Former President Donald Trump has filed a motion in federal court to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying to a grand jury investigating election crimes about certain matters he claims are “privileged.”

CNN reporting teams have been breaking scoop after scoop on the Justice Department probes into Trump’s mishandling of classified information under the Espionage Act and his conduct surrounding the January 6 insurrection, which are now being headed by special counsel Jack Smith.

The latest scoop comes from Paula Reid, Kaitlan Collins, Jamie Gangel, Zachary Cohen, and Tierney Sneed. With several investigations closing in, Trump is seeking to muzzle Pence to the grand jury in DC:

Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal court to block former Vice President Mike Pence from speaking to a grand jury about certain matters covered by executive privilege as part of the criminal investigation into efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss, sources familiar with the move told CNN.

The request, in a new filing submitted secretly in a sealed proceeding on Friday, comes after the Trump team had already indicated to special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into Trump, that the former president intended to assert privilege over Pence’s testimony.

The DOJ had previously asked a judge to compel Pence’s appearance before the grand jury, CNN reported last week.

The former VP has already stated numerous times that he intends to block any effort to compel his testimony, telling NBC News:

Subpoenaing a former vice president to testify in court against the president with whom they served, I believe is unprecedented in American history. But as I said last week, I believe it’s also unconstitutional. And we’ll make that case through the ordinary judicial processes, but my counsel informs me that I’m, I’m constrained from speaking about it any further, but I stand by what I said. And I will continue to.

Pence has challenged the special counsel’s subpoena based on the U.S. Constitution’s “speech and debate” clause.

The post BREAKING: Trump Demands Federal Court BLOCK Pence Testimony In Criminal Grand Jury first appeared on Mediaite.

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