Pence is Jack Smith's 'key legal battle' — and his testimony was a massive victory: reporter
Former Vice President Mike Pence testified for several hours in the January 6 investigation led by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith — after months of Pence stonewalling and raising constitutional objections, and Trump being denied a last-minute legal motion to block the testimony from taking place.
This was one of the keystone legal victories Smith needed to secure, Sara Murray explained on CNN's "The Situation Room" on Thursday.
"What does this say about where the special counsel, the federal Justice Department, special counsel, the criminal investigation of Donald Trump now stands?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.
"It doesn't mean they are done interviewing all the witnesses that they want to talk to," said Murray. "But you are at a point where they've interviewed this pinnacle witness ... if you're talking about someone in the mix, who was having conversations directly with Donald Trump, someone who was the target of not only Donald Trump's pressure campaign but frankly the target of a number of the rioters who were showing up and chanting 'Hang Mike Pence,' he is the witness at the center of that. He is the key battle you need to wage."
Smith has already secured testimony from a number of other Trump officials, noted Murray — however, "when you're talking about the former vice president, that is a different level of a court fight."
"So the special counsel was able to prevail on that. They were able to get that testimony," said Murray, adding. "It doesn't mean that is the end of the road for their investigation. There may be things that prosecutors learn in the testimony from Mike Pence today that they want to follow up on."
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