Former United States Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel in charge of investigating former President Donald Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 elections.
The former Indiana governor received the order for his role on January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot, where a horde of Trump loyalists stormed the building. Special Counsel Jack Smith's office is now seeking documents and testimony from the former vice president about the Capitol incident.
Mike Pence's Subpoena
The special counsel's office wants Pence to come in and testify about his supposed interactions with his former boss leading up to the 2020 election and on the day of the Capitol incident. The recent subpoena marks a crucial milestone in the Department of Justice's two-year criminal probe.
The department is looking into Trump's and his allies' efforts to impede the transfer of power after losing the 2020 elections against Democrat Joe Biden. The former vice president is seen as a key witness who, in his memoir, detailed some of his interactions with the former president in the weeks following the election, as per CNN.
Emmet Flood, Pence's attorney, is known as a hawk on executive privilege. People familiar with the discussions noted that the former vice president is expected to claim at least some limitations on the details he would provide regarding his direct conversations with his former boss.
Depending on the former vice president's responses, prosecutors may get the option to ask a judge to compel Pence to answer other questions and override the former president's claims of executive privilege.
Despite the subpoena news, Pence's office declined to confirm that he received the order as a spokesman for the special counsel and refused to comment on the matter. It comes as months of negotiations came before the ruling that involved the former vice president.
According to ABC News, Smith was made the special counsel in the investigation in November last year, making him responsible for overseeing Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents from the White House.
A Slew of Investigations
The subpoena against Pence comes as classified documents were found at his Indiana residence in January, similar to his former boss and current U.S. President Biden. The former vice president's chief of staff added on Wednesday that an FBI search of Pence's home would likely happen concerning these documents.
Marc Short said that his former boss would more likely than not grant the FBI complete access to his residence for authorities to search. This is similar to the move made by the Biden legal team regarding the agency's requests to search.
Pence's former chief of staff noted that there had been talks about a consensual search of the former vice president's home to be conducted. He presumed that it was pretty close in the future.
The situation comes after officials announced last month that they discovered classified documents in one of the U.S. president's offices last fall. After the initial announcement, they discovered more sensitive materials in Biden's residence near Wilmington, Delaware, said The Hill.
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