Multiple news reports revealed Monday that two top aids to former Vice President Mike Pence recently were subpoenaed and appeared before the federal grand jury probing the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Marc Short, who served as Pence’s chief of staff, “was caught by an ABC News camera departing DC District Court on Friday alongside his attorney, Emmet Flood,” the outlet reportedsharing a still from the footage and citing sources familiar with the matter.
While spokespeople for Short and the US attorney’s office declined to comment, sources also confirmed his appearance to short-pence-jan-6.html”The New York Times and department-questions-top-pence-aides-over-trump-bid-to-overturn-election-11658783628?st=ftbgmoyxg2ur50m&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink”The Wall Street Journal.
Journalists and others noted that Short is now the highest-ranking official from former President Donald Trump’s administration known to have cooperated with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation.
“This is movement in the right direction. Because #JusticeMatters” tweeted Glenn Kirschner, an MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst, about Short’s testimony, which reportedly lasted two to three hours.
Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said that “we don’t totally know what this means, but it’s clearly good news for accountability.”
In a series of tweets, Just Security‘s Ryan Goodman, a former Defense Department special counsel, laid out the potential significance of Short cooperating with the probe.
“Most importantly, Marc Short has significant testimony he could give that implicates Trump. Also importantly, he can give testimony that significantly implicates Mark Meadows,” Goodman said, referencing the former president’s White House chief of staff.
Greg Jacob, Pence’s top White House attorney, also recently appeared before the grand jury under subpoena, according to the Journal.
The newspaper noted that the DOJ recently added prosecutors and resources to the probe and suggested