Pence is required to testify against Trump in the insurrection investigation.
Several media sources reported on Tuesday that a US court has ordered former vice president Mike Pence to give testimony regarding his interactions with Donald Trump prior to the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
According to reports, Chief Judge James Boasberg of Washington decided that Pence must respond to any inquiries about possible illegal activity by the former president from a federal grand jury.
However, Pence is free to avoid talking about what he did on the actual day of the uprising, when he presided over the Senate and certified the victory.
The decision, which is still secret, represents a partial win for the Justice Department in its investigation of the uprising, which was connected to a number of fatalities, injured more than 100 police officers, and resulted in more than 1,000 charges.
Pence said he might fight Trump for the Republican nomination when he runs for president again in 2024.
As part of a larger alleged effort to maintain control after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden, investigators are looking into Trump’s involvement in inciting the violence on January 6, 2021.
Pence and Special Counsel Jack Smith, the government’s ostensibly impartial prosecutor, can both appeal the judgment’s negative findings.
Although Pence earlier stated that he would challenge his summons all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, neither party has indicated whether they plan to appeal.
Since Pence declined to support Trump’s attempts to annul the election, the two have been at odds. Pence was forced to leave the Capitol after a portion of the pro-Trump crowd demanded that he be hanged.
Pence declined to give testimony before a House committee that looked into the uprising despite having already detailed many of the pertinent talks with Trump in his memoir “So Help Me God,” which was released last year.
He had made the unsuccessful claim that the “Speech or Debate” clause of the Constitution, which protects members of Congress from legal actions directly pertaining to their positions, enabled him to avoid giving testimony.
Requests for comment from the Trump and Pence administrations were not quickly fulfilled.
Trump is far and away the front-runner in the race to be the Republican candidate for president in 2024.
However, he is in legal danger on several fronts, including a separate federal inquiry into how he handled confidential information, as well as inquiries into Georgian election meddling and a hush money payment.
He claims to be the victim of a multifaceted “witch hunt,” and he rejects any wrongdoing.
About The Author
