Donald Trump’s defense lawyer Jesse Binnall floated the notion that when — and very much if — former Vice President Mike Pence testifies in a United States v. Donald J. Trump trial, Trump’s side will own Pence’s testimony as what the former Vice President “has said time and time again, it actually supports Donald Trump.”
Binnall characterizes the problem between Trump and Pence — and the latter’s refusal to invalidate the 2020 election results — as a mere procedural misunderstanding, with Pence reasonably believing Congress had a role to play that the Vice President couldn’t unilaterally and lawfully supersede.
“The American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn’t just ask me to pause. They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election.” – Mike Pence on Fox last week https://t.co/uPF99W2FkF
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 8, 2023
Binnall’s claim that Pence’s testimony would ultimately help Trump’s case has its roots in Pence’s extremely careful post-election tightrope walk, wherein he has been largely reluctant to accuse the former President of unlawful conduct and willing to tacitly support the MAGA line that Trump is a victim of bias at a “weaponized” DOJ.
But Binnall’s claim also comes on the heels of Pence’s recent timid turnabout, trying out a new position as a GOP presidential candidate himself and saying on FOX News: “The American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn’t just ask me to pause. They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election.”
Yet Binnall implies that Pence’s admission that Trump’s lawyers came to him with the request (“they came back, his lawyers did”) essentially moves Trump out of harm’s way — because “everything that President Trump did was under the advice of counsel.”
That’s the part of Pence’s potential testimony that the Trump team says it will own, putting Mike Pence on Trump’s side whether it is his intention to be there or not.
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