Fogbow

A federal judge has ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence will have to testify before a grand jury after he was subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

That’s according to two people familiar with the ruling, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it remains under seal.

The people said, however, that the Pence would not have to answer questions about his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the building as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress to certify the vote.

Pence had argued that, because he was serving in his capacity as president of the Senate that day, he was protected from being forced to testify under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.

JUST IN: A federal appeals court panel has rejected Trump's bid to block top aides from testifying to special counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 investigation.

Several close Trump advisers are the subject of this order, which was part of a rushed series of overnight filings.

Trump appeals order requiring Pence to testify in Jan. 6 probe -source

Mon, April 10, 2023 at 6:39 PM GMT+2
By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump has appealed a judge's order requiring his former vice president, Mike Pence, to testify in the special counsel probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Trump's lawyers filed the appeal after a ruling related to the Justice Department investigation of efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election that Trump, a Republican, lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The case remains under seal. But on Monday, a new sealed case appeared on the federal appeals court docket in Washington, D.C., that referred to a grand jury matter before U.S. District Chief Judge James Boasberg.

Final briefs in the appeal are due by May 25, according to an initial schedule set by the court, which does not name the parties to the case.

Pence last week disclosed that he would not appeal a judge's ruling that requires him to testify to a federal grand jury about conversations he had with Trump leading up to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a March ruling, the judge also said Pence could still decline to answer questions related to Jan. 6.

Several of Trump's attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-appeal ... 46770.html

WASHINGTON — Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller arrived Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and was seen entering the area where the grand jury tied to special counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 investigation meets.

Neither Miller nor his attorney responded when asked what the former aide was doing there.

The grand jury is investigating the role former President Donald Trump played in the Jan. 6 riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Miller served as a senior adviser to the president and director of speechwriting at the time of the riot.

That suggests that investigators are pursuing a legal theory similar to the one used to charge former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon and others with fraudulent fundraising to build a wall along the southern border, in which Bannon and others were charged with defrauding donors by lying in email pitches. Bannon’s three co-defendants pleaded guilty or were convicted, while Bannon was pardoned by Trump before he faced trial. Bannon now faces similar charges from the Manhattan district attorney and awaits trial. He has pleaded not guilty.

So from the 8 (Ocho Nostra) that the judge compelled to testify without executive privilege, Stephen Miller, Cuccinelli, and now Ratcliffe have testified. The remaining are Meadows, McEntee, Luna, O’Brien, and Scavino (unless they’ve snuck in without us knowing.)

New: Boris Epshteyn is scheduled to be interviewed by the special counsel's office, the latest Trump lawyer to face questions by Jack Smith's team.

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@maggieNYT

NOW: The DC Circuit has denied Donald Trump's emergency motion to block a subpoena for ex-VP Mike Pence's testimony in the Jan. 6 probe. Order from the court is under seal, more to come

Prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith have been asking questions in recent weeks about the handling of surveillance footage from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after the Trump Organization received a subpoena last summer for the footage, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.

The handling of the footage, and how employees within the Trump Organization responded to the Justice Department’s demand for it, have prompted a new round of grand jury subpoenas to top Trump employees in the last few weeks, the sources told CNN.

Longtime Trump Organization executives Matthew Calamari Sr. and his son Matthew Calamari Jr. are expected to appear Thursday before the grand jury investigating possible mishandling of classified documents brought to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, sources said. Prosecutors are expected to ask them about the handling of the surveillance footage and Trump employees’ conversations following the subpoena, according to the sources.

Subpoena appears to have come in response to single text from Trump valet Walt Nauta to Matt Sr, around the time DOJ requested surveillance footage outside storage room, about whether they “could talk”.

Phoenix520 wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2023 9:37 pm That’s kinda how I feel about Merrick Garland. There was so much Trump criminality they could barely prioritize what to tackle first.