WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court tossed out what remained of Donald Trump’s unsuccessful legal fight to stop his former vice president-turned-rival Mike Pence from testifying about efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued a sealed order on Friday granting a request by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office to dismiss the case, rebuffing opposition by Trump’s lawyers.
The parties aren’t named in the public docket, but Bloomberg News previously confirmed information about the litigation.
Pence testified before a grand jury in Washington in late April in the federal probe being run by Smith’s office after Trump failed to convince the DC Circuit to temporarily stop it while the former president appealed on the merits. A lower court judge rejected Trump’s executive privilege challenge to the subpoena for Pence’s appearance.
Read More: Pence Testifies Before Jan. 6 Grand Jury in Blow to Trump
That initial order in April didn’t end the appeal, but it signaled that Trump was unlikely to win. All of the briefs in the case are sealed, but the public docket shows that after Pence appeared, the government asked the court to dismiss the case. Trump’s attorneys asked to keep the case active.
Pence separately challenged the subpoena, raising novel issues about whether he was entitled to a legislative privilege against being forced to testify, given that he presided over the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the 2020 election results.
He did not pursue an appeal after US District Chief Judge James Boasberg ruled that Pence was entitled to some level of constitutional protection but that didn’t “cover the vast majority of what the special counsel seeks to ask him about.”
The legal fight unfolded as Pence prepared to launch his 2024 Republican presidential campaign. Trump had already declared his candidacy in November, which led to Smith’s appointment as special counsel.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Smith’s office declined to comment.
The case was before Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, appointed by former President George H.W. Bush; Trump appointee Justin Walker; and Bradley Garcia, appointed by President Joe Biden. The public docket entry for Friday’s order doesn’t indicate that a member of the panel dissented.
