Marc Short, who was Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, testified last week before a federal grand jury in Washington investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the highest-ranking official of the Trump administration that is known so far. cooperated with the Department of Justice’s expanding investigation into the events leading up to the assault.
Mr. Short, who was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors, spent two to three hours before the grand jury on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter. His grand jury appearance was first reported by ABC News.
The appearance of Mr. Short was the latest indication that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the events surrounding and leading up to the Jan. 6 shootings is intensifying amid growing questions about the urgency the department has placed in examining the possible criminal liability of Mr. trump
It is not yet clear what Mr. Short to the grand jury or what questions prosecutors asked him. But he previously gave a taped and transcribed interview to a House select committee in which he described Mr. Trump to pressure Mr. Pence to interrupt the normal Electoral College vote count on Jan. 6 as part of an effort to keep Trump. in office.
Mr. Short also informed the top Secret Service agent of Mr. Pence on January 5, 2021 that Mr. Trump was about to publicly confront Mr. Pence, which could create a security risk. On the day of the attack on the Capitol, some in the crowd of Trump supporters storming the Capitol chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” Mr. Trump reacted approvingly to the chants, effectively saying that Mr. Pence deserved it, according to testimony gathered by the House committee.
The appearance of Mr. Short to the grand jury is the first time it is publicly known that a figure with first-hand knowledge of what happened in the White House during the tumultuous days leading up to Jan. 6 has cooperated with federal prosecutors.
So far, the only other pro-Trump figure — aside from the rioters on the floor of the Capitol — to testify before a grand jury investigating the events of Jan. 6 was the prominent organizer of “Stop the Steal” . Ali Alexander
Several people connected to a scheme to create false electoral rolls that claimed Mr. Trump won the 2020 election in swing states that were actually won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. have received grand jury subpoenas seeking information about the plan.
The Justice Department has also seized electronic devices from two lawyers connected to the so-called bogus voter scheme: John Eastman, an outside adviser to Mr. Trump who helped create and promote the idea, and Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who helped draft a letter to Georgia state officials falsely claiming the department had evidence of voter fraud in the state .