An individual with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that former US Vice President Mike Pence testified before a federal grand jury looking into attempts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to rescind the results of the 2020 presidential election.
To talk about the private appearance before the grand jury, the person asked for anonymity.The US Department of Justice's inquiry has reached a turning point with Pence's appearance in Washington, DC, where he is questioning the president whom he once devotedly served.
It probably provides prosecutors with a crucial first-person description of several exchanges and occasions in the days before the deadly uprising at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. It also has important political ramifications because Pence has hinted that he would challenge Republican front-runner Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
The testimony came hours after a federal appeals court rejected a request by Trump's attorneys to have Pence's attendance blocked in a sealed order.Earlier this year, Pence was summoned to appear, but Trump's attorneys refused on the grounds of presidential privilege.Pence's attorneys presented their own, more focused defense against the subpoena.
They maintained that Pence was exempt from being compelled to testify about the electoral vote count because he was representing the Senate as president while it was taking place in Congress. The attorneys invoked the "speech or debate" clause of the US Constitution, which was created to shield members of Congress from being questioned about their official legislative actions.
In March, a court declined to prevent Pence from appearing, but he agreed with the former vice president's constitutional arguments that he could not be compelled to respond to inquiries concerning anything connected to his function as the Senate's chief observer of the certification of votes on January 6.Pence stated in an interview with the CBS News program "Face the Nation" that aired on Sunday that "We'll obey the law and we'll tell the truth." And I'll tell that narrative in that setting just as I've been telling it to Americans all throughout the nation and as it is written in the pages of my memoir.
In the days running up to January 6, Pence spoke extensively about Trump's pressure campaign, imploring him to reject Democrat Joe Biden's election triumph, notably in his book, So Help Me God.Despite Trump's claims to the contrary, Pence did not have the authority to influence the outcome of the election. Instead, he served in a ceremonial capacity as the vice president monitoring Congress's Electoral College vote tally.
Former governor and congressman of Indiana Pence claims that Trump put his family and everyone else present at the Capitol that day in peril, and that history will hold him "accountable."
"We worked closely together for four years. Pence stated, summarizing their time in the White House, "It did not end well.
Jack Smith, the special prosecutor for the Justice Department who is in charge of the investigation, has conducted extensive interviews and sought the testimony of numerous former Trump officials, including former White House attorney Pat Cipollone and former adviser Stephen Miller.Separately, Smith is looking into whether Trump tried to hinder the investigation into his probable handling of hundreds of classified papers at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
Trump's attorneys in that inquiry referred to the DOJ investigation as "severely botched" and "politically infected" on Wednesday.
They encouraged the House Intelligence Committee to intervene by holding hearings and introducing legislation to improve the White House's practices for handling secret documents and to establish standardized exit protocols for presidents and vice presidents.
"DOJ should be ordered to stand down, and the intelligence community should instead conduct an appropriate investigation and provide a full report to this Committee, as well as your counterparts in the Senate," wrote the lawyers.
Who, if anyone, will be charged or when either of the special counsel's investigations will be finished are both unknown.
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