Former Vice President Mike Pence has been approached by, and is potentially open to speaking with, Justice Department investigators probing efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
While Pence has not been subpoenaed, the Times' Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt report that he was approached by DOJ investigator Thomas Windom, and is actively considering giving witness testimony about former President Donald Trump's alleged efforts to subvert and overturn his 2020 electoral loss. Pence has rejected similar overtures to participate in Congress' separate investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but allegedly sees the Justice Department's criminal investigation as a potentially more palatable alternative.
Haberman and Schmidt's report comes days after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of longtime former DOJ prosecutor Jack Smith as a special counsel overseeing both the department's 2020 election inquiry and its investigation into Trump's mishandling of classified information at his Mar-a-Lago estate. According to the Times, Windom approached Pence about potential testimony several weeks before Smith was appointed.
Both Pence and the Justice Department declined to comment on the report.
Pence is in the process of expanding his political staff as he considers a potential 2024 presidential run of his own. He has also spent his fall promoting his book So Help Me God, in which he defends much of his tenure in the Trump administration, while wryly noting it "did not end well."