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The Pence subpoena should make Trump very nervous [1]

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Date: 2023-02-10  

So the subpoena, issued by special counsel Jack Smith, suggests that prosecutors now feel confident enough about their arsenal of information to question the second-most important witness to the potential crime (the first being Trump himself, the target of the investigation).

In some ways, the Pence subpoena builds on the special counsel appointment of Smith last November, which many legal observers took as a sign that Trump was indeed in legal jeopardy. Smith was called back from his post as a war crimes prosecutor in The Hague to oversee two inquiries into Trump relating to the highly sensitive documents he took from the White House and his involvement in efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.

Pence appears not to be an eager witness to what was potentially the biggest betrayal by a sitting president in the worst homegrown attack on the U.S. seat of government in history. Whether he will comply or fight the subpoena by claiming executive privilege remains to be seen. But some analysts believe it will be difficult for Pence to shield himself entirely through a privilege claim since he has publicly written about his final interactions with Trump in both a Nov. 2022 Wall Street Journal op-ed and his book released the same month, So Help Me God.

Two of Pence's top aides, Marc Short and Greg Jacob, have already given testimony to the grand jury, according to Politico. They were also essential witnesses in hearings convened by the House select committee investigating Jan. 6.

In an added twist, news broke Friday morning that the FBI was conducting a search of Pence's Indiana home after attorneys discovered classified documents there last month.

The New York Times reports that Pence aides were "incensed" by public disclosure of the search and blamed the Department of Justice for leaking the information.

Sarah Longwell is a longtime Republican strategist and prominent never-Trumper. Her podcast, The Focus Group, is a peek at the thousands of hours of focus groups she has conducted all across the country. Sarah comes on to give her thoughts about the state of the current Republican Party and why its future remains bleak.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/10/2152284/-Pence-primary-target-of-Trump-s-last-ditch-efforts-to-overturn-2020-is-the-essential-witness

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