Marc Short, a high aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, testified in entrance of a federal grand jury final week investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, rebellion on the U.S. Capitol, turning into the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration to take action up to now, in keeping with a number of experiences.
Short, who served as Pence’s chief of employees for nearly two years, confirmed to ABC News and CNN that he had testified earlier than a grand jury convened by the Department of Justice after he was served with a subpoena.
“I can confirm that I did receive a subpoena for the federal grand jury, and I complied to that subpoena,” he informed CNN on Monday. “But under advice of counsel, I really can’t say much more than that.”
It’s unclear what info Short shared throughout his testimony, however his look is a big second within the Justice Department’s investigation into the occasions resulting in the assault on the Capitol. The New York Times added that one other high official, Greg Jacob, who was Short’s counsel within the Trump White House, additionally appeared earlier than the grand jury.
Drew Angerer by way of Getty Images
Short was a key witness to the chaotic last days of the Trump administration as Donald Trump tried to stay in energy, pressuring these round him to seek out methods to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. Short was within the Oval Office on Jan. 4, 2021, when Trump had lawyer John Eastman try and persuade Pence to delay the certification of the Electoral College vote. That plan concerned the vice chairman making false assertions that there have been points with electoral votes that had been licensed for Joe Biden, who received the 2020 race. (Pence declined to go together with the plan.)
Prosecutors in a number of investigations have homed in on schemes to create a false slate of electors that might have solid their ballots for Trump as a substitute. Eastman and different legal professionals concerned within the plan, together with Rudy Giuliani and the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Clark, have additionally been topic to investigation.
Short was additionally within the Capitol with Pence on Jan. 6 because the vice chairman was compelled to flee from pro-Trump rioters who stormed the constructing, a few of whom had been chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.”
Short has already cooperated with the House choose committee that can be investigating the occasions surrounding the Jan. 6 assault.
The Justice Department investigation has been largely below wraps in contrast with the House inquiry and its public hearings, however the company in March was said to have expanded its criminal probe of the Jan. 6 assault to incorporate preparations for the rally that preceded the rebellion.
Other grand jury subpoenas have been issued to those that helped arrange and plan the rally. Attorney General Merrick Garland mentioned final week that the Justice Department would “hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism.”
