Pence says he would consider giving evidence before January 6 panel

Former vice president Mike Pence says he would consider giving evidence before the House January 6 select committee if he were to receive an invitation to appear before the panel.

The former vice president, who became a target of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on the day Congress certified his and Donald Trump’s defeat at the hands of Joe Biden, was speaking at a “Politics and Eggs” breakfast event in New Hampshire on Wednesday when he was asked if he’d be willing to appear before the select committee.

“I would consider it,” he said.

Two of Mr Pence’s top aides, ex-counsel to the vice president Greg Jacob and his former chief of staff, Marc Short, have already given evidence in the select committee’s probe into the January 6 insurrection.

In June, Mr Jacob told the select committee that his office had determined that a plan floated by Trump ally John Eastman, under which Mr Pence would have unilaterally rejected electoral votes from swing states won by Mr Biden, had no valid basis in US law.

He added that Mr Pence’s own evaluation of the Trump plan led him to conclude that the framers of the US constitution “could not possibly have intended to empower the Vice President to reject duly ascertained electoral votes, or to unilaterally suspend the constitutionally mandated vote counting proceedings”.

Last month, select committee member Adam Kinzinger said the panel was considering requesting that Mr Pence provide testimony in written interrogatories, and committee members have been considering issuing either a request for a voluntary appearance or a subpoena for the former vice-president.

The select committee is set to resume holding public hearings when Congress reconvenes next month.