AP Photo/Marta Lavandier
- Former VP Mike Pence was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice on Thursday, per ABC News and CNN.
- DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is focused on Trump investigations, sent the notice, per reports.
- CNN reported that the subpoena was tied to the DOJ's investigation into the January 6 insurrection.
Former Vice President Mike Pence was subpoenaed on Thursday by the special counsel who is leading investigations into former President Donald Trump, according to multiple reports.
According to ABC News, which cited multiple unnamed sources, Pence was subpoenaed after negotiations between federal officials and his legal team.
Jack Smith, the DOJ's special counsel, has been leading investigations into Trump since November 2022, when Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned him to lead probes into attempts to overturn the 2020 election and Trump's mishandling of classified documents.
CNN reported that the subpoena was tied to the DOJ's investigation into the January 6, 2021, insurrection, citing an unnamed source, and that prosecutors are seeking testimony and documents linked to the day from Pence.
The New York Times also reported that the subpoena is related to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, citing a source familiar with the matter.
In the lead-up to the insurrection, Trump and his allies were pressuring Pence to unilaterally reject electors for President Joe Biden. A memo provided to Insider by former Trump lawyer John Eastman outlined a plan whereby Pence could either refuse to accept electors from states such as Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, or throw the election to the House of Representatives, where Republicans would have been able to throw the election to Trump.
Pence famously refused to go along with the Trump-Eastman plan, which Kermit Roosevelt, a constitutional law expert at the University of Pennsylvania, had described as a "proposed coup cloaked in legal language." The State Bar of California is now seeking to have Eastman disbarred.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Pence's lawyer nor his spokesperson immediately returned Insider's requests for comment.