Trump Unloads on Pence for ‘Currying Favor’ With Jack Smith and Supporting ‘False Narrative’ in January 6 Criminal Case

The broadside leveled by President Trump against Vice President Pence in a court filing Monday evening could telegraph his concern that the former vice president could pose a major risk for the 45th president’s efforts to secure an acquittal in his criminal trial relating to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Citing the investigation into classified documents found at Mr. Pence’s residence, Mr. Trump alleges that potential criminal charges gave the Indianan “incentive to curry favor with authorities by providing information that is consistent with the Biden Administration’s preferred, and false, narrative regarding this case.”Mr. Trump was ultimately charged with violating the Espionage Act for his handling of sensitive materials, while the probe into Mr. Pence concluded without an indictment. Now, though, Mr. Trump has lodged a motion to compel the release of “evidence relating to unauthorized retention of classified documents” by Mr. Pence, suggesting that he plans an attack in the courtroom against his erstwhile running mate. Mr. Trump requests from Special Counsel Jack Smith what he calls “impeachment information bearing on Pence’s credibility and bias.” The former president’s attorneys appear to see Mr. Pence, who insisted on confining his role at the January 6, 2021, joint session of Congress — the one interrupted by a riot — to opening the certificates so they could be counted, as a linchpin of the government’s case against their client.The extent to which Mr. Pence is on the mind of those charged with winning a “not guilty” verdict for Mr. Trump can be discerned by the attempt of the former president to ding Mr. Pence’s credibility regarding his resistance to efforts by Mr. Trump and a coterie of advisers to have Mr. Pence refuse to certify Mr. Biden’s election victory. The key to deciphering this longshot motion could lie in what Mr. Pence has already told Mr. Smith.Mr. Pence, who wrote in his memoir, “So Help Me God,” of his resistance to Mr. Trump’s entreaties to intervene in the counting of the electoral results — the vice president now portrays himself as having loyally hewed to the 12th Amendment — has also told his tale to the special counsel. Now, ABC News reports on Mr. Pence’s “harrowing” closed-door testimony.The 48th vice president, who earlier this month ended his own bid for the White House, reportedly decried Mr. Trump’s “crank” attorneys who offered “un-American” legal theories that, in his estimation, drove America toward a “constitutional crisis.” A crucial moment at trial could be a Christmas Day phone call in which Mr. Pence allegedly told Mr. Trump, “You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome.”Grammarians, please take note. That line is described differently in “So Help Me God” than it is in Mr. Smith’s indictment. Crucially, in Mr. Pence’s book, there is a comma between “know” and “I.” That punctuation mark significantly changes the meaning of the sentence. According to Mr. Pence, he told Mr. Trump, “You know, I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome.” According to Mr. Smith, though, the vice president addressed the chief executive using the vocative case, saying declaratively: “You know I don’t think I have the authority.” Could that brief pause contribute to a long prison sentence for Mr. Trump? According to ABC News, Mr. Pence told Mr. Smith that the comma in the version in his own book was placed in error. Whether he indeed described the comma as erroneous, or if Mr. Smith’s acolytes made a misrepresentation in their background conversations with ABC News, will likely play out in court.Notwithstanding Mr. Pence’s reported assertion in respect of Mr. Trump that, “My only higher loyalty was to God and the Constitution,” the admission that he told the president that he could not, or thought that he could not, change the outcome weeks before the election could be catnip for a conviction. The Christmas conversation appears in Mr. Smith’s indictment as evidence that Mr. Trump knew the course of action he was urging was unlawful.It is not entirely clear, though, that Mr. Pence was always so certain that his hands were tied. Notes he allegedly provided to Mr. Smith indicate that Mr. Pence contemplated skipping the certification ceremony because he had “too many questions” and to preside over it would be “too hurtful to my friend,” Mr. Trump. Those doubts could be crucial to Mr. Trump’s contention that he was operating in a constitutional gray zone, not forbidden territory.In his memoir, Mr. Pence, a born-again evangelical Christian, relates that a week after January 6, he stopped by the Oval Office and told Mr. Trump that he was “never gonna stop praying” for the man who tapped him for the vice presidency. Mr. Pence may still be praying for Mr. Trump’s salvation, but he could soon also, from the witness stand, help send Mr. Trump to federal prison.

Trump Unloads on Pence for ‘Currying Favor’ With Jack Smith and Supporting ‘False Narrative’ in January 6 Criminal Case

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