Federal court blocks Trump's effort to stop Pence from testifying to Jack Smith

A federal panel for the D.C. Court of Appeals has denied former President Donald Trump's last-ditch effort to block a subpoena for former Vice President Mike Pence to testify to the January 6 investigation being led by special counsel Jack Smith, reported CNN on Wednesday.

"The former president has repeatedly tried and failed to close off some answers from witnesses close to him in the special counsel’s investigation. This latest order from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals likely will usher in Pence’s grand jury testimony quickly – an unprecedented development in modern presidential history," reported Katelyn Polantz. "The unanimous decision, from Judges Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Greg Katsas on the DC Circuit, came in a sealed case on Wednesday night that CNN previously identified as Trump’s executive privilege challenge to Pence."

Katsas is a Trump appointee, while Millett and Wilkins are appointees of former President Barack Obama.

"Trump asked the DC Circuit for emergency intervention weeks ago. The court refused to put on hold Pence’s subpoena and to override the lower-court ruling, flatly denying Trump’s requests," noted the report. "Trump could try to appeal again and even press the issue at the Supreme Court. Yet he gave up pushing several past executive privilege challenges to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation after similar rulings from this court of appeals."

Pence himself initially resisted efforts to testify in the probe, arguing that the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution privileges the conversations that he had on that day in his capacity as President of the Senate, overseeing the counting of electoral votes. However, after a federal judge ordered him to comply with Smith's subpoena, Pence declined to challenge the order and agreed to cooperate.