Former Vice President Mike Pence last week openly rebuffed former President Donald Trump’s claims that Pence could overturn the results of the 2020 election. And while those words may have been welcomed by some and carefully selected by a speechwriter, a few remarks at a Federalist Society-backed event do not equate to full-blown cooperation with a congressional probe. 

Pence has not been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee—yet.

The body is reportedly considering whether it should even serve him with a subpoena as it has made progress in its investigation by targeting Pence’s staffers, many of whom were close to the vice president during the attack or were privy to conversations Trump had about strategies to delay or stop the certification of electoral votes. 

One such staffer subpoenaed by the committee was Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff. Short met with investigators for several hours behind closed doors last month. It was also reported that Greg Jacob, Pence’s general counsel, sat for the committee as well.

Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser, has cooperated too and provided some of the more disturbing details to emerge from the tightly guarded investigation. Those details included Kellogg’s testimony that Ivanka Trump was, as reported publicly months before, called upon multiple times to wrangle her father away from watching the riot on TV and do something to quell the violence. 

This weekend, Short moved out of the private hearing setting and took his show on the road, appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss Jan. 6 and the former vice president. 

Speaking to Chuck Todd, Short said from the time Pence was evacuated and moved from his suite on the Senate floor during the attack, he was concerned about the optics.

Pence did not want “the free world to see us fleeing the Capitol,” Short said.

But as the risk ratcheted up and a third warning from the vice president’s security detail was issued suggesting Pence could no longer be protected if he insisted on staying above ground, he was whisked away to a secure location in the Capitol basement.

Pence was given the option to leave in a motorcade, but Short said Pence refused that too.

Short’s claims are corroborated by U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Stephen James in a criminal affidavit he filed for prosecutors trying Jan. 6 defendant Couy Griffin’s case in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Griffin, leader of the militia group Cowboys for Trump, is facing two misdemeanors for breaching Capitol grounds, but he has been not charged with any violent crimes. 

According to James, on Jan. 6, 2021, Pence was finally forced to leave the Senate chamber during the riot at 2:26 PM. He appeared at a secure location inside the Capitol complex just two minutes later, James said. 

Pence remained there for several hours—four, to be exact—and took just two bathroom breaks. 

Griffin James Affidavit by Daily Kos on Scribd

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This detail about Pence’s whereabouts may seem rather innocuous on the surface, but it is critical for prosecutors trying defendants like Griffin and others who have made the argument in court that they cannot be charged with breaching any Special Service protected areas because Pence wasn’t technically in the building when they were. 

But Pence was in the Capitol for the duration of the attack. Attorneys for the U.S. government can use affidavits like the one provided by James to poke holes in the defense.

Notably, this affidavit was filed after Griffin requested that the government provide him with copies of official photos of Pence taken by a White House photographer during the assault. 

The photos show Mike Pence, second lady Karen Pence, and their daughter Charlotte Pence Bond—as well as a handful of Pence’s staffers—in a “barren garage without windows or furniture,” ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl wrote in his book Betrayal, last year. 

Karl tried to have the pictures published, but his request was denied by the photographer. Pence also refused to have the images released publicly. 

Griffin seized on those photos, saying that if he could review them and their timestamps, he could prove to prosecutors he was not in the building nor in a restricted area when Pence was, as has been suggested. 

The government balked at Griffin’s request last month, saying the photos were “not in the government’s possession” nor did they have any exculpatory value for Griffin’s defense anyway. 

The location of those photos has been presumed to be the National Archives since they were taken by an official photographer who would have to record them on departure. It has also been presumed that the government’s response to Griffin was not a blanket denial of their existence outright; rather, they are merely not held by prosecutors. 

For the sake of due diligence, Daily Kos filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Archives on Jan. 20 seeking copies of the Pence photographs, as well as any documentation memorializing that the Archives received the photos, and any documentation memorializing requests sent to the Archives by Pence or his agents seeking their removal from Archives’ possession. 

That FOIA request might soon be moot given that the Archives informed former President Donald Trump on Feb. 1 that it would finally begin to disclose vice presidential records to the Jan. 6 committee. The hand-off will be complete by March 3 unless stopped by a court order. 

Archivist Letter to Trump Feb 1, 2022 by Daily Kos on Scribd

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