The special prosecutor investigating Donald Trump for the assault on the Capitol and for the concealment of secret papers at his Mar-a-Lago residence, Jack Smith, has summoned former Vice President Mike Pence to testify in relation to the insurrection in Congress and the previous and subsequent attempts by his former boss to annul the result of the 2020 presidential elections.
Pence refused to comply with Trump's request that, by exercising his power in Congress, he annul the session in which parliamentarians had to ratify, proclaim and make Joe Biden's victory in the elections official. That earned number two the pursuit of the Capitol assailants shouting "Hang Mike Pence!" In such a way that the secret service of the police had to evacuate him along with his family from the Senate room where he took refuge and saw his life in danger.
Almost two years later, last November, Trump would unashamedly justify the mob that that day asked for the head of his main collaborator.
Although the prosecutor has not detailed the purpose of the subpoena, nor the date, it is obvious that Pence may be a key prosecution witness in the proceedings against the former president. And not only about the assault on the Capitol but also, or above all, regarding Trump's different maneuvers in his tireless attempt to reverse his failure in the presidential elections.
Mike Pence has given signs and carried out movements indicating that he plans to run in the Republican primaries for the 2024 elections in competition with Trump himself, for now the only official candidate in that race.
The investigations into the assault on the Capitol follow two parallel tracks with very different speeds: that of the direct protagonists of the rebellion, many of them already prosecuted and convicted, and that of their instigators and accomplices from above, with Trump at the forefront, the which prosecutor Smith carries in absolute secrecy.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has received criticism from all sides for his conduct of the process. While the Republicans accuse him of "politically using the position" to attack the former president, some Democrats reproach him for his apparent parsimony and indecisiveness in deciding whether to file charges against Trump for his decisive role in the coup attempt.
The already extinct investigative commission of those events in Congress presented strong testimonies and evidence of that decisive intervention of the former president in the violent revolt. The parliamentary committee, made up of seven Democratic representatives and two Republicans, urged the Prosecutor's Office to file charges against the former president for the crimes of incitement to insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the nation, conspiracy to make a false statement, and obstruction of a proceeding. congressional official.
Pence became the third senior official a couple of weeks ago, after Trump and Joe Biden, at whose residence classified documents have appeared that should have been turned over to the National Archives institution when each of them left office.
The scope and circumstances of the findings of these papers, which in the case of Pence are initially limited to a dozen, are very diverse. But the stain, greater or lesser, is shared by the three leaders.
In the investigation against Trump for the assault on the Capitol, it remains to be seen how the Republican leader fits Pence's subpoena, politically and legally. The former president has invoked presidential immunity over and over again to evade all responsibility in the process. An immunity he no longer has. At least in theory.
