The Jan. 6 Select Committee has reportedly reached out to several of former VP Mike Pence’s aides to invite them to testify during public hearings that begin this month, CNN reported on Thursday.
According to CNN, former Pence chief counsel Greg Jacob and former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, who has direct ties to Pence, have received invitations about possibly testifying when the hearings begin this month. Additionally, the committee is reportedly expected to call former Pence chief of staff Marc Short to testify.
All three Pence associates previously sat for private interviews with committee investigators. Their private testimonies have reportedly helped inform the panels’s court filings and subpoena requests of other potential witnesses as part of their investigation into the events surrounding Jan. 6, according to CNN.
In addition to requests for testimony from figures in Pence’s inner circle, the committee is also expected to contact former Justice Department officials who refused to cave to pressure to investigate unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. According to CNN, the panel has planned a list for a potential panel of ex-DOJ officials: then-acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue and then-Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel. Although formal invitations have not gone out to the former DOJ officials, the committee has privately suggested it plans to hold a related hearing in mid-June.
A source familiar with the committee’s plans also told CNN the panel will also hear from “first-hand fact witnesses.”
Short accompanied Pence for most of Jan. 6 and is among the former VP’s closest advisers. Short stayed with Pence after the then-VP as evacuated from the Senate chamber and moved to a safe location beneath the Capitol as Trump supporters breached the building. Pence, who refused to give into Trump’s public demands that he not certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6, became a central target for those who breached the Capitol. Insurrectionists chanted “hang Mike Pence” as the VP defied Trump and ultimately proceeded to certify Biden’s electoral victory.
Short reportedly testified before the committee in person during a lengthy session in late January, CNN reported at the time.
Jacob previously served as Pence’s chief counsel. Jacob reportedly rejected conservative attorney John Eastman’s scheme to try to convince Pence to delay the count of the Electoral College votes.
Luttig, who previously served as private counsel to Pence, was also among the then-VP’s aides who pushed back on a memo by Eastman and supported Pence’s argument to Trump that there was no constitutional pathway to blocking the certification of Biden’s victory.
The committee’s outreach to former Pence aides comes as the panel is scheduled to hold several public hearings this month over the course of two weeks, according to reports.
Committee members have told reporters they aim to outline the narrative of the Capitol insurrection as Trump and his allies unlawfully attempted to subvert the 2020 presidential election results.
I hope Pence aide testimony helps to “cut through” the ample lies! Would be nice if (almost former) senator Chuck Grassley gets sworn in to testify. I’m sure Chuck has information to share, as the following is settled fact:
Chuck Grassley was peeing all over himself at the prospect of counting the votes (determining which votes count) when he was tweeting on 1/5/2021.
We. Need. Criminal. Referrals.
Yes, but not for these guys. They already testified voluntarily for the committee. These are invitations to participate in the public hearings.
Also maybe a signal to others that they’d better get on the cooperation wagon, because the committee already knows a great deal about what happened.
Patience. The Jan 6 committee has a tremendous body of documentary information obtained in behind the scenes interviews. I understand that a tremendous amount of information was provided by staffers that were in the meetings and did the leg work. I expect that not one question will be posed to the upper level mucky mucks in the televised hearings the answer to which is not already known by those asking the question. I expect there will be a lot of folks taking the 5th amendment to very specific and very narrow questions.
My one hope for Trump getting indicted is that it may get a nudge from the McConnell/Pence right as it’s the only way Pence can credibly run in 2024. I’m sick of soft attitude of Dem lawyers and pols who think we must always be afraid of how the GOP will spin something and not simply act aggressively where we have facts in our favor and put them on the defensive. Hopefully, the drumbeat of GOP sources openly talking about the insurrection will finally push Merrick Garland to act against the organizers and Trump himself and not just hide behind prosecuting some cosplay Nazis who stormed the Capitol.