Pence will have to testify in the investigation against Trump on the 2020 elections

The former vice president will have to testify in the investigation into the former president.

A US federal judge has decided that Mike Pence must appear before the grand jury leading the investigation against Donald Trump for his attempts to subvert the electoral result of the 2020 presidential elections, according to two sources cited by the AP agency.

Pence, however, will not have to testify about his role as president of the Senate on the day of the storming of the Capitol, which detracts from his testimony.

The special counsel leading investigations into Trump's possible crimes, Jack Smith, served a subpoena on Pence after unsuccessfully trying to get him to agree to testify voluntarily.

The former vice president refused to attend to the summons, but the judge has decided that he is obliged to do so, although the decision is not final and there is still room for appeal.

The possibility of Pence declaring against Trump opens another unusual front in the tangle of legal cases that surround the former president.

In addition, it is very likely that the former subordinate will take the step to run in the Republican primaries for the 2024 presidential elections, with which he would be declaring not only against his former boss but also against his electoral rival.

The sources cited by AP specify that Pence will not be required to testify about his actions on January 6, 2021, the date of the assault on the Capitol.

That takes away some of the interest from his testimony, since Pence was an exceptional witness of what happened.

Pence refused to comply with Trump's request to stop the certification of Biden's victory in Congress on January 6.

That refusal to subvert the election result earned him the ire of his former boss and his followers.

The mob chanted “let's hang Mike Pence” as they forced their way towards the Capitol.

When summoned by the prosecutor, Pence alleged that on January 6, that day, exercising his role as president of the Senate and forcing him to testify violated the so-called "expression or debate clause" that protects congressmen from accounting for their actions. parliamentarians

Trump is subject to different criminal investigations.

His imputation seems close (he has predicted it) in the

in which he is being investigated for allegedly passing off as legal campaign minutes some payments to the lawyer Michael Cohen with which he reimbursed what he spent to silence to a porn actress with whom Trump had a relationship before the 2016 presidential election

The commission that investigated the assault on the Capitol on January 6 recommended trying Trump for four crimes: incitement to insurrection, conspiracy to issue false testimony and to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official procedure of Congress, the vote to certify Biden's win.

Prosecutor Jack Smith investigates his role in subverting the result, which also includes calling on the Georgia secretary of state to "find" the votes he needed to win Georgia.

Mike Pence was never formally summoned to testify in the House of Representatives committee that investigated the assault on the Capitol, although he always rejected the idea of ​​appearing before it.

At the time, he pointed out that the separation of powers would allow him to avoid that testimony in application of the so-called executive privilege.

Other charges against Donald Trump who have invoked executive privilege have also not been spared from testifying before the grand jury.

In parallel, prosecutor Smith is also investigating Trump for the case of classified papers, where one of the possible crimes is obstruction of justice.

A court recently ruled that Trump lawyers Evan Corcoran and Jennifer Little must testify before the grand jury in that case and provide documents related to their client.

In this case, what the judges have rejected is the so-called lawyer-client exception that the lawyers claimed not to testify.

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