It’s unclear when any of the Special Prosecutor’s investigations will end or who, if any, will be charged.
