CNN Justice Reporter Torpedoes Trump’s Chances Of Silencing Pence In Jan 6 Criminal Probe: ‘He Just Keeps Losing’

CNN Senior Crime and Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz shot down ex-President Donald Trump’s chances of silencing ex-VP Mike Pence on appeal, noting a string of losses and precedents stacked against him.

After strenuous efforts to get out of testifying against Trump, former VP Pence decided not to appeal a judge’s decision ordering him to testify with a very limited shield of privilege in the Special Counsel Jack Smith-led Justice Department probes into Trump’s conduct surrounding the January 6 insurrection. But on Monday, news broke that Trump is appealing that ruling.

On Tuesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, co-anchor Don Lemon asked Polantz to weigh in on Trump’s “longshot appeal,” and Polantz gave him a litany of reasons for Trump to be pessimistic, including his record of losing such appeals and historical precedent, among others:

DON LEMON:  Another appeal to keep someone quiet. Any chance this one works?

KATELYN POLANTZ: I don’t think so, although you never know with the courts. But at this point in time, this is the fourth time that Donald Trump has tried to close off some level of testimony from one of the witnesses in the January 6th criminal investigation that’s been being conducted out of Washington by the special counsel’s office.

This isn’t just any witness, though. This is Mike Pence, his former vice president. And so Pence is being subpoenaed to the grand jury. We know that there has already been one judge that said you have to go in and testify. Donald Trump is not going to be able to protect his presidential communications directly with Mike Pence from the criminal investigation.

And that follows several losses that Trump has had, both at the trial level and at the appeals court level. He tried to cut off answers from others in the vice president’s office, Two of his top advisors, White House counsel, lawyers, top aides, even Cabinet officials. He just keeps losing every time he goes to the appeals court. And so we do have the expectation that this would be very much in line with that.

And also, remember, Mike Pence said he’s already willing to comply with this subpoena. He’s already willing to testify under the judge’s ruling. So far, he’s not appealing anything because he’s actually happy with what has happened in this case. Pence is is pretty pleased that he earned some protections around the vice presidency that members of Congress also have, even if he has to show up and talk about conversations where Donald Trump may have been acting corruptly.

KAITLAN COLLINS: And Katelyn, if Pence does go forward and ends up testifying to them, obviously it would be incredibly significant. But we’ve seen so many other former top White House aides who have had to go before the grand jury because they’ve lost similar appeals to the one that was just filed.

KATELYN POLANTZ: That’s right. And what’s so, I was looking back into the law and the history on this. And this is actually not that unusual of a situation to happen in a criminal investigation.

50 years ago. In the Watergate cases, there basically were judge’s rulings saying, no, the executive branch, the president can’t cut out things from a criminal investigation, can’t protect presidential secrecy when there is a grand jury need that outweighs it. That held up through the Clinton years, through the Clinton administration.

And actually, it was very unusual for presidents to even try and claim that they wanted to protect presidential communications like this. And so what Donald Trump is doing is the unusual thing.

What the criminal investigators are doing here is pretty much in line with what they’ve been able to do historically. And they will be getting answers. Not just from Mike Pence, but for many of the witnesses where Donald Trump is trying to protect from his administration.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Yeah, we’ll see what the court decides.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.