Trump Appeals to Block Pence’s Special Counsel Testimony

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have appealed to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before special counsel Jack Smith and his Jan. 6 investigation.

Pence has declined to appeal a ruling ordering him to testify, but Trump filed the appeal in recent days on the grounds of executive privilege, sources told Bloomberg News.

Trump’s repeated claims of executive privilege have been rebuffed by President Joe Biden and the Justice Department.

The appeal was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, according to the sources.

The testimony before Smith’s secret grand jury has led to multiple objections and appeals by both Trump and Pence, who successfully argued the Constitution’s “speech and debate” clause applies to the vice president when presiding over the Senate, as Pence did on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Having vindicated that principle of the Constitution, Vice President Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement Wednesday.

Last week, judges rejected Trump’s effort to stop former White House officials from testifying amid the formal appeal process.

Smith is overseeing investigations into Trump over the events of Jan. 6 and the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The FBI raided the former president’s private residence last summer in an unprecedented move.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.