Former Vice President Mike Pence testified Thursday before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The person requested anonymity to discuss the private appearance before the grand jury.
Pences appearance before a grand jury in Washington scrutinizing the president he once loyally served is a milestone in the Justice Departments investigation and likely gives prosecutors a key first-person account about certain conversations and events in the weeks preceding the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It also carries significant political implications, coming as Pence hints at entering the 2024 presidential race and a potential run against Trump, the Republican front-runner.
The testimony came hours after a federal appeals court in a sealed order rejected a bid by Trumps lawyers to block Pences appearance.
Pence was subpoenaed to testify earlier this year, but Trumps lawyers objected, citing executive privilege concerns. A judge in March refused to block Pences appearance, though he did side with the former vice presidents constitutional claims that he could not be forced to answer questions about anything related to his role as presiding over the Senates certification of votes on Jan. 6.
Well obey the law, well tell the truth, Pence said in an interview with CBS News Face the Nation that aired Sunday. And the story that Ive been telling the American people all across the country, the story that I wrote in the pages of my memoir, thatll be the story I tell in that setting.
Pence has spoken extensively about Trumps pressure campaign urging him to reject Democrat Joe Bidens presidential election victory in the days leading up to Jan. 6, including in his book, So Help Me God. Pence, as vice president, had a ceremonial role overseeing Congress counting of the Electoral College vote but did not have the power to affect the results, despite Trumps contention otherwise.
Pence, a former Indiana governor and congressman, has said that Trump endangered his family and everyone else who was at the Capitol that day and history will hold him accountable.
For four years, we had a close working relationship. It did not end well, Pence wrote, summing up their time in the White House.
Lawyers for Pence had raised their own, more narrow challenge to the subpoena. They argued that because Pence was serving in his capacity as president of the Senate as electoral votes were being counted in Congress on Jan. 6, he was protected from being forced to testify about that process under the Constitutions speech or debate clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from being questioned about official legislative acts.
A judge agreed with that argument, effectively narrowing the scope of his expected testimony.
The Justice Department special counsel leading the investigation, Jack Smith, has cast a broad net in interviews and has sought the testimony of a long list of former Trump aides, including ex-White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former adviser Stephen Miller.
Smith is separately investigating Trump over the potential mishandling of hundreds of classified documents at his Palm Beach, Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, as well as possible efforts to obstruct that probe. On Wednesday, Trumps lawyers in that investigation called the Department of Justice investigation severely botched and politically infected and urged the House Intelligence Committee to step in by holding hearings and introducing legislation to correct classified document handling procedures in the White House and to standardize procedures for presidents and vice presidents for when they leave office.
DOJ should be ordered to stand down, and the intelligence community should instead conduct an appropriate investigation and provide a full report to this Committee, as well as your counterparts in the Senate, the lawyers wrote.
It is unclear when either of the special counsels investigations will end or who, if anyone, will be charged.
