Former Vice-President Mike Pence will not appeal a judge’s order that he testify in the special counsel’s probe of former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Last week, James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said Pence would not be compelled to testify about his role as the president of the Senate due to the ‘speech and debate clause’ of the Constitution. However, Boasberg ruled that Pence must provide testimony about Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, including any conversations he may have had with the former President or his aides in the weeks after the election leading up to January 6, 2021.
“Vice President Mike Pence swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and his claim that the Biden Special Counsel’s unprecedented subpoena was unconstitutional under the Speech or Debate Clause was an important one made to preserve the Separation of Powers outlined by our Founders,” Pence adviser Devin O’Malley said in a statement Wednesday. “In the Court’s decision, that principle prevailed. The Court’s landmark and historic ruling affirmed for the first time in history that the Speech or Debate Clause extends to the Vice President of the United States. Having vindicated that principle of the Constitution, Vice President Pence will not appeal the Judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law.”
Earlier this year, Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Pence for documents and testimony relating to his probe of Trump’s failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
“[Pence] is a critical firsthand witness to Trump’s statements as the attempted coup evolved,” former a White House lawyer Norm Eisen told Huffpost. “The most important testimony that Pence has to offer begins on Dec. 5, when Trump first raised the idea of challenging the Electoral College with him, and rolls through the remainder of that month and into Jan. 6 itself.”