Former Vice President Mike Pence has responded to special counsel Jack Smith’s latest indictment of former President Donald Trump, asserting that his onetime boss had “demanded [he] choose between him and the Constitution.”
“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” Mr. Pence said in his statement.
“I chose the Constitution and I always will,” he said.
Mr. Smith’s indictment alleges that the former president conspired to defraud the United States and to deprive citizens of the “free exercise” of constitutional rights—in this case, “the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”
In addition, Mr. Trump is accused of both conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding—the electoral vote certification on Jan. 6, 2021—and of attempting to obstruct, and obstructing, that official proceeding.
Mr. Pence’s alleged actions in connection with the contested 2020 election recur throughout the indictment, as do Mr. Trump’s alleged responses to those actions.
Notably, the indictment claims that when Mr. Pence told Mr. Trump that he wouldn’t proceed with the president’s plan to block electoral vote certification on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump warned that he “would have to publicly criticize [Pence].”
“Upon learning of this, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff was concerned for the Vice President’s safety and alerted the head of the Vice President’s Secret Service detail,” the indictment states.
Contrary to what’s claimed in some initial posts on social media, Mr. Pence’s chief of staff was Marc Short, not Mark Meadows.
In addition, the indictment alleges that Mr. Trump told Mr. Pence that he was “too honest” when Mr. Pence said he lacked the authority as vice president to dispute results from the Electoral College.
The charges mark Mr. Smith’s second indictment of the former commander-in-chief and the third set of felony charges that Mr. Trump now faces in the midst of a bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Mr. Smith previously indicted Mr. Trump on charges related to the retention of classified documents from his presidency.
He has pleaded not guilty to both sets of charges.
“The former president is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but with this indictment, his candidacy means more talk about January 6 and more distractions,” Mr. Pence said in his statement.
“Our country is more important than one man. Our Constitution is more important than any one man’s career.”
Mr. Pence vowed that, as president, he would “restore a threshold of integrity and civility in public life so we can bring real solutions to the challenges plaguing our nation.”
Mr. Pence’s response to the indictment contrasted starkly with that of entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Mr. DeSantis was more equivocal, saying he hadn’t reviewed the indictment in question. He didn’t commit to a pardon.
“This is a battle that a unified Republican Party must fight. Otherwise, we will lose this country forever,” she wrote.
