As investigative bodies continue to pursue justice for January 6th, the former president’s allies continue to fight against that goal, including former VP Mike Pence, even though he was one of the targets of the day’s attack.
A mob chanting about their desire to murder Pence and a sitting president tweeting vitriol at him is not sufficient, it seems, to make the evangelical extremist cooperate with the Justice Department.
Instead, he’s fighting a subpoena, arguing that since he served as President of the Senate that day, he’s exempt from testimony.
Pence is arguing that the separation of powers protects him because he was acting as a member of the legislative branch on January 6th.
He’s framing it as a defense of the ‘speech or debate clause,’ and says he’s willing to litigate to uphold it.
Meanwhile, another presidential election is coming up fast, and Donald Trump — who is still defending the January 6th attack and lying to his supporters about the 2020 election — is running again.
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Pence’s antics aren’t moving the nation any closer to justice and closure as reported in Politico:
Sponsored Links
“Mike Pence is preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena for testimony about former President Donald Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the former vice president’s thinking…The [speech or debate] clause, Pence allies say, legally binds federal prosecutors from compelling Pence to testify about the central components of [Special Counsel Jack] Smith’s investigation.”
The clause in question has been interpreted very broadly by the Supreme Court as granting Members of Congress hefty immunity.
Whether it will protect in an investigation of a literal attack on the government remains to be seen.
“The Senators and Representatives…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.”
Meanwhile, even when defending “a very decent Mike Pence” and suggesting that investigators should be focusing on the “stolen election” instead, Trump is still using his social media to attack his former VP for not making efforts to overturn the election.
In one post, he declared:
“Will Trump Hating Prosecutor Jack Smith be investigating the FACT that they SPIED on my campaign, even as I was in the Oval Office, they Stuffed the Ballot Boxes (per 2000 Mules), used Covid to cheat, that the FBI pushed Twitter & Facebook around, causing massive voter disruption, and so much more? That’s really what he should be looking at, not asking a very decent Mike Pence why he didn’t send the votes back to State Legislatures for scrutinization, which he could have done. Get the RIGGERS!”