The area that Judge James Boasberg agreed provided Pence with some area of protection didn’t have to do with some lingering form of executive privilege connected to Trump, but with Pence’s constitutional role as Senate president during the Jan. 6 events. Boasberg agreed to limit what Pence had to say about his interactions in the chamber and with members of Congress connected to Jan. 6. Boasberg ruled it was protected by the Constitution’s clause on “Speech or Debate.”
However, it’s not clear if that ruling, which is still sealed, prevents Pence from discussing how Trump pressured him to skew the results of the Jan. 6 tally of votes, his conversations with those outside of Congress in which Pence questioned the legality of Trump’s orders, or details of meetings in which versions of the Jan. 6 plan—especially the form concocted by attorney John Eastman—were presented. It would be difficult for Pence to argue he can’t speak on these matters at all since he has already done so publicly. He even covered some of this ground in his already published memoirs.
But Trump has more to be concerned about than just what Pence tells the investigators and grand jury when it comes to Jan. 6.
The testimony being given before that jury by former Homeland Security officials Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli shows that special counsel Jack Smith is looking at all of the ways that Trump attempted to overturn the election results, not just how Trump’s involvement in Jan. 6 may have led to violence. Pence is another insider who was present for key meetings and discussions over the period between the election and the end of the year, a period in which Trump filed over 62 legal cases based on false evidence, made two drafts of an executive order instructing the military to seize voting machines, discussed multiple means of declaring a “national emergency” and ordering a second vote, replacing the attorney general so that he could throw out votes in states where he lost, and leaning on local officials down the the county level in an effort to convince them to falsify the vote.
Smith should have a lot of questions for Pence, and Pence has no excuse for not answering.
There remains a possibility that Trump’s attorneys could appeal Judge Boasberg’s ruling. However, his legal team does seem a little busy right now.
