Mike Pence turned down the Jan. 6 Committee. Will he give the Justice Department the same treatment?
The special advisor oversees polls that intertwine Donald Trump Have issue a subpoena ARRIVE Mike Pence, setting up a potential legal battle between the former vice president and the Justice Department. Not clear on Friday morning when the special counsel, Jack Smith, issued a subpoena, and it’s unclear exactly what information he’s looking for. But it appears to mark a major escalation in the investigation of the former president, who is under federal scrutiny for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and for mishandling classified documents after leaving office. .
Pence could be a key witness in the previous investigation: After Trump used most of his other efforts to undermine the democratic process, he and his allies tried to put pressure on him. with Pence to prevent Joe Biden’s 2020 victory from being certified on Jan. 6. “I hope Mike is going to do the right thing,” Trump said. speak at a rally that morning, as Congress convened to formalize Biden’s victory. “Mike Pence will have to take action for us, and if he doesn’t, it will be a sad day for our country.” Pence protested, and Trump eventually won over a mob of armed supporters on Capitol Hill, some of whom stalked the hallways calling for the vice president’s execution. “Hanging Mike Pence!” shouted the insurgents.
Pence—who is currently considering running the White House himself—could be able to provide the special counsel with insight into Trump’s covert efforts to cling to power in 2020, as well as violent signs of his anti-democratic campaign. But it’s unclear if the former vice president is willing to participate. He declined to be interviewed by the committee January 6 – the committee ended its investigation last year by issuing four criminal introductions against Trump—on the basis that it would set a “terrible precedent for Congress to summon a vice president of the United States to speak on the discussions taking place at the White House.”
“Congress has no authority over my testimony,” Pence speak CBS News in November.
It remains to be seen whether he feels the same way about the Justice Department, which appointed Smith in November as special counsel in charge of investigations into Trump. According to New York TimesThe special counsel sought a voluntary interview with Pence, but issue a subpoena to force his testimony after those talks came to a “stalemate”. Both he and the DOJ appear to have commented publicly on the matter.
Information about the subpoena, first reported by ABC News, came a day before the trial. FBI raids former vice president’s home for confidential documents; coin admit in January that a “small amount” of sensitive documents had been found at his Indiana residence and appeared to have agreed to Friday’s search. Although he and Biden each faced scrutiny over their handling of classified documents, their circumstances are markedly different from those of Trump, who brought hundreds of sensitive White House documents to Mar- a-Lago after leaving office and fighting to keep the National Archives. took them, leading to an FBI raid last summer. The investigation into the former president is also on Smith’s radar.
