Pence Must Testify to Jan. 6 Grand Jury, Judge Rules

A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to appear in front of a grand jury investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, sweeping aside two separate legal efforts by Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump to limit his testimony, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The rulings on Monday, by Judge James E. Boasberg in Federal District Court in Washington, were the latest setback to bids by Mr. Trump’s legal team to pare back the scope of the questions that prosecutors can ask witnesses close to him in two grand jury investigations.

This month, Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Boasberg’s predecessor as chief judge for the court, Beryl A. Howell, to limit Mr. Pence’s testimony by claiming that certain issues were off limits because of executive privilege, which protects communications between the president and some members of his administration.

At the same time, lawyers for Mr. Pence asked to limit his testimony by arguing that his role as the president of the Senate meant he was protected from legal scrutiny by the executive branch — including the Justice Department — under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. That provision is intended to protect the separation of powers.