Lawyers for former President Trump are appealing an order authorizing limited testimony from former Vice President Pence after a judge ruled he must answer Justice Department questions about Trump’s attempts to stay in power.
The challenge from his lawyers comes after Pence’s lawyers said they would not appeal a ruling by DC District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg, who ordered him to answer questions about Trump’s efforts to stay in power by June 6. January, but agreed that Pence’s role as Senate president allows him to be shielded from questioning about the day itself.
The effort by the Trump team seeks to prevent any involvement by Pence in the investigation by arguing that the former president can block his testimony due to executive privilege.
But the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected that argument in an earlier case, siding with the Justice Department in another sealed ruling from a judge ordering several former Trump White House officials to testify, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
“The Department of Justice is continually straying from standard norms by attempting to destroy the long-accepted and upheld constitutional standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege,” a Trump spokesperson said in a statement.
“The special counsel is conducting a witch hunt in which the administration has sought to violate all constitutional provisions, including safeguards that protect a president’s ability to consult with his vice president on matters of the security of the United States.”
Pence’s team had argued that the Speech and Debate clause should shield the former vice president from questions related to his role leading the Senate on the day of the riots, using the unique role as a buffer against the Justice Department’s investigation, since that legislators have a constitutional protection from being “challenged elsewhere.”
