Chairperson of the January 6 committee, Bennie Thompson, said on Monday that it is not necessary for the panel to issue a subpoena for former Vice President Mike Pence’s testimony, CBS reported. 

Thompson clarified that the committee had enough information to deem Pence’s testimony unnecessary. The Mississippi Democratic candidate also told CBS, “There’s no effort on the part of the committee to get him to come in. If he wants to come, we initially thought it would be important. But … we know the people who tried to get him to change his mind, about the count and all of that. So what is it we need?” 

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Despite Thompson’s downplaying of the Pence interview, the committee has not completely ruled out its need, as per CNN. A committee spokesperson noted, “Nothing is off the table”. 

Further, CNN reported that Pence hasn’t been formally informed by the Jan 6 panel that his testimony won’t be needed. Initially, it was Thompson’s idea to have Pence come in and shed light on the events that led to Donald Trump supporters storming the Capitol on January 6. At the time, he’d said, “I would hope that he would do the right thing and come forward and voluntarily talk to the committee”. 

Pence has not shown an interest in appearing before the Jan 6 committee himself but has not prevented any of his top deputies from appearing for depositions. These include chief of staff Marc Short, his chief counsel Greg Jacob and his national security adviser Keith Kellogg. 

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The former Vice President has been repeatedly accused by Trump of not doing all in his power to overturn the election where the former president lost to Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate. Pence oversaw the counting of electoral ballots and though Trump believes his second in command had the power to overturn the results, the 12th Amendment of the Constitution says that the VP, as the president of the Senate can count votes and announce the winner but cannot reject or change votes. 

However, neither Trump nor his supporters believed this at the time, with accounts of attackers chanting “Hang Mike Pence” having surfaced from that fateful day.