Pence appears for 7 hours before grand jury

Former Vice President Mike Pence appeared for more than seven hours before the grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to sources with knowledge of his testimony. 

Federal prosecutors were interested in questioning the former vice president about the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Pence testified before the grand jury at the D.C. District Court. Grand jury testimony and related proceedings happen in secret and are shielded from the public by federal law.

On Wednesday night, a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected former President Donald Trump’s argument that Pence should be shielded from testifying about his interactions with Trump in the last weeks of his administration.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into whether any entity “unlawfully interfered” with the certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6 and the transfer of power, subpoenaed Pence in February. Smith is also in charge of the investigation into another case involving Trump, the alleged mishandling of documents with classified markings which ended up at Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.

The former vice president initially tried to resist the subpoena, arguing he was protected from questioning under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause because of his role as president of the Senate.

In early April, a federal judge ruled that Pence was required to provide testimony about any involvement Trump had in efforts to alter the 2020 election. But D.C. District Chief Judge James Boasberg also ruled that the “speech or debate clause” afforded Pence some protection from providing testimony on congressional matters related to his role as president of the Senate on Jan. 6, 2021, but he had to testify about any illegal acts by Trump.

The former president has consistently denied wrongdoing and labeled Smith’s investigation as politically motivated. 

This is a developing story.