WASHINGTON: Former United States Vice-President Mike Pence appeared before a grand jury investigating ex-president Donald Trump for his alleged role to overturn the 2020 election, Reuters said on Thursday.
Pence remained inside the US District Court in Washington for more than seven hours. Representatives for Pence did not comment on his court appearance.
Pence’s appearance before the grand jury comes as he explores a possible challenge to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Security beefed up at the federal courthouse in
Washington, and a bomb-sniffing dog was spotted in the hallway as Pence appeared in the court.
Trump, who announced earlier his bid for the White House in 2024, was recently indicted in a separate probe in New York over alleged hush payments to a porn star.
On Wednesday, according to CNN, Trump lost an appeal to block Pence from testifying in the special counsel probe.
Earlier this month, Pence disclosed that he wouldn’t appeal a judge’s ruling that required him to testify to the federal grand jury about conversations he had with Donald Trump leading up to the deadly attack on the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Special Counsel Jack Smith took over the investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, including the plot to submit phoney slates of electors to block Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
Ahead of the Capitol attacks 2021 by Trump supporters, the then-president repeatedly lambasted Pence for refusing to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s win in the 2020 election.
Trump also faces other legal hurdles, including a separate special counsel probe into his handling of classified documents and an investigation in Georgia related to alleged intrusion with the state’s 2020 election.
