Pence is set to argue on the grounds that he was president of the Senate at the time and therefore shielded from the order…reports Asian Lite News
Former US Vice President Mike Pence is preparing to fight a recent subpoena for testimony from the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
The former vice president and his lawyers intend to cite constitutional grounds as they prepare to resist Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s efforts to compel his testimony before a grand jury.
Pence is set to argue on the grounds that he was president of the Senate at the time and therefore shielded from the order, CNN reported.
Investigators want the former vice president to testify about his interactions with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and the day of the attack on the US Capitol.
Pence allies say he is covered by the constitutional provision that protects congressional officials from legal proceedings related to their work — language known as the “speech or debate” clause, Politico reported.
According to the report, the clause, Pence allies say, legally binds federal prosecutors from compelling Pence to testify about the central components of Smith’s investigation. If Pence testifies, they say, it could jeopardize the separation of powers that the Constitution seeks to safeguard.
All this is happening when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently found an additional classified file during a search of Pence’s home in Indiana.
In a statement, Devin O’Malley, an adviser to Pence, said that the former Vice President agreed to the consensual search and the additional file were removed following “a thorough and unrestricted search”.
“The Department of Justice completed a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours and removed one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice-president’s counsel,” O’Malley added.
This development follows disclosures by Pence’s attorneys that they found “a small number” of classified files from his Vice-Presidency at the home last month.
This is also the latest development in a growing controversy over classified documents that has already embroiled both former President Donald Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden.
Trump faces a criminal investigation for allegedly mishandling classified documents, while Biden faces a probe by the US Department of Justice.
To date, about 300 classified documents have been recovered from Trump since his administration ended.
While Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he declassified any documents he took when he left the White House, Biden has said that his team did “what they should have done” by alerting officials immediately when classified files were found and that he is co-operating with the special counsel’s investigation, the BBC reported.