(ConservativeSense.com) – The legal team of former President Donald Trump appealed a court order on Monday requiring former Vice President Mike Pence to testify for the Justice Department probe regarding Jan 6 and Trump’s possible involvement with the events of that day.
A few days before the appeal, Pence said he wouldn’t contest a subpoena for him to testify, initially arguing it would violate the Constitution.
The part of the Constitution in question is called the speech or debate clause, which is supposed to protect U.S. lawmakers from being questioned regarding what comments they’ve made while serving in the House or the Senate. According to Pence, that clause also protected him because the vice president is technically president of the Senate.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Judge James Boasberg confirmed that Pence is right about the clause, which does limit what questions prosecutors can ask Pence, who decided he would testify rather than challenge the subpoena.
Now, Trump’s lawyers are appealing the court order, filing the appeal under seal on Monday morning to challenge Special Counsel Jack Smith’s bid for Pence to testify. Smith’s inquiries into Trump’s actions on Jan 6 have been expansive, analyzing documents and testimony related to the events of that day, as well as the possible mishandling of classified documents by Trump after he left office.
A spokesman for Trump, Steven Cheung, said that the DOJ is “stepping far outside the standard norms in attempting to destroy the long accepted, long-held, Constitutionally based standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege” by conducting what he called a “witch-hunt” violating “every Constitutional norm, including the safeguards that protect a President’s ability to confer with his Vice President” on national security matters.
It’s still unclear when Pence will be expected to testify and a deadline has not yet been issued by the judge.
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