Pence must testify to Jan. 6 grand jury, judge rules

A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to appear in front of a grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, largely sweeping aside two separate legal efforts by Pence and Trump to limit his testimony, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The twin rulings Monday, by Judge James E. Boasberg in U.S. District Court in Washington, were the latest setbacks to bids by Trump’s legal team to limit the scope of questions that prosecutors can ask witnesses close to him in separate investigations into his efforts to maintain his grip on power after his election defeat and into his handling of classified documents after he left office.

In the weeks leading up to the Capitol attack by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump repeatedly pressed Pence to use his ceremonial role overseeing the congressional count of Electoral College votes to block or delay certification of his defeat.

Prosecutors have been seeking to compel Pence to testify about Trump’s demands on him, which were thoroughly documented by aides to Pence in testimony last year to the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot and what led up to it.