Retired Judge Michael Luttig, who advised Mike Pence against going along with former President Donald Trump's plans to block the certification of the 2020 election, is now warning the former vice president against defying special counsel Jack Smith's subpoena.
In an editorial for the New York Times, Luttig writes that Pence appears to be making a political calculation by resisting the subpoena, with the hopes that he can gain credit with the MAGA voters who called for his hanging on January 6th, 2021 by making things difficult for Smith's investigation.
However, Luttig believes that this could blow up in the former vice president's face given past precedent set by the Supreme Court during the Nixon era.
"The former vice president should not want the embarrassing spectacle of the Supreme Court compelling him to appear before a grand jury in Washington just when he’s starting his campaign for the presidency," Luttig writes. "That has to be an uncomfortable prospect for Mr. Pence, not to mention a potentially damaging one for a man who — at least as of today — is considered by many of us across the political spectrum to be a profile in courage for his refusal to join in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election in the face of Donald Trump’s demands."
Luttig also warns Pence against believing he can run out the clock by defying the subpoena.
"If Mr. Pence’s lawyers or advisers have told him that it will take the federal courts months and months or longer to decide his claim and that he will never have to testify before the grand jury, they are mistaken," he argues. "We can expect the federal courts to make short shrift of this 'Hail Mary' claim, and Mr. Pence doesn’t have a chance in the world of winning his case in any federal court and avoiding testifying before the grand jury."
