CNN
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Former Vice President Mike Pence filed a motion to ask a judge to block a federal grand jury subpoena for his testimony related to Jan. 6 on the grounds that he is protected by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, according to a source. familiar with the presentation.
Pence had publicly indicated that he planned to resist the subpoena, arguing that it was “unconstitutional and unprecedented.” His legal team filed the motion Friday night, the same day that lawyers for former President Donald Trump asked a judge to block Pence from speaking before a grand jury on certain matters covered by executive privilege.
Pence’s motion, filed as part of a sealed proceeding, seeks to stop testimony related to his legislative duties around January 6, which could include a wide range of testimony. It is separate from Trump’s motion, which argues that the former president can protect former advisers from sharing insider communications.
Special Counsel Jack Smith is seeking documents and testimony related to January 6, 2021 and wants Pence to testify about his interactions with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and the day of the attack on the US Capitol.
But the former vice president says that because he was also serving as president of the Senate that day, he is protected by the Speech or Debate Clause, which protects lawmakers from certain law enforcement actions directed at their legislative duties.
Pence has written a memoir detailing his interactions with Trump prior to January 6, which could complicate efforts to resist the subpoena.
His team previously indicated to the Justice Department that it would be open to answering questions if they were limited to matters that he had previously discussed publicly, including in his book, a source told CNN.
Pence’s legal team had no comment. The Justice Department also had no comment.
Since taking over the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Smith, who has a reputation for moving quickly, has picked up the pace of the investigation and began imposing strict deadlines on subpoenas. Smith is also simultaneously investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office.
Trump met with several members of his legal team at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach last week to discuss the Smith investigations, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Smith recently subpoenaed former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien in both Trump-related investigations, and investigators have sat down with his former acting Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, as part of the investigation. in the 2020 election interference.