Mike Pence Will Be 'Killer Witness' Against Donald Trump—Attorney

Mike Pence is likely to be a "killer witness" against Donald Trump when the former president goes on trial over claims he broke the law trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome, according to law professor and former U.S. attorney Harry Litman.

The comments came after ABC News published details of what it claimed were conversations earlier this year between Pence, the ex-vice president, and special counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Trump regarding his actions after the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Trump has since been indicted in both cases, though he has pled not guilty to all charges and insists the allegations against him are politically motivated.

According to ABC News, Pence told Smith that Trump had surrounded himself with "crank" attorneys following the 2020 election who pushed "un-American" legal theories that risked causing a "constitutional crisis."

Pence also said he's sure he told Trump he hadn't seen evidence of widespread election fraud before January 6, 2021, when angry rioters stormed Congress in a bid to stop Joe Biden's presidential win from being certified.

The broadcaster also reported Smith's team has accessed notes written by Pence before the January 6 riot, including one where he briefly decided not to attend the proceedings because there were "too many questions" and his attendance would be "too hurtful to my friend," in apparent reference to Trump. However, he later decided he had a duty to attend with his son, a serving Marine telling him: "Dad, you took the same oath I took" to defend the constitution.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Litman explained why he thinks Pence's testimony could be crucial.

He said: "A few points about the revelations from Mike Pence today: 1) he's going to be a killer witness against Trump -- the Boy Scout VP saying he told him repeatedly well before 1/6 that there was no fraud and Trump at one point seemed to acknowledge that he knew;

"2) he strongly undermines Trump's advice of counsel defense. He testifies that Trump ignored Team Norman and brought in Team Crazy (actually brought in 'crackpot' lawyers, in a rare instance of colorful Pence prose). But law is that you can't shop for lawyers until you get the advice you're looking for. And you have to turn over all the advice you got from others.

"3) glass half-empty, but in one respect we came a lot closer to constitutional disaster than we knew. Pence decided not to participate in 1/6 b/c it would "hurt his friend." His son had to remind him of his oath. If Pence had been AWOL on 1/6, as he had decided to be, and Grassley were presiding, who knows what might have happened with things already so irregular and chaotic?"

Senator Chuck Grassley was president pro tem of the Senate, the second-highest official in the upper chamber of Congress after the vice president.

Newsweek has reached out to Mike Pence and Donald Trump for comment via email and an online press inquiry form, respectively.

Trump is continuing to insist the 2020 election was rigged against him, despite the claim having been rejected repeatedly in court and by independent legal experts.

Trump is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, with a poll published last month listing him as the preferred candidate of 54 percent of GOP voters, versus just 13 percent for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in second place. Pence was also a candidate, but suspended his campaign at the end of October.