Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has appealed a sealed order requiring testimony from former Vice President Mike Pence.
The former vice president was ordered to appear after a judge ruled he must answer questions from the Justice Department about some of the aspects of Trump’s attempts to question the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Pence’s attorneys indicated that they will not appeal a ruling by D.C. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg that partially sided with Pence just days before Trump’s team filed a challenge.
Pence would be the most prominent witness to address inquiries in front of a grand jury. His testimony behind closed doors could provide investigators with a firsthand account of Trump’s mental state in the pivotal weeks after he lost to Biden and further expose the rift between them since the end of their administration.
The strain could grow as Pence approaches a probable 2024 bid for the presidency and a challenge to Trump, who already is in the race for the Republican nomination.
After Pence was subpoenaed months ago by the Justice Department’s special counsel, Trump’s attorneys objected on the basis of executive privilege. But a federal magistrate in Washington last week rejected those arguments, forcing Pence to testify.
Boasberg did grant Pence a victory by adopting Pence’s attorneys’ arguments that he could not be questioned about his actions on Jan. 6 for constitutional reasons.
They had argued that because Pence was operating in his capacity as president of the Senate that day, he was protected from being forced to testify under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from questioning about official legislative actions.
Pence reacted to the indictment during a 10-minute exclusive interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on March 30, hours after news broke that a New York grand jury had voted to criminally charge Trump.
He said it was wrong for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to pursue charges after Bragg’s predecessor and federal prosecutors declined to do so. Pence said he also took issue with Bragg running for office “on the pledge to indict the former president.”
“I think that offends the notion of the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe in fairness, who believe in equal treatment before the law,” Pence said, adding that singling out Trump appears to be an example of “a two-tiered justice system,” and that the American people are fed up with it. “This is a bad decision by a political prosecutor.”
The Epoch Times was unable to reach Pence’s office for comment.
