Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman explained to MSNBC's Joy Reid the significance of former Vice President Mike Pence's cooperation with the Justice Department, as it subpoenas him for information in the January 6 investigation.
Above all, Akerman said, we are approaching the unprecedented possibility that a former vice president may have to testify at the criminal trial of his former president.
"If you had [Pence], you know, as you said, for hours and hours, and hours, what would you want to ask him?" asked Reid. "Myself personally, I would also want to know what the Secret Service agents were saying, did you trust them? Because this could be about Donald Trump, but it could also be about some of them. What would you want to know?"
"Yeah, I think we want to know exactly what his suspicion was based on," said Akerman. "I mean, why did he think they were trying to whisk him out of the Capitol so quickly? Was it one of the people that was close to Donald Trump that was in charge of doing that? Did somebody say something to him? I mean, I'm sure he knew that part of this whole plot was to stop that vote, stop the Congress from considering the electoral count. And that one way to do it was to get him off premises, get him out of the Capitol. So I think, you know, he probably did have other conversations with people."
"I mean, don't forget, once Mike Pence told him there's no way no how I'm gonna do this, Donald Trump knew that the only way he was going to stop this whole count was through the violence, through the disruption in the chaos that ensued at the Capitol and that one of the ways to do it of course was to get Mike Pence out of the Capitol as a result of all this violence and used the Secret Service as a foil and an excuse to do that," continued Akerman. "Mike Pence is no idiot and he had to know what was going on and he had lots of details, conversations with Donald Trump, and that's what they're going to go through in minute detail. There is no way he can play both sides of the aisle on this thing and and try and somehow come out looking like politically okay with the base and telling the truth. It just can't be done here."
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"I think when he's going to really have the problem is if Donald Trump does get indicted and he's got to show up as a witness," Akerman added. "I mean, the government calls former Vice President Pence. Mr. Pence, do you know Donald Trump? Yes. Can you point him out to the jury please? I mean, it's really going to be a pretty momentous occasion, first time ever in American history that anything like this has ever happened."
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