'Evidence of a crime': Feds file sealed motion compelling Donald Trump's lawyer to testify
Prosecutors for Special Counsel Jack Smith, investigating Donald Trump‘s unlawful retention and refusal to return hundreds of documents with classified markings, are trying to compel one of the ex-president’s attorneys, Evan Corcoran, to testify before a grand jury again. They are asking a judge to allow them to invoke the crime-fraud exception, which voids attorney-client privilege.
The move, in the form of a seal motion, suggests they may have evidence of a crime.
Reported in the media today that Pence has lawyered up and will fight the subpoena. Predictably, the Democrats heaped scorn on him for this.
Adam Schiff Hammers Mike Pence Trying To Dodge Testifying About 1/6
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) called out former vice president Mike Pence for trying to dodge the DOJ and avoid testifying about the 1/6 attack.
Schiff tweeted:
Adam Schiff @RepAdamSchiff
Pence is now claiming the Speech and Debate Clause — meant for senators and members — allows him to avoid testifying about Jan 6. Just shows the lengths Pence will go to avoid doing his duty and telling the truth. What a way to launch a presidential campaign.
What Rep. Schiff was referring to is a report in The New York Times that Pence is going to try to argue that his role as president of the Senate gives him speech or debate clause protection:
Mr. Pence is expected to argue that the vice president’s role as the president of the Senate means that he is protected from legal scrutiny of his official duties by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, intended to protect the separation of powers.
Such an approach would be novel and a departure from the more traditional argument that a vice president’s interactions with a president would be subject to executive privilege.