WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is moving to bar former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before a federal grand jury investigating Trump’s role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a source familiar with the litigation.
The sealed appeal was filed Monday in the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. It comes days after Pence’s adviser said the former vice president will not appeal an order by Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, requiring Pence to testify in the prosecutor’s investigation. Jack Smith special on Trump. Boasberg issued that ruling late last month.
“Vice President Mike Pence swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and his assertion that the unprecedented subpoena by Biden’s special counsel was unconstitutional under the speech or debate clause was important in preserving the separation of powers outlined by our founders. ”. Pence adviser Devin O’Malley said in a statement last week.
«Vice President Pence will not appeal the judge’s decision and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,» O’Malley said.
It’s unclear when Pence will appear before the grand jury in Washington, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News last week.
The federal appeals court last week rejected Trump’s motion to block testimony from several of his top advisers. That came after US District Court Judge Beryl Howell ruled in March that former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and other aides, including Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller, must testify despite the Trump’s invocation of executive privilege.
The former president’s move on Monday also comes after a New York grand jury indicted Trump, who was indicted and arraigned last week in Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.