Former US Vice President Mike Pence testified before a grand jury regarding the January 6, 2021 violent storming of the US Capitol. For hours yesterday Pence was a witness in a federal court in the capital Washington and answered questions, as US media reported unanimously, citing informed circles.
Nothing was known about the content of the survey. The investigation aims to clarify the role that Pence’s former boss, ex-President Donald Trump, played in the events of that day. The investigation is being led by a special prosecutor appointed by the Justice Department.
Pence wanted to avoid questioning
The statement was preceded by a long legal battle. Pence has always refused investigators’ requests to testify in the case. On January 6, as Vice President and thus automatically Chairman of the Senate, he chaired the session in the Capitol that was supposed to officially confirm Joe Biden’s election victory and which was interrupted by the attack. Pence invoked a safeguard clause on congressional debates to avoid questioning. Most recently, however, a judge ordered Pence to testify.
The January 6 attack investigation is among Trump’s many legal problems. Only on Wednesday did the US author Jean Carroll accuse him of sex crimes in the mid-1990s in a civil lawsuit she brought. Charges have been filed against Trump in another case involving hush money payments. Trump is also under investigation for his handling of classified government documents. In the state of Georgia, the prosecutor is investigating possible attempted election interference against Trump.
Probably another race between Biden and Trump
Trump himself describes law enforcement’s actions against him as politically motivated because he is running again as a Republican presidential candidate for the 2024 election. In the race for office, he accused his likely opponent, Biden, of being a “danger to democracy.” Biden had said the same thing about Trump on Wednesday.
At the event in the US state of New Hampshire, Trump also made fun of the approximately three-minute video in which Biden declared his renewed candidacy on Tuesday. It allegedly took Biden seven attempts to record the video, Trump said without citing a source for this claim.
In the race for the US presidency, a renewed duel between Biden and Trump is emerging, as was the case in the last election in 2020.
