WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is moving to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before a federal grand jury investigating Trump’s role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a source familiar with the litigation.
The sealed appeal was filed Monday in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., days after an adviser said Pence will not appeal an order last month by Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., requiring Pence to testify in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation of Trump.
“Vice President Mike Pence swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and his claim that the Biden special counsel’s unprecedented subpoena was unconstitutional under the speech or debate clause was an important one made to preserve the separation of powers outlined by our founders,” Pence adviser Devin O’Malley said in a statement last week.
"Vice President Pence will not appeal the Judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law," O’Malley said.
It's unclear when Pence would appear before the grand jury in Washington, a source familiar with the matter said last week.
The federal appeals court last week denied Trump's motion to block the testimony of several of his senior aides after U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled in March that Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows and other aides, including Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller, must testify despite Trump's invocation of executive privilege.
A New York grand jury has indicted Trump, who was formally charged and arraigned last week in Manhattan. He pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.
