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Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by counsel probing former president Donald Trump‘s involvement in the January 6 uprising.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office is said to be seeking documents and testimony related to the attack on the Capitol, and wants the former vice president to testify about his interactions with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and on the day of the attack, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
But the former vice president may be able to invoke executive privilege in an effort to get out of testifying, which could lead to a lengthy court battle.
Pence’s advisers have previously said he was not interested in appearing before a Congressional Committee investigating the January 6 attack, and the former vice president has reportedly told people privately that he has concerns about testifying against Trump, the Washington Post reports.
The subpoena was said to have been issued several days ago, but comes after months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team. It remains unclear whether the former vice president’s team stopped working with prosecutors before the subpoena was issued.
The former Vice President has been subpoenaed as part of a probe into former President Donald Trump’s involvement in the January 6 uprising, it’s understood
Experts say the former vice president may be able to invoke executive privilege to delay testimony
Smith will likely want Pence to testify publicly about what he believed transpired that day, as he is presumably the only witness to the one-on-one conversations he had with Trump.
But Pence has publicly suggested Trump merely got bad legal advice, and has downplayed the idea he was criminally liable for the events of January 6.
In an interview with NBC last year, Pence said, ‘I don’t know if it is criminal to listen to bad advice from lawyers.
‘The truth is, what the president was repeating is what he was hearing from that gaggle of attorneys around him,’ he continued, in an apparent swipe at Trump’s one-time personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
‘President’s, just like all of us that have served in public life, you have to rely on your team, you have to rely on the credibility of the people around you.
‘So as time goes on, I hope we can move beyond this, beyond that prospect. And tis is really a time when our country ought to be healing.’
Federal prosecutors have claimed that Pence was a central figure in Trump’s efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
They allege Trump told his vice president, who had a ceremonial role in overseeing the certification of the election, that he could simply reject the results and send them back to the battleground states he contested.
When he apparently refused to do so, Trump supporters marched on the Capitol building, brutally pushing past the police and smashing through the windows and doors.
The vice president was steered to safety with his staff and family as some in the mob chanted, ‘Hang Mike Pence!’
At around the same time, Trump tweeted, ‘Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.’
Trump supporters marched on the Capitol building, brutally pushing past the police and smashing through the windows and doors on January 6 in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results
Prosecutors are also focusing on a scheme by Trump allies to elevate fake presidential electors in key battleground states won by Biden as a way to subvert the vote, issuing subpoenas to multiple state Republican party chairs.
They have brought multiple Trump administration officials before the grand jury for questioning, including former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Pence’s own former chief of staff, Marc Short.
In a sign of the expanding nature of the investigation, election officials in multiple states whose results were disputed by Trump have received subpoenas asking for communications with or involving Trump and his campaign aides.
A House committee investigating the January 6 attack recommended that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Trump and associates who helped him launch a pressure campaign to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is said to be seeking documents and testimony related to the attack on the Capitol, and wants the former vice president to testify about his interactions with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and on the day of the attack
Smith was appointed in November to oversee the federal government’s investigation into Trump’s potential mishandling of classified documents — as well as a separate probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
He had previously led the Justice Department’s public corruption unit, overseeing indictments against major political figures.
Pence is now the highest-level person associated with the former president to be subpoenas as he eyes a 2024 Republican presidential bid against Trump.
The two reportedly have not spoken to since a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
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