Appeals court rejects Trump's attempt to bar Pence from testifying

April 27 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court late Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's latest attempt to prevent former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before a grand jury investigating the former president's actions to subvert the results of the 2020 general election.

The ruling by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., remains sealed by was reported on by POLITICO, CNN and The New York Times.

The unanimous decision means that Pence could testify as early as this week.

The former president has sought to bar his former vice president from speaking to the grand jury over conversations they had pertinent to the presidential election of 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump's supporters who were trying to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as the 46th president of the United States.

Pence was subpoenaed for testimony and to submit documents for the ongoing criminal investigation into Trump in February by Jack Smith, who was appointed in November to lead that investigation and a second into the former president's handling of classified records.

Since then, Trump has sought to keep Pence from the grand jury via litigation, arguing that his former second-in-command was protected by executive privilege, which a judge has ruled does not apply to his testimony. Pence had separately argued against testifying under the "speech or debate" clause of the Constitution, an argument that was also rejected.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Pence would not appeal the judge's order to testify.