Special counsel Jack Smith was hands on with Mike Pence testimony

Last Friday, Mike Pence appeared before a federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Pence reportedly testified for over five hours, with particular attention given to conversations between Pence and Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to the insurrection on Jan. 6.

Now CNN is reporting that Pence didn’t just talk to the grand jury and the attorneys usually assigned to ask questions of witnesses. Special counsel Jack Smith was present throughout Pence’s testimony. Smith didn’t join the hearing to listen, but reportedly interacted with Pence directly, though it's not clear if that means that the special counsel got involved in Pence’s questioning. What is clear is that Smith thought Pence’s testimony highly important. According to CNN, this is the first time he appeared at the federal courthouse to hear testimony.

Meanwhile, as Smith was personally dealing with one of the two tasks the special counsel was given by Attorney General Merrick Garland, members of his staff were reportedly focusing on the other half of his twin bill: The documents Trump took to Mar-a-Lago and refused to return despite multiple attempts. CBS reports that those investigators are taking a closer look at security camera footage showing boxes of documents being moved around both before and after investigators visited Trump in an attempt to retrieve the documents.