US media reports that the ruling may compel Mike Pence to speak about Donald Trump’s actions after the 2020 election.
As the Justice Department continues its investigation into whether former President Donald Trump attempted to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge in the United States has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to testify before a grand jury.
The decision of US District Judge James Boasberg is still sealed.
However, major US news organizations, including Reuters and the Associated Press, have reported that the decision will compel Pence to testify in court about conversations he may have had with Trump in the run-up to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
On January 6, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the House of Representatives to disrupt the certification of election results. Rioters forced politicians to flee for safety and injured or killed police officers and participants.
Pence, who was in the Capitol at the time, will not be compelled to discuss his actions that day. As vice president at the time, he was primarily responsible for overseeing election certification.
He will almost certainly be asked to identify any illegal acts committed by his former boss, then-President Trump.
Such a scenario is unprecedented in US politics, and legal teams for both Trump and Pence have objected to the former vice president’s involvement.
According to the Associated Press, Pence’s lawyers are considering whether to appeal Tuesday’s decision.
His legal team previously argued that Pence is immune from grand-jury subpoenas because of the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which protects members of Congress from legal action for anything said during legislative activities.
Pence said on the right-wing news channel Newsmax on Tuesday that the judge’s ruling would limit what he could testify about because of the “speech and debate clause.”
“I’m pleased that the court accepted our argument and recognized that the provision of the Constitution governing speech and debate applies to the vice president,” he said.
“However, how they sorted that out and the requirements of my testimony going forward are currently under review, and I’ll have more to say about that in the coming days.”
Pence has previously condemned Trump’s actions leading up to the Capitol attack.
“His reckless words put my family and everyone else at the Capitol that day in danger.” And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable,” he said earlier this month at the Gridiron Dinner in Washington, DC.
In response to Tuesday’s ruling, a spokesperson for Trump’s team reiterated claims that the Justice Department’s investigations into the former president were politically motivated.
“The DOJ is constantly stepping far outside the standard norms in its attempt to destroy the long accepted, long-held, Constitutionally based standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege,” according to the statement.
In November, the Justice Department appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee two investigations into Trump: one into the former president’s handling of classified documents, and the other into whether Trump attempted to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020.
However, Trump is also dealing with a slew of legal issues. He faces a separate election-related investigation in Georgia, and he sparked rumors of an impending arrest in a New York case involving an alleged hush-money payment to a porn star last week.
Trump has already announced his intention to run for a second presidential term in 2024, but there is speculation that Pence will challenge him for the Republican nomination.
