Former Vice President Mike Pence told Breitbart News he will fight back against special counsel Jack Smith’s “unconstitutional and unprecedented” subpoena of him.
Pence, in an interview before he hit the road in Iowa to promote his new effort to protect parental rights, said that the subpoena that the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump had issued to him does not pass legal and constitutional muster.
“The special counsel subpoena for me, as a former vice president, to appear before the Grand Jury is unconstitutional and unprecedented,” Pence told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview. “I’m going to fight the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) on this. I will tell you that I hope as people reflect on my career they will recognize my commitment is to the Constitution of the United States.”
Pence explained that he believes this subpoena violates the U.S. Constitution’s Speech and Debate Clause as it would compel him to testify about his role as president of the U.S. Senate — a role that the vice president of the United States also plays. He said his position is one that the Department of Justice has taken at least twice in the past two years during Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration about him in particular as well raising questions about why the Department of Justice is now being inconsistent in this regard.
Prosecutor Jack Smith listens as Hashim Thaci, not pictured, makes his first courtroom appearance before a judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers court in The Hague, Netherlands, November 9, 2020. (Jerry Lampen/Pool Photo via AP)
“I stood by the express language of the Constitution on January 6 and ensured the peaceful transfer of power and on this matter we’re going to stand firmly on the Separation of Powers and the Speech and Debate Clause that is enshrined in the Constitution,” Pence said. “The Executive Branch may not compel anyone in their legislative duties to appear as the Constitution says ‘in any other place.’ The DOJ knows that. In fact, the DOJ took the position that in my role as President of the Senate that I enjoyed the absolute legal immunity under the Speech and Debate Clause in two separate cases in the last two years but now it seems like we’ve run into that two-tiered system of justice that conservatives have grown accustomed to from Biden’s DOJ. Despite the fact that the DOJ took the position that the Speech and Debate Clause applied to me in my role as the President of the Senate twice in the past two years, now they have issued a subpoena to compel me to testify. So, we’re going to fight it on constitutional grounds.”
Pence said he believes the Department’s inconsistency fits with a pattern of leftist weaponization of the government against conservatives under the Biden administration.
“But this is really nothing new. Conservatives have seen parents targeted for attending school board meetings and now very recently we’ve seen conservative Catholics described as a threat at the Department of Justice,” Pence said. “It’s a two-tiered system of justice that I think is very offensive. What I did on Jan. 6 was stand on the Constitution, and on this too I’m determined to stand for the Constitution and the protection of the Separation of Powers enshrined there. I will oppose the subpoena. I will not willingly diminish the privileges of the office in which I served for any future Vice President, Democrat or Republican. We will stand our ground.”
Pence said he believes that conservatives are not being treated equally under the law. He added that he is not afraid to speak up about Jan. 6, 2021—as he has done repeatedly—but that this subpoena would run afoul of the Constitution’s separation of powers.
“I have to tell you equal treatment under the law is the expectation of every American,” Pence said. “Under the last two years under the Biden administration, conservatives have grown accustomed to unequal treatment under the law. Enough is enough. My conviction in this instance is not driven in any way by hesitation to talk about the events of Jan. 6. I have nothing to hide. I’m proud of what we did. It was a tragic day for our nation in the capital. Thanks to law enforcement, we quelled the violence and quickly reconvened and finished our work. I’ve written and spoken very openly about that the last two years. I believe we did our duty, by God’s Grace and under the Constitution, to see to the peaceful transfer of power. I’ve spoken very plainly about how I believe President Trump’s words that day were reckless. I’ve said President Trump was wrong and I had no right to overturn the election. This is not about the facts. This is about the Constitution. I’ll continue to speak very openly and plainly and write very openly about my experiences that day in January 2021, but I will not do is abandon the principles enshrined in the Constitution of the United States in this or any other way.”
Pence also said he welcomes the creation by the new House GOP majority of the Weaponization committee to investigate wrongdoing by the Department of Justice and FBI and other agencies and departments engaged in targeting of conservatives.
“I welcome the creation of the Committee on Weaponization at the Department of Justice because we’ve been witnessing it,” Pence said. “There was a recent story this week about the collusion between the Department of Justice and Big Tech to suppress the free speech rights of conservative Americans. It’s deeply troubling to me. I scarcely need to refer to the misdeeds of FBI agents during the Trump-Pence administration where people falsified documents to obtain search warrants and engaged in political activity in ways that really dishonored the long tradition of so many men and women in the FBI and Department of Justice. I really do think that whether it be this case or any other case that we just got to push back, we got to take a stand. What I’m going to try to convey to people is that the subpoena that was issued to me last week is directly contrary to what the Department of Justice said in two cases regarding me in the last two years. It seems like once again there is a two-tiered justice system and a willingness by Biden’s DOJ to use legal authority against conservatives in whatever way they see fit. I’m going to stand on the Constitution. George Washington has said the Constitution is the guide I will never abandon and that’s the great aspiration of my life.”