Jack Smith – Page 7 – Deep Left Field

In a move that almost no one saw coming, former vice president Mike Pence announced today that he won’t appeal an order that he testify before a grand jury empaneled by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is looking into whether or not failed ex-president Donald Trump tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election.

NBC News reports:

The decision not to fight the order could provide special counsel Jack Smith with remarkable access to one of the key people with critical insight into Trump’s thinking and efforts to cling to power.

Robert Costa of CBS News noted that the move by Pence is not only historic, but it’s the worst possible development for Trump, who is facing indictment on federal charges related to the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“This Pence development today is significant and potentially historic. A former vice president is now willing, within certain specified constitutional grounds his lawyers fought to arrange, to testify about potential illegal acts by a president.”

“Trump’s lawyers might try to appeal Pence’s decision, but they keep losing efforts to assert exec. priv. with this grand jury. That means Pence could appear before Jan. 6 grand jury in the coming weeks to testify under oath about what exactly Trump did and said in private.”

“Think about what this means,” Costa said.

“The special counsel could now get a first-hand account of what Trump specifically said to Pence in Oval Office meetings ahead of Jan. 6, as long as Pence and his lawyers do not consider those conversations related to his specific constitutional role.”

(thread) This Pence development today is significant and potentially historic. A former vice president is now willing, within certain specified constitutional grounds his lawyers fought to arrange, to testify about potential illegal acts by a president. https://t.co/5Hl2bZBm4W
— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 5, 2023

Trump's lawyers might try to appeal Pence's decision, but they keep losing efforts to assert exec. priv. with this grand jury.

That means Pence could appear before Jan. 6 grand jury in the coming weeks to testify under oath about what exactly Trump did and said in private.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 5, 2023

Think about what this means. The special counsel could now get a first-hand account of what Trump specifically said to Pence in Oval Office meetings ahead of Jan. 6, as long as Pence and his lawyers do not consider those conversations related to his specific constitutional role.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 5, 2023

Mike Pence, to borrow a phrase, knows where the bodies are buried. He had access to the innermost workings of the Trump administration, including efforts to overturn the election and the Capitol insurrection.

In other words, whether he likes it or not, Mike Pence is potentially on the verge of sending Donald Trump to federal prison for a very long time.

According to one of Donald Trump’s former assistants, the failed ex-president was so cavalier with who saw classified documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago in violation of federal law that he would write to-do lists on those files and give them to her.

ABC News reported Monday that Molly Michael has spoken with investigators working for Special Counsel Jack Smith, and what she had to say was terrifying.

Michael told investigators that — more than once — she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials — with visible classification markings — used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international-related matters.

The notecards with classification markings were at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate when FBI agents searched the property on Aug. 8, 2022 — but the materials were not taken by the FBI, according to sources familiar with what Michael told investigators.

Michael will make one hell of a “killer witness” for Smith at trial, according to former federal prosecutor Harry Litman, who told MSNBC host Chris Jansing :

“This playing around with notecards shows he’s cavalier, shows he’s very Trumpian. But what you read, Chris, is the real punch line. Knowing that the FBI wants to interview her, he said you don’t know anything about the boxes. And by the way, we know that is clearly a lie. It sounds like it anyway because she takes a picture and gives it to him. So, he knows, and the picture is in the indictment.”

Michael, who is identified as “Employee 2” in the federal indictment, is pure gold as a witness, Litman continued.

“She’s going to be a killer witness here. No deal, no ax to grind. In fact, was loyal to Trump. Goes to Mar-a-Lago with him after, and then finally leaves when she knows he’s basically breaking the law and obstructing justice. She gives absolute killer evidence about his trying to keep more than the boxes he had given up already to the FBI, and that’s why the search ensued. Very, very powerful witness, she’s going to be.”

A big problem for Trump, Litman noted, is that so many of the witnesses who have been loyal to him so far and refused to cooperate with Smith are now looking at massive legal bills they simply cannot hope to pay.

“For example, Jenna Elis, saying why is he not paying our fees? That’s exactly the kind of posture that is dangerous for Trump because if you are in financially dire straits, that is one real reason you would go to the prosecution and try to cooperate. One quick additional point about Molly Michael, by the way. She is present when Trump makes the statement to Evan Corcoran, ‘What if we told [the FBI] nothing? Could we just pretend there is nothing there?’ So, to the extent, he tried to make that a credibility battle between Corcoran, she is there to break the tie in a very persuasive fashion.”