WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Mike Pence is planning to challenge a subpoena from a Justice Department special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, two people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
Pence’s legal team is expected to argue that the former vice president’s dual role as president of the Senate and member of the legislative branch at the time would protect him from the special counsel summons.
The development was first reported by Politico.
The Pence subpoena marks the most aggressive known step taken by special counsel Jack Smith since his appointment in November to both oversee both the election interference inquiry and a separate examination of former President Trump’s handling of classified documents.
The Justice Department declined comment Tuesday.
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Pence’s injection into the inquiry, while not unexpected, could pit two prospective front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 against each other in a criminal investigation. Trump has launched a bid to retake the White House, but Pence has not formally made an announcement.
While Trump has not directly commented on the Pence subpoena, he could assert a challenge of his own by invoking executive privilege in an attempt to shield his communications with the vice president – a tactic he has used to block the testimony of other aides summoned in the recently completed House committee investigation of the Capitol attack.
Trump has cast the special counsel appointment as a “political stunt.”
“This is a totally expected political stunt by a feckless, politicized, weaponized Biden Department of Justice,” the campaign said at the time.
Bradley P. Moss, an attorney who specializes in national security issues, said Pence’s planned strategy represents a “non-frivolous argument that, if taken to the end of the line, would require the courts to wade into the murkiness of constitutional powers of the Vice President.”
“Contrary to the executive privilege issue for which there is rather clear precedent, there is limited case law guiding the courts here and none of it deals with a Vice President’s dual authorities,” Moss said.
Story Credit: usatoday.com