Gonzalo Jimenez
(CNN) Former President Donald Trump has lost a last-minute attempt to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying about his direct conversations, amid a federal criminal investigation examining actions by Trump and others after the 2020 election.
The former president has repeatedly tried and failed to bar some testimony from witnesses close to him in the investigation. This latest order from the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit will likely quickly lead to Pence’s testimony before the grand jury, an event unprecedented in modern presidential history.
The unanimous decision, by Justices Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Greg Katsas on the DC Circuit, came in a case sealed Wednesday night that CNN previously identified as a challenge to Trump’s executive privilege in relation to Pence.
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Trump tried to block Pence from testifying about his direct communications, even after the former vice president wrote about some of those exchanges and a lower court judge ruled against him.
Trump asked the DC Circuit for an emergency intervention weeks ago. The court refused to stay Pence’s subpoena and vacate the lower court’s ruling, flatly denying Trump’s requests.
Trump could try to appeal again and even raise the issue in the Supreme Court. However, he has waived several appeals invoking his executive privilege of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation after similar rulings by this appeals court.
Pence has already said that he was not going to appeal part of the decision to a lower court, and that he would comply with the subpoena. Judge James Boasberg of the DC District Court acknowledged that Pence may have some congressional protections during his time as president of the Senate on January 6, 2021. But that ruling does not appear to prevent him from answering questions before the grand jury. about his numerous conversations with Trump since Election Day, when Trump and his allies pressured Pence to block congressional certification of the vote.
Trump’s conversations with Pence in the days leading up to the riot at the US Capitol have been of great interest to investigators investigating the attack, and the former vice president wrote in his book that Trump told him he would be a “wimp.” ” in a call the morning of the insurrection.
The CNN Wire
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