According to US correspondent Jan Postma, the quote is “quite mysterious”, secret documents found in Trump’s homes in Mar-a-Lago could also be the reason for the quote. However, according to Postma, the most logical explanation is the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and Trump’s role in it.
Pence talked a lot with Trump during that time. He asked his vice president not to ratify the result of the 2020 election, but Pence followed the law and made the result official. “Trump pressured Pence publicly, and that caused a lot of aggression among the president’s supporters,” Postma says. “The question is what exactly Trump said to Pence, the special counsel wants to know more.”
prosecutor
In November last year, a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate Trump’s handling of sensitive government documents and his attempts to disrupt a peaceful transition of power in January 2021 after his election defeat. The special prosecutor could eventually decide to prosecute Trump.
The position is held by Jack Smith, who previously worked in The Hague for the Kosovo International Tribunal. The subpoena follows months of negotiations between Pence’s lawyer team and special counsel and is seen as an escalation and perhaps the beginning of a new phase in the Trump investigation.
“The summoning of a former vice president is a big step,” says Postma. “That doesn’t happen without good reason.” Officially, little has been announced about the quote, but “Trump himself won’t be happy about it.”
2024
Pence refused to cooperate with an earlier parliamentary investigation into the storming of the Capitol. It remains to be seen whether he will cooperate with this judicial investigation, Postma thinks.
Pence is expected to run for president in 2024. That makes this situation all the more salient, Postma says. Trump is already a candidate, Pence now has no interest in angering Trump supporters and Trump himself again. Even this political aspect is more important.