Many media sites reported on Tuesday that a US court has ordered former vice president Mike Pence to provide testimony on his interactions with Donald Trump before 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 criminal activity by the former president from a federal grand jury.
Yet, 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 election.
The decision, which is still secret, represents a partial win for the Justice Department in its investigation into the uprising, which was connected to a number of fatalities, injured more than 100 police officers, and resulted in more than 1,000 arrests.
Pence said he may fight Trump for the GOP nomination when he runs for president again in 2024.
As part of a larger suspected attempt to maintain power after losing the presidential election to Joseph Biden, investigators are looking into Trump’s participation in inciting the violence on January 6, 2021.
Pence and Special Counsel Jack Smith, the government’s ostensibly independent prosecutor, may both appeal the judgment’s negative findings.
While Pence has said that he would challenge his summons all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, neither party has indicated if 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 when a portion of the pro-Trump crowd demanded that he be hung.
Pence declined to provide testimony before a House committee that looked into the uprising despite having previously detailed many of the pertinent talks with Trump in his biography “So Help Me God,” which was released last year.
He had made the failed claim that the “Speech or Debate” provision of the Constitution, which protects members of Congress from legal actions particularly pertaining to their positions, permitted him to avoid delivering testimony.
Trump’s claim of executive privilege, which shields aides from having to testify about specific discussions with presidents, was also rejected by the court in a separate case.
Requests for response from the Trump and Pence administrations were not immediately fulfilled.
Trump is far and away the front-runner in the race to be the GOP candidate for president in 2024.
But, he is in legal danger on numerous fronts, including a separate FBI inquiry into how he handled confidential information, as well as inquiries into Georgian political meddling and a hush money payment.
He claims to be the subject of a multifaceted “witch hunt,” and he denies any wrongdoing.
