Pence subpoenaed in Trump probe regarding events of Jan. 6

After months of negotiations, special counsel Jack Smith has issued a subpoena to Former Vice President Mike Pence in relation to the ongoing probe into Trump and his involvement with the events of Jan. 6.

According to sources who relayed information to ABC News, Smith is requesting documents and testimony on how Trump’s push to claim victory in the 2020 election may have instigated the insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol on the day called into question.

In November, Raw Story published an article in which they pulled excerpts from Pence’s book, “So Help Me God,” in which he steers blame away from Trump and places it on The Lincoln Project as being the catalyst for the J6 riot, but later changes his tune.

“In a Dec. 5 call, the president for the first time mentioned challenging the election results in Congress,” Pence writes in that book. “By mid-December, the internet was filled with speculation about my role. An irresponsible TV ad by a group calling itself the Lincoln Project suggested that when I presided over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes, it would prove that I knew ”it’s over,’ and that by doing my constitutional duty, I would be ‘putting the final nail in the coffin’ of the president’s re-election.”

That claim, which was widely disputed by Rick Wilson, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, did nothing to keep Pence’s subpoena from coming, nor did it clear Trump’s White House of any suspected wrong-doing.

Also in November, Salon reported on an interview Pence gave in which he brought Trump further into center focus as the one responsible for J6. 

Speaking with ABC News anchor David Muir, Pence said that “The president’s words that day at the rally endangered me and my family and everyone at the Capitol building.” 

The “DOJ has little choice but to interview Pence” now, said NYU Law Prof. Ryan Goodman after that interview.

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As The New York Times furthers in their coverage of the Pence subpoena, “the move by the Justice Department sets up a likely clash over executive privilege, which [Trump] has previously used to try to slow, delay and block testimony from former administration officials in various investigations into his conduct.”

As of the time of this post, neither Pence nor Trump have commented on the subpoena.