Pence on Trump indictment: He put 'himself over the Constitution'

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence said his two-time running mate, and now political competitor, should never be president again after the Justice Department unsealed a criminal indictment Tuesday against former President Donald Trump.

The four-count indictment accuses Trump and six unnamed co-conspirators of defrauding the United States and conspiring to obstruct the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. The indictment focuses heavily on a plan developed after the 2020 election to submit fraudulent slates of electors from seven states – which Pence, had he been wiling to go along, would then have accepted in lieu of the electors certified by those states’ governors.

“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the Untied States,” Pence wrote on his official Twitter account.

Trump also responded to the indictment Tuesday on his social media platform Truth Social by attacking Special Counsel Jack Smith and the prosecution as politically motivated.

"Why didn't they bring this ridiculous case 2.5 years ago?" Trump wrote. "They wanted it right in the middle of my campaign, that's why!"

Pence, his wife Karen and daughter Charlotte were evacuated from the Senate Chamber on Jan. 6 after pro-Trump rioters breached the building and caused the joint session of Congress to be halted. The Pences sheltered in place for hours in an underground parking garage in the Capitol while rioters marched through the building – some shouting “Hang Mike Pence!” One rioter who made it onto the floor of the Senate Chamber, Jacob Chansley, left Pence a menacing note reading, “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

Despite being targeted by the former president’s supporters, Pence had initially been reluctant to criticize his former running mate. During a dinner hosted by a New Hampshire county republican committee in June 2021, Pence said he and Trump might not “ever see eye-to-eye” about Jan. 6. In February 2022, speaking at a meeting of the conservative Federalist Society, Pence said Trump was “wrong” about his ability to reject electoral votes on Jan. 6.

Prior to Trump’s indictment, some of Pence’s sharpest words about the events of Jan. 6 came in his memoir, “So Help Me God,” in which he wrote Trump had “endangered my family” and those serving in the Capitol. He repeated that phrase in March during a speech at the annual Gridiron Dinner in D.C.

Pence officially declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president last month – pitting him against a field of hopefuls led by his former boss. In a speech in Iowa announcing his candidacy, Pence said Trump had asked him to “choose between him and the Constitution” on Jan. 6. He echoed that on Tuesday after the indictment against Trump was unsealed.

“Our country is more important than one man,” Pence wrote. “Our constitution is more important than any one man’s career.”

Pence testified in April before the D.C. grand jury investigating the events of Jan. 6 and efforts to overturn the 2020 election after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s effort to block him from appearing. Should the case go to trial, the government could seek to call Pence as a key witness – particularly as to what transpired in private conversations between the two men before and on Jan. 6.

Trump was scheduled to make his initial appearance in D.C. District Court on Thursday afternoon. He faces four felony counts, including a charge for obstruction of an official proceeding prosecutors have used to bring cases against hundreds of defendants in connection with the Capitol riot.