Pence ally thinks his justification for evading testimony doesn't hold up: report

Retired Judge Michael Luttig advised former Vice President Mike Pence against going along with former President Donald Trump's request to unilaterally refuse to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election -- and now he reportedly thinks that Pence's justification for fighting special counsel Jack Smith's subpoena will not hold up.

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent notes that Luttig this week shared an article about Pence's stated justification for fighting the subpoena by National Review legal analyst Andrew McCarthy, who argued that Pence "wasn’t functioning as a senator or a representative, but as an executive officer standing in as Senate president" on January 6th, 2021, which undermines his claim that the executive branch as represented by the DOJ cannot compel him to testify without violating the separation of powers.

Sargent goes on to report that "a person familiar with Luttig’s thinking" says that the retired judge believes that McCarthy's analysis is correct.

Pence relied on Luttig's counsel when Trump was trying to pressure him to reject certified election results on January 6th, 2021, and the retired judge went on to become a key witness during the House Select Committee investigation into the Capitol riots, where he emphasized the dangers that Trump and his allies posed to the American republic.

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