According to reports from CBS and elsewhere, former Vice President Mike Pence testified Thursday before a grand jury hearing evidence related to criminal investigations of Trump for some seven hours. The length of time suggests, of course, that he had a lot to say.
There aren’t going to be a lot of details publicly available at this stage of what Pence may have actually shared with investigators, which is standard. He provided information as part of investigative efforts led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who continues helming two probes implicating Trump. Those include the investigation into classified documents from Trump’s time in office harbored at his southern Florida resort Mar-a-Lago and the probe into political schemes around the scheduled Congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election’s results. It’s in the latter context where Pence could, of course, have the most insight, and his stop in D.C. judicial chambers Thursday came after failed efforts, including ploys with Trump’s own involvement, to stop his appearance following an earlier federal subpoena.
Arguments utilizing executive privilege and the notion of Constitutional protections from scrutiny for legislators also applying to Pence both failed, at least generally. A lower-level judge — James Boasberg in D.C. court — did specify areas directly related to Pence’s doubly held role as president of the Senate could be left out of his answers. (An appeals court also later okayed Pence’s testimony, rejecting further challenges from the ex-president’s team.) There’s a lot more, though, including many interactions Pence had with Trump in the lead-up to January 6. Federal investigations, along with probes elsewhere, haven’t just been focused on Trump’s role in attempts to undo the election results, and Pence could’ve also provided insight about other players, like lawyer John Eastman. Eastman was also hit with a disciplinary case from authorities for lawyers in California that could lead to his disbarment. That was earlier this year.
