While aides to former Vice President Mike Pence have been broadly cooperating with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots, it seems there’s one topic they will not discuss.
CNN reports that the cooperating Pence aides are not divulging the contents of direct conversations they had with former President Donald Trump, as Trump’s lawyers have warned them that revealing such conversations could violate executive privilege.
In particular, the committee ran into this wall while interviewing Pence aides Marc Short and Greg Jacob, whom CNN describes as “crucial” witnesses to the pressure campaign to get Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
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“The parameters set in the interviews are the latest indication that Trump still seeks to keep secret his actions in the White House up to and on January 6, 2021 — and reveal some details about exactly how his legal team is trying to do that,” writes CNN. “Specifically, Trump’s team is invoking the presidential communications privilege that protects from disclosure communications with the president directly so that there can be candor in executive branch decision-making.”
Nonetheless, CNN’s sources say that the aides have been forthcoming when describing conversations they had with Pence, and overall have been much more willing to talk with the committee than many Trump loyalists.