First modification:
The statement comes a day after a Washington Appeals Court rejected legal attempts by former President Donald Trump to avoid questioning, invoking so-called “executive privilege,” which gives presidents the right to confidentiality. It takes place over the objections of Pence himself, who had initially exercised resources not to testify.
The appearance of the former US vice president could mark a before and after in the investigations of the case, because it was expected that details would emerge in it about conversations prior to the mobilization that tried to prevent the officialization of the electoral result that gave Joe Biden as the winner in the contest with Trump.
Pence pledged in an interview with CBS’s Face The Nation to “obey the law and tell the truth.” “And the story that I have been telling the American people across the country, the story that I wrote in the pages of my memoirs, that will be the story that I will tell in that setting,” Pence said in the interview, broadcast on Sunday.
What does the VP have to say about the January 6, 2021 episode?
A federal judge ruled last March that Pence had to heed the Justice Department grand jury subpoena, overturning initial objections from Trump’s number two.
However, the judge conceded that Pence was not required to answer questions about his role as president of the Senate during the recount process that ended with Biden’s proclamation, under the constitutional “speech or debate” clause, which it protects congressmen from eventual pressures that could modify their legislative acts.
Despite his initial opposition, Pence has gone into detail about the hours leading up to the storming of the Capitol. In his book “So Help Me God,” Pence revealed that Trump had insisted that he influence the polling station count, even though his oversight role in the process was merely protocol.
He also assured that the former president had endangered his family and all those who were at the seat of the legislative branch that day, and that he would have to “render accounts to history.”
A decisive testimony
A source confirmed Pence’s appearance to the AP on condition of anonymity, but no details were released about the hearing, which was private.
Pence was expected to provide information about the talks that took place before the events of January 6, in which five people were killed and about 140 officers were injured when about 800 Trump supporters stormed the building.
His version could include details about the suggestion by Donald Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, that Pence may have prevented confirmation of Biden’s victory, testimony that would help determine, as the Justice Department claims, whether one or more people they tried to prevent Biden’s ratification as president before Congress.
Pence has publicly distanced himself from his former presidential running mate, a bond he called in his book “a close four-year working relationship that didn’t end well.” The break could even imply a showdown for the Republican nomination, although Pence has not yet made that aspiration official.
With AP and EFE
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