Mike Pence Confirms He Won’t Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee: ‘Congress Has No Right to My Testimony’

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he will not make himself available for testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Speaking to CBS News reporter Margaret Brennan, Pence said lawmakers are not entitled to hear directly from him, and if he offered testimony he would diminish the “separation of powers” by speaking to a “partisan” group of lawmakers.

During a sitdown with Brennan about his book, she asked Pence if his account of the events of Jan. 6 will be told to lawmakers investigating the riot.

“Do you intend to ever sit and answer questions – written, in person – for the January 6th committee?” she asked. “Do you believe, though, that the public deserves that? Is this interview it, is this book it, or will you answer questions about that day before Congress?”

Pence said his public recounting of the day will have to be sufficient.

“I shared my heart and I shared my story in this book,” Pence said. “We’ll continue to speak openly about it, I expect to some degree for the rest of my life. But from the time that January 6th was formed, and every member was appointed by the Democrat Speaker of the House, I was concerned.”

Brennan pressed Pence on the issue and noted some of his subordinates have offered testimony.

He responded:

I served for 12 years in the Congress. It’s inconceivable to me that one party would appoint every member of a committee in Congress. That’s antithetical to the whole idea of the committee system. that being said, I never stood in the way of senior members of my team cooperating with the committee and testifying.

But Congress has no right to my testimony. We have a separation of powers under the Constitution of the United States and I believe it would establish a terrible precedent for the Congress to summon a vice president of the United States to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House.

Brennan asked, “So you’re closing the door on that entirely?”

Pence responded, “I’m closing the door on that, but I must say again the partisan nature of the January 6th committee has been a disappointment to me.”

The former vice president was asked to voluntarily offer testimony to the committee earlier this year.

Watch above, via CBS News.