WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s actions leading up to and during a mob attack on the Capitol will gain access to key evidence after the former vice president decided not to pursue an appeal against testifying.
Mike Pence aide Devin O’Malley said that the judge’s decision has agreed with him on the key issue that Pence has objected to his role on January 6 himself as the presiding officer of the Senate. “Having vindicated these Constitutional principles, Vice President Pence will not appeal the judge’s decision and will comply with subpoenas as required by law,” O’Malley said.
Pence originally said he would join the fight to overturn a grand jury subpoena to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. But a week ago, he said he was “pleased” that James Boasberg, the chief judge of the US District Court in Washington, DC, had agreed with the argument that the “speech and debate clause” in the Constitution applied to him in his role as Senate president.
Prosecutors’ main interest in Pence’s testimony, however, has nothing to do with members of Congress. However, it is in the interactions and conversations with Trump and his aides, who for weeks have been pushing him to use his role as chairman of the election certification ceremony on January 6, 2021, to give Trump a second term, even though he has lost his re-election bid to Democrat Joe Biden two months earlier.
Trump tried to invoke “executive privilege” to prevent Pence from revealing the information, but Boasberg rejected that argument in his decision, which remains sealed.
It’s unclear whether Trump will appeal Boasberg’s decision to bar Pence from testifying. Trump’s staff did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s inquiries, but his lawyers last week filed a similar appeal to prevent other senior White House aides, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, from having to answer questions before the grand jury. The appeal was dismissed Tuesday.
Norm Eisen, a former White House lawyer in the Obama administration who worked with House leaders on Trump’s first impeachment for extorting Ukraine, said Pence’s testimony would be “paramount” for special counsel Jack Smith.
“He was a critical direct witness to Trump’s statements as the coup attempt unfolded,” Eisen said. “The most important testimony offered by Pence began on December 5, when Trump first raised the idea of challenging the Electoral College with him, and rolled through the rest of that month and into January 6 itself.”
While Boasberg’s decision, according to Pence and others, said Pence is not required to disclose interactions with members of Congress, it does not protect him from discussing Trump and other executive branch officials.
“Pence is supposed to be testifying about everything outside of his official duties in Congress on the 6th, so all those conversations are going to happen,” Eisen said.
Trump and his inner circle began planning to use the fraudulent “voter” slate before the Electoral College met on December 14, 2020, to ratify Biden’s victory. Indeed, early this morning, Trump White House senior adviser Stephen Miller appeared on Fox News and boasted about the election of “alternative” pro-Trump voters when he said that Congress would have competitive seats from key states, giving up Trump allies. opportunity to give him a second term.
Trump and his aides began to pressure Pence to go along with the plan in early December and ramped up their efforts after Christmas, according to a former adviser to Pence, and the testimony revealed in the January 6 House committee hearing.
The pressure campaign culminated in Trump’s Jan. 6 pre-rebellion speech near the White House, where he again called on Pence to do as he wished, even though Pence had told Trump he had no constitutional authority to do so. That evening, Trump attacked Pence for not having the “courage” to do what Trump wanted, and the crowd responded by storming the Capitol en masse.
Four Trump followers died on January 6, as did five police officers in the following days and weeks. Another 140 officers were injured, and the Justice Department prosecuted more than a thousand rioters, in at least hundreds of other cases.
Despite this, Trump ran for president again and is now leading the race for the GOP nomination in the polls. And while he initially blamed those who committed the violence on January 6, he has more recently acknowledged his actions and promised to forgive them if elected. At a recent rally, he even showed footage of the Jan. 6 detainees — the majority accused of assaulting police officers — singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” interspersed with Trump’s reading of the Pledge of Allegiance.