Pence Says He Would Consider Testifying In Capitol Riot Inquiry

Former US Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he would give “due consideration” to testifying before the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill, where some protesters demanded that Pence be hanged for refusing to then-President Donald Trump’s demand to reverse his re-election loss.

Pence was in the early stages of overseeing congressional certification of the state-by-state Electoral College vote showing that Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had defeated Trump and Pence in the November 2020 election when some 2,000 Trump supporters they stormed the Capitol and blocked proceedings for hours.

Some yelled, “Hang Mike Pence!” and a gallows was erected on the National Mall in front of the Capitol.

As Pence weighs a 2024 presidential bid, he has been making political speeches in several battleground states to win the nomination. On Wednesday, he told a meeting in the northeastern state of New Hampshire that if the House committee makes a “formal invitation” for him to appear, “I would consider it.”

The panel, which will resume hearings in September after a summer recess, has already heard testimony from two of Pence’s key aides: his chief of staff, Marc Short, and his attorney, Greg Jacob, who testified that Trump pressured the vice president to send election results to legislatures in states Trump narrowly lost so that pro-Trump electors can replace officials promised to Biden.

But Pence, after studying his prescribed role in overseeing the Electoral College vote count, accepted the advice of numerous aides and legal experts who said he could only oversee the vote count and had no authority to override the national result.

In the United States, presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state’s number of electoral votes depends on its population, with the largest states having the most influence.

The rioters who stormed the Capitol attempted to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden’s eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College, which ended in the early hours of January 7, 2021, after the rioters were kicked out of the Capitol.

It was not immediately clear if Pence would be voluntarily called as a witness before the January 6 panel. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson previously said the panel ruled out a subpoena for Pence, citing “significant information” he obtained from Short and Jacob. Pence’s two aides also testified before a grand jury in Washington investigating Trump’s role in trying to overturn the election results.

In a separate investigation, Trump is also under investigation for keeping highly classified national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after taking them with him when his White House term ended, rather than turning them over to Archives and Records. Nationals. Administration, as he was required to do under United States law.

Pence defends FBI agents

Some Republicans have criticized Federal Bureau of Investigation agents for conducting the search, even though it was authorized by Attorney General Merrick Garland and approved by a US judge. It was the first time that the house of a former president had been searched for evidence of the possible commission of a crime, as the government alleged when obtaining the search warrant.

In his New Hampshire speech, Pence said, “This unprecedented action calls for unprecedented transparency” from Garland in explaining the rationale behind the search.

But Pence defended the agents who conducted the search.

“I just want to remind my fellow Republicans that we can hold [Garland] for the decision he made without attacking base FBI law enforcement personnel. The Republican Party is the party of law and order. These attacks on the FBI must stop,” he said.

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