Marc Brief, 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, changing into the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration to take action to date, based on a number of reviews.
Brief, who served as Pence’s chief of employees for nearly two years, confirmed to ABC Information and CNN that he had testified earlier than a grand jury convened by the Division of Justice after he was served with a subpoena.
“I can affirm that I did obtain a subpoena for the federal grand jury, and I complied to that subpoena,” he informed CNN on Monday. “However below recommendation of counsel, I actually can’t say way more than that.”
It’s unclear what data Brief shared throughout his testimony, however his look is a big second within the Justice Division’s investigation into the occasions resulting in the assault on the Capitol. The New York Occasions added that one other high official, Greg Jacob, who was Brief’s counsel within the Trump White Home, additionally appeared earlier than the grand jury.
Brief 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 search out methods to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. Brief was within the Oval Workplace on Jan. 4, 2021, when Trump had lawyer John Eastman try to persuade Pence to delay the certification of the Electoral School 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 gained 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 may have solid their ballots for Trump as an alternative. Eastman and different attorneys concerned within the plan, together with Rudy Giuliani and the Justice Division’s Jeffrey Clark, have additionally been topic to investigation.
Brief 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 have been chanting, “Grasp Mike Pence.”
Brief has already cooperated with the Home choose committee that can also be investigating the occasions surrounding the Jan. 6 assault.
The Justice Division investigation has been largely below wraps in contrast with the Home inquiry and its public hearings, however the company in March was stated to have expanded its prison probe of the Jan. 6 assault to incorporate preparations for the rally that preceded the rebellion.
Different grand jury subpoenas have been issued to those that helped manage and plan the rally. Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland stated final week that the Justice Division would “maintain accountable each one who is criminally answerable for attempting to overturn a reputable election, and we should do it in a method full of integrity and professionalism.”
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