WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he will not appeal a judge’s order requiring him to testify to a federal grand jury weighing potential criminal charges against former President Donald Trump relating to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Pence’s spokesman Devin O’Malley said Wednesday that the former Indiana governor “will not appeal” US District Judge James Boasberg’s ruling and “will comply with the subpoena as required by law” — announcing the decision one day after Trump was arraigned in New York on novel business records falsification charges linked to 2016 hush-money payments.
Pence, who was presiding over the joint session of Congress that was certifying President Biden’s Electoral College victory when a violent mob of Trump’s supporters smashed their way into the Capitol, had challenged the subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith.
The former vice president argued that the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause shielded him from having to testify — and his spokesman said that Boasberg partially agreed in a still-sealed decision.
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,” O’Malley said.
“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.”
O’Malley added, “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.”
It’s still possible that Trump, who also challenged the Pence subpoena, will appeal Boasberg’s ruling— delaying Pence’s testimony to the panel.
A Trump spokesman said: “The DOJ is continuously stepping far outside the standard norms in attempting to destroy the long accepted, long held, Constitutionally based standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege.”
Smith is leading the federal investigation of Trump’s role in the mayhem and of a separate matter pertaining to his retention of classified material after he left office as president.
Smith “is conducting a witch-hunt where the government has sought to violate every Constitutional norm, including the safeguards that protect a President’s ability to confer with his Vice President on matters of the security of the United States,” the Trump spokesman said.
“There is neither factual nor legal basis or substance to any case against President Trump. The deranged Democrats and their comrades in the mainstream media are corrupting the legal process and weaponizing the justice system in order to manipulate and influence an election in which President Trump is dominating all across the board.”
Trump pressured Pence ahead of the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to reject swing-state electors for Biden.
When Pence refused to do so, saying he lacked the constitutional authority, Trump tweeted during the chaos: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”
Trump was impeached by the Democrat-led House of Representatives during his final month in office for allegedly inciting the riot, but was acquitted of the charge by the Senate after his term ended.
The ex-president emphasizes that he told thousands of supporters in a pre-riot speech that they should march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol. His detractors note he also told them to “fight like hell” and was silent during the initial break-in.
Pence is considering a 2024 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and would face Trump and a number of other contenders.