Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday appeared before a grand jury convened in Washington, D.C., to investigate alleged attempts by Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election results, multiple reports indicated.
Pence made an appearance at the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington after a motorcade of black SUVs were seen at the building at about 9 a.m., NBC News reported.
Security was tightened at the venue prior to Pence’s entrance, according to CNN, while the Washington Post, citing persons familiar with his appearance, also reported Pence delivered testimony to the panel convened by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Pence had made no official confirmation of the appearance as of late Thursday.
The former vice president made his appearance just hours after a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s latest attempt to prevent it.
The former president has sought to bar his one-time vice president from speaking to the grand jury over conversations they had pertinent to the presidential election of 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters who were trying to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as the 46th president of the United States.
Smith was appointed in November to lead that investigation, as well as a second probe into the former president’s handling of classified records.
His appearance could mark a milestone in the probes of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack, primarily because a federal judge ruled last month that Smith could force Pence to talk about his private conversations with Trump.
Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled that Trump’s claims of executive privilege didn’t apply to Pence’s testimony. Under his ruling, Pence would still be allowed to refuse to answer questions about his own actions on Jan. 6, but he had to testify about his conversations with Trump.
An investigation by the congressional committee investigating the attack found that Trump repeatedly pressured Pence to block the 2020 general election’s result, including in a private phone call on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence would have been central to the plot because he presided over the election certification in Congress as president of the Senate. However, he refused to take part in the plan, which called for him to accept falsified certifications for Trump in states that Biden rightfully won, the committee said in its final report.
The former vice president has made his disapproval of Trump’s actions plain in recent months.
“President Trump was wrong,” he said at a Gridiron Club meeting in Washington, D.C., last month. “I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
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Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday appeared before a grand jury convened in Washington, D.C., to investigate alleged attempts by Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election results, multiple reports indicated.
Pence made an appearance at the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington after a motorcade of black SUVs were seen at the building at about 9 a.m., NBC News reported.
Security was tightened at the venue prior to Pence’s entrance, according to CNN, while the Washington Post, citing persons familiar with his appearance, also reported Pence delivered testimony to the panel convened by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Pence had made no official confirmation of the appearance as of late Thursday.
The former vice president made his appearance just hours after a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s latest attempt to prevent it.
The former president has sought to bar his one-time vice president from speaking to the grand jury over conversations they had pertinent to the presidential election of 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters who were trying to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as the 46th president of the United States.
Smith was appointed in November to lead that investigation, as well as a second probe into the former president’s handling of classified records.
His appearance could mark a milestone in the probes of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack, primarily because a federal judge ruled last month that Smith could force Pence to talk about his private conversations with Trump.
Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled that Trump’s claims of executive privilege didn’t apply to Pence’s testimony. Under his ruling, Pence would still be allowed to refuse to answer questions about his own actions on Jan. 6, but he had to testify about his conversations with Trump.
An investigation by the congressional committee investigating the attack found that Trump repeatedly pressured Pence to block the 2020 general election’s result, including in a private phone call on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence would have been central to the plot because he presided over the election certification in Congress as president of the Senate. However, he refused to take part in the plan, which called for him to accept falsified certifications for Trump in states that Biden rightfully won, the committee said in its final report.
The former vice president has made his disapproval of Trump’s actions plain in recent months.
“President Trump was wrong,” he said at a Gridiron Club meeting in Washington, D.C., last month. “I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
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Backstabbing piece of cow pat.