Mike Pence likely to be hostile to Trump’s defense in election indictment – While former vice president Mike Pence has decided to drop out of the Republican presidential race, it doesn’t necessarily indicate a switch of support to his former boss, who has consistently led polls as the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination.
In fact, a legal expert said that Pence is likely to continue being antagonistic towards Trump – especially when it comes to the former chief executive’s federal indictment that accuses him of attempting to change the results of the 2020 presidential elections.
Mike Pence Could Do Hard to Donald Trump
Danny Cevallos, a legal expert, told MSNBC that the chances of Pence testifying against Trump is “high to almost a certainty” given that Pence has less to lose and is no longer worried about offending far-right Republicans who he previously attempted to sway towards supporting him.
“I don’t think there’s going to be much impediment to Mike Pence racing in to testify. He’s already provided evidence. There’s absolutely nothing holding him back now,” the attorney said.
Cevallos added that he feels that prosecutors are having a “great time” given all the information they have access to that are easily found in the public sphere – Pence has written an autobiography, “So Help Me God” that includes the former vice president’s own retelling of the events around the January 6 storming of the Capitol.
“You get out your highlighter and you mark out all the passages you want to use if that person (like Pence) is a viable witness,” Cevallos said of Pence’s autobiography and how useful it could be to the prosecution team of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who leads the federal indictment over the 2020 elections against Trump. “You call this ‘social media’, ‘books’, whatever – the government and prosecutors, they call it ‘evidence,’” he added.
If Pence is called to testify against Trump, it won’t be the first time he has done so. Many argue that the former vice president already “flipped” on his former commander-in-chief when he testified before a grand jury a few months back over January 6.
Even as he announced his withdrawal from the race against Trump, Pence was still throwing barbs at his former boss.
“I urge all my fellow Republicans here, give our country a Republican standard bearer that will, as Lincoln said, appeal to the better angels of our nature.” He then called on voters to choose leaders who practice “civility” – obviously throwing shade at Trump, who has a penchant for posting long rants on his social media platform, Truth Social, and has created derogatory monickers for people he deems to be enemies, regardless of party affiliation.
The road leading to Pence’s dropping out of the Republican presidential race has been filled with hurdles from beginning to end. Moderate Republicans expressed skepticism over him due to his close former ties to Trump and the far-right, while those with more extreme views in the GOP consider him a “traitor” over his refusal to give in to Donald Trump’s instructions that he overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election
Tim Ramos has written for various publications, corporations, and organizations – covering everything from finance, politics, travel, entertainment, and sports – in Asia and the U.S. for more than 10 years.
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