Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are expected to fight a subpoena from former Vice President Mike Pence’s special counsel on grounds of executive privilege, according to a source familiar with the Trump legal team’s discussions.
A source familiar with the matter told NBC News on Thursday that special counsel Jack Smith has summoned Pence.
Smith was appointed in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead a Justice Department investigation into Trump’s role in January 6, 2021, Capitol riot as well as his handling of classified documents after he left office. The source said the summons is related to the January 6 probe.
The Trump campaign has not responded to a request for comment, and various lawyers from Trump World declined to comment.
CBS News first reported that Trump’s lawyers plan to contest the subpoena.
In December, NBC News reported that Smith had subpoenaed local officials in key presidential swing states for all communications involving Trump, his campaign, and a range of aides and allies who aided in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. It was
Smith’s move indicated that he was seeking a scheme that involved Trump’s fake voters, a slate of individuals who signed documents pretending they were legitimate voters in their state and making false claims that Trump was the winner in those states.
According to evidence gathered by the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, the mock voters also submitted false certificates of victory for Trump to the National Archives so that Pence could substitute them for actual electoral votes.
Trump had tried several times to claim executive privilege to block the committee from obtaining documents it sought during the investigation.
The committee devoted the entire hearing to Pence’s role on the day of the riot, as well as the intense public and private pressure put on Pence by Trump to interfere with the election count.
Pence said in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that he told Trump it would be illegal for him to interfere in the count during an Oval Office meeting with attorney John Eastman, one of the architects of the memo, outlining a scenario in which Pence could have refused. To authenticate the Electoral College count.
Pence, who presided over the Congressional certification of the 2020 election results, finally performed his ceremonial duty after the riot.