WASHINGTON − Former Vice President Mike Pence did not rule out testifying against former President Donald Trump in his criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Pence told CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview that aired Sunday he currently has no plans to testify against Trump but said “we’ll respond to the call of the law.”
“I have no plans to testify, but people can be confident we’ll obey the law. We’ll respond to the call of the law, if it comes and we’ll just tell the truth,” Pence said.
The 45-page indictment handed down last week laid out four charges against Trump: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election is a central strategy to prosecutors’ allegations Trump illegally tried to reverse his loss.
Pence could be a key figure in Trump’s case as it moves through the legal process. The indictment mentions contemporaneous notes Pence took during key meetings and phone calls as Trump and his allies pressured him to reject electoral votes following the 2020 presidential election.
“There was from time to time, particularly at important moments, I had a practice of scribbling a note or two on my calendar just to memorialize it and remember it and I did that in this case,” Pence said, confirming he took notes in the lead up to Jan. 6, 2021.
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Among some of the details in the indictment was an instance where Trump chastised his second-in-command as “too honest.” Since the unsealing of the indictment, Pence, one of many 2024 Republican presidential primary hopefuls, has become a more forceful voice against Trump.
On the campaign trail, Pence has taken Trump’s “honest” comment in stride.
“I’ve been called worse,” Pence said. “So I’m never offended by people calling me an honest man. And I always aspire to that and aspire to that in my faith.”
Trump’s belief Pence could overturn the election was a “reckless assertion,” Pence told reporters following the indictment. The former vice president also called Trump’s legal team a “gaggle of crackpot lawyers.”
Trump has taken notice of Pence’s more outspoken criticism, deriding him for being “newly emboldened” and going “to the Dark Side,” on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Pence, who has brushed off Trump’s jabs before, reiterated Sunday he had no authority to overturn the 2020 election.
“I’m running for president in part because, frankly, President Trump asked me to put him over the Constitution that day, but I chose the Constitution and I always will,” Pence said.
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