Former Vice President Mike Pence is pledging to take his challenge to a grand jury subpoena from the special counsel investigating Donald Trump and his allies to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed, declaring he’s protecting the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution.
Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Pence as part of his investigation into efforts by Trump and others to overturn the 2020 election. Pence said just as it was wrong for Trump to pressure him to reject Electoral College votes from key swing states when he presided over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, it’s wrong for the executive branch to compel him to respond when he was acting as a legislative official.
“That runs against literally hundreds of years of not only American law, but common law,” Pence told reporters after an event in Minnesota on Wednesday, according to a video posted online. “We’ve got to stand for that principle because it’s a separation of powers. And that’s why we’re prepared to take this fight into the court and, if needs be, take it to the Supreme Court of the United States.”
