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Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he will not appeal a judge’s order requiring him to testify to a federal grand jury weighing potential criminal charges against former President Donald Trump relating to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Pence’s spokesman Devin O’Malley said Wednesday that the former Indiana governor “will not appeal” US District Judge James Boasberg’s ruling and “will comply with the subpoena as required by law” — announcing the decision one day after Trump was arraigned in New York on novel business records falsification charges linked to 2016 hush-money payments.
Pence, who was presiding over the joint session of Congress that was certifying President Biden’s Electoral College victory when a violent mob of Trump’s supporters smashed their way into the Capitol, had challenged the subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith.
The former vice president argued that the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause shielded him from having to testify — and his spokesman said that Boasberg partially agreed in a still-sealed decision.
Pence “swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and his claim that the Biden Special Counsel’s unprecedented subpoena was unconstitutional under the Speech or Debate Clause was an important one made to preserve the Separation of Powers outlined by our Founders,” O’Malley said.
