Judge orders Pence to testify about talks he had with Trump leading up to Jan. 6

A judge has knocked down former Vice President Mike Pence's reasoning for refusing to testify in special counsel Jack Smith's probe of the January 6th Capitol riots.

CNN reports that Judge James Boasberg has ordered Pence to answer Smith's questions about conversations he had with Trump in the leadup to January 6th, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters broke into the United States Capitol building and chanted for him to be hung for his refusal to throw out certified presidential election results.

The judge's ruling, which is still under seal, also allows Pence to "decline to answer questions related to his actions on January 6 itself, when he was serving as president of the Senate for the certification of the 2020 presidential election."

Even though Pence has condemned Trump for endangering his family on January 6th by sending violent rioters to ransack the Capitol building, he has also resisted Smith's efforts to compel his testimony in the investigation.

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Smith and his team of prosecutors have won a number of high-profile legal battles in recent weeks, including convincing a judge to compel Trump attorney Evan Corcoran to testify in the DOJ's classified documents probe on the grounds that it was likely that Trump's conversations with Corcoran were used in the furtherance of a crime.