After the FBI searched the home of his vice president, former President Donald Trump called on special counsel Jack Smith to "get the riggers" instead of harassing a "very decent Mike Pence."
Kind words for Pence have come more often of late from Trump, after some years of acrimony. There remains a possibility Trump might invoke executive privilege on the FBI's investigation into the subpoena on Pence's handling of classified documents after he left office.
"Will Trump Hating Prosecutor Jack Smith be investigating the FACT that they SPIED on my campaign, even as I was in the Oval Office, they Stuffed the Ballot Boxes (per 2000 Mules), used Covid to cheat, that the FBI pushed Twitter & Facebook around, causing massive voter disruption, and so much more?" Trump wrote in Truth Social post late Friday night.
"That's really what he should be looking at, not asking a very decent Mike Pence why he didn't send the votes back to State Legislatures for scrutinization, which he could have done. Get the RIGGERS!"
Pence was the object of Trump's ire on Jan. 6, 2021, for not moving Congress to send Joe Biden's Electoral College certification back to the states for another review.
Protesters, spurred on by Ray Epps calling on them to storm the Capitol and potentially undercover FBI agents or non-official cover, interrupted the calls for debate on 2020 presidential election integrity.
Pence was presiding over the certification of electoral votes, as protesters, if not anti-Trump operatives, chanted "Hang Mike Pence!" as the vice president was steered to safety.
Since then, Pence, who is considering launching a 2024 presidential bid against Trump, has distanced himself from the former president, saying last year "President Trump is wrong" and that "I had no right to overturn the election."
But Trump was not asking Pence to overturn anything. He was merely asking him to send them back to the contested battleground states where GOP-led state legislatures had concerns over the integrity of the election.
Pence opted against testifying voluntarily before the House committee investigating Jan. 6 and was never subpoenaed to appear. Whether he views cooperation with the grand jury differently is unclear, as is whether he and his lawyers will try to avoid being forced to discuss private conversations with Trump.
In the event he does ultimately testify, a subpoena might give him a degree of political cover, helping him avoid further alienating Trump supporters he might need for his own election bid by allowing him to say he was compelled to cooperate rather than did so voluntarily.
If he does not wish to comply, he might look for Trump to intervene by invoking executive privilege, a doctrine meant to protect the confidentiality of the Oval Office decision-making process. Such an action could result in closed-door arguments before the D.C. court's chief federal judge, Beryl Howell.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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