A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to give information to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith about his conversations with former President Donald Trump in the days before the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — something Pence has been fiercely resisting, claiming that this information is privileged.
Speaking to anchor Erin Burnett on Tuesday, CNN legal analyst Paula Reid outlined how significant a development this is in the case.
"You also have some new reporting on the other situation here," said Burnett. "I'm going to talk about that special counsel. The DOJ federal judge ruling that Mike Pence has to testify about January 6th. Interestingly not about what happened on the day of January 6th, but about other things before that has to appear before that grand jury. So Pence himself was just asked about this ruling by the judge, right. He'd fought it. Here's what he said."
"How they sorted that out and what other testimony might be required?" Pence told Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax in the clip. "We're currently reviewing, but look, let me be clear. I have nothing to hide. I have a Constitution to uphold. I upheld the Constitution on January 6th. We're currently speaking to our attorneys about the proper way forward, and as I said, we'll have a decision in the coming days."
"So the special counsel moved on this aggressively," said Burnett. "What exactly do they want from Pence?"
"So this is a big win for the special counsel, because now they're going to be able to ask him about all his conversations with former President Trump in the leadup to January 6th," said Reid. "They're interested in this pressure campaign that Trump and his allies were applying on Pence not to certify the results of the election, in particular that call on January 6th, pretty heated call, that other witnesses have testified about. Now, the former vice president will have to answer questions about that. So this is a big, big win for the special counsel."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Paul Reid says Pence ruling is "big win" for Jack Smithwww.youtube.com
