In a filing made to the Colorado Supreme Court, lawyers for former President , President Joe Biden, Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, Trump valet Walt Nauta
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In a Monday court filing, Trump’s lawyers accused Pence of trying to “curry favor” with Smith’s team “by providing information that is consistent with the Biden Administration’s preferred, and false, narrative regarding this case,” Rolling Stone reported.
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Trump’s filing noted that the Justice Department closed its investigation into Pence’s handling of classified documents in June without filing any charges against him, implying, without evidence, that the former vice president’s testimony had factored into that decision.
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In the filing, Trump’s lawyers requested that Smith provide information into the decision not to charge Pence.
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Trump is charged with 40 felony counts for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, including 32 violations of the Espionage Act and eight charges alleging efforts to obstruct the investigation.
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Two Trump employees, Nauta and De Oliveira have also been charged with aiding the efforts to obstruct the recovery of the documents.
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Pence and President Joe Biden both cooperated fully with investigators seeking the return of other documents with classified markings.
Why it matters: Smith is likely to call Pence to the witness stand in the election interference case against Trump that is scheduled to begin on March 4, and the former president is attempting to discredit him beforehand.
What Pence told Smith’s team
Key players: former Vice President Mike Pence, special counsel Jack Smith, President Joe Biden
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In interviews with Smith’s team conducted earlier this year, Pence described the pressure Trump applied to persuade him to refuse to certify the Electoral College votes showing Biden had won the 2020 election, sources told ABC News.
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While Pence told Trump in December of 2020 that he saw no evidence that the election was “stolen,” he considered simply not showing up on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the results because doing so would be “too hurtful to my friend.”
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“Not feeling like I should attend electoral count,” Pence wrote in notes he wrote to himself obtained by ABC News. “Too many questions, too many doubts, too hurtful to my friend. Therefore I’m not going to participate in certification of election.”
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But Pence, who will almost certainly be called by Smith as a witness in the election subversion case against the former president, ultimately informed Trump that he would oversee the certification.
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“I told him I thought there was no idea more un-American than the idea that any one person could decide what electoral votes to count,” Pence allegedly told Smith’s team, according to sources. “I made it very plain to him that it was inconsistent with our history and tradition.”
Why it matters: Pence is the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration who will testify in the case. He will be able to describe firsthand conversations he had with Trump prior to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and the efforts to subvert the election results.
Judge denies Trump motion for Jan. 6 committee records
Key players: Judge Tanya Chutkan
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On Monday, Chutkan denied a motion filed in October by Trump’s lawyers that sought records from the House Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation and the issuance of subpoenas for some of its Democratic members and witnesses, BBC News reported.
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Trump’s request, Chutkan wrote, provided only a “vague description of their potential relevance” that the records and subpoenas would provide. She also noted that the transcripts of video interviews with witnesses had already been given to Trump’s lawyers.
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In their October motion, Trump’s lawyers said they sought “missing materials” relating to the 2020 election. But Chutkan called the request a “fishing expedition.”
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Trump is charged with four felony counts relating to his efforts to subvert the 2020 election results.
Why it matters: Trump is seeking to relitigate the handling of the 2020 election to try to show that he had good reason to contest his loss to Joe Biden. Seeking additional records and testimony could also drag the trial out past the 2024 election.
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Monday, Nov. 27
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In a Monday appeals court filing, lawyers for former President Donald Trump argue that hundreds of recent threats made against Judge Arthur Engoron and his law clerk do not justify keeping a gag order in place in the New York financial fraud trial of Trump, his adult sons and their family business. While Trump already faces 91 felony charges, he could yet see even more pending the results of ongoing state investigations in at least four states into the fake elector scheme to keep him in power. Here is the latest legal maneuvering in the criminal and civil cases facing the man seeking to become the next president.
New York financial fraud
Trump lawyers: Threats to judge and his clerk don’t justify gag order
Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron, clerk Allison Greenfield, New York Attorney General Letitia James
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On Monday, lawyers for Trump said in a court filing that threats made toward Engoron and Greenfield by Trump’s supporters did not justify keeping a gag order put in place by the judge of the financial fraud trial, CNN reported.
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“At base, the disturbing behavior engaged in by anonymous, third-party actors towards the judge and Principal Law Clerk publicly presiding over an extremely polarizing and high-profile trial merits appropriate security measures,” the filing stated. “However, it does not justify the wholesale abrogation of Petitioners’ First Amendment rights in a proceeding of immense stakes to Petitioners, which has been compromised by the introduction of partisan bias on the bench.”
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Engoron’s gag order, which the appeals court has paused until it issues a final ruling on the matter, was designed to prevent Trump from attacking the judge’s staff.
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Since the October start of the trial, Engoron and Greenfield have been deluged with threats that have been “serious and credible,” James’s office told the court, with hundreds coming in the past week alone.
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Engoron’s clerk receives dozens of messages each day on her personal cellphone, on social media platforms and at her personal email addresses, court papers filed by Engoron’s lawyers stated, about half of them expressing antisemitic views.
Why it matters: Trump has repeatedly criticized Engoron and Greenfield, which James has characterized as a form of intimidation that endangers their safety. Trump’s attorneys counter that leaving the gag order in place is a violation of the former president’s First Amendment rights.
Jan. 6 election interference
More states could file charges stemming from ‘fake elector’ plot to keep Trump in power
Key players: Pro-Trump lawyers John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still, Georgia GOP official Kathleen Latham, Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall
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State attorneys general in at least four states are continuing to investigate whether to bring charges stemming from the “fake elector” plot to keep Trump in power following his loss in the 2020 election, The Hill reported.
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Officials in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Pennsylvania are among those weighing whether to charge more people with crimes in the scheme pushed by Eastman for states to certify an alternate slate of electors to try to block Joe Biden’s victory.
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In Georgia, Eastman, Shafer, Still and Latham have all been charged with felonies stemming from those efforts. Chesebro, one of the architects of the fake elector plan, has already pleaded guilty and may yet face charges in other states, as have Ellis, Powell and Hall.
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In Michigan, 16 people who posed as “duly elected and qualified electors” are already facing charges.
Why it matters: Trump and his allies held meetings with officials in multiple states in their efforts to overturn his 2020 losses in key swing states. Already charged with 91 felonies heading into the 2024 Republican primary, he could yet be hit with even more.