According to sources familiar with the matter, former Vice President Mike Pence testified on Thursday for over five hours to a federal grand jury investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election and the actions of then-President Donald Trump and others. This marks a momentous event in the criminal investigation, as it is the first time in modern history that a vice president has been compelled to testify about the president he served beside.
While adviser Marc Short did not confirm the appearance on Thursday, he addressed the legal back-and-forth over the testimony, stating that Pence was willing to comply with the law, and courts had ordered him to testify. The testimony is significant as it was poised to recount for the first time under oath Pence’s direct conversations with Trump leading up to January 6, 2021. Trump repeatedly pressured Pence unsuccessfully to block the 2020 election’s result, including the morning of January 6 on a private phone call.
The grand jury in Washington, DC, whose proceedings are secret, assembled just before 9 a.m. ET on Thursday. That coincided with an increase in security inside the courthouse and two SUVs with tinted windows spotted ferrying people to the building. A spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith’s office and a spokesman for Pence both declined to comment on Thursday.
Smith’s investigation around Trump’s efforts to block the election result has long sought to question Pence under oath given his proximity to Trump at the White House. Both Pence and Trump went to court to hold off his unprecedented subpoena, but trial and appellate judges ordered Pence to testify about his direct conversations with the then-President – decisions that were in line with several other losses courts dealt to Trump as he’s tried to block top officials from his administration from testifying.
The case has put Pence in a unique position to define the powers of his former office. Pence’s meeting with investigators comes as he is exploring a possible challenge to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, with his testimony likely to elicit a strong negative reaction from his former boss.
