The Secret Service agent testified for almost an hour, explaining how he and his partner had dismembered and decapitated the child with a reciprocating saw, then burned the bagged body parts in a ditch they had dug in George Washington National Forest. They had even taken a hammer to the kid’s teeth. Before that, the agent said, they had sanitized the hotel room, seized security camera footage, and ensured staff understood that Pence had never set foot on the premises.
Admiral Lia Reynolds stared disdainfully. “Agent Smith, was that the only time you witnessed the defendant murder a child or helped him dispose of remains?”
“Ma’am, only that once, but it’s no secret in the Secret Service and intelligence community that Michael Pence molested and disappeared children back when he was governor of Indiana. He’s a habitual offend—I’m not excusing what I did—”
Agent Smith seemed visibly nervous. “—He, Pence, strongly encouraged us to get short-term memory loss and forget that day happened.”
“And until today, you never came forward?” the Admiral said.
Nodding gravely, Agent Smith said, “That’s correct.”
“Were we to investigate every alleged crime, we’d be here forever,” Adm. Reynolds said. “Agent Smith, do you know if the President had the slightest inkling what the defendant was up to behind closed doors?”
“Not to my knowledge, ma’am. I can say that with authority, President Trump hated Pence long before J6. He never trusted him. Pence was never Trump’s choice as VP; the President’s son-in-law and others pushed hard for Pence,” Agent Smith said.
Pence was suddenly full of vigor. “Untrue,” he said, smiling. “President Trump loved me until I told him I wouldn’t betray my constitutional oath.”
“The defendant will remain silent,” the Admiral said sternly. “Agent Smith, let’s return to the time at the hotel. You say you and your partner—who seems to have gone off the grid, as they say—chopped up and cremated the body. Do you know if the defendant took any trophies—like serial killers do?”
“Not that I observed, ma’am,” he replied.
“We appreciate your testimony, but now I have some unfortunate news: You’re not leaving GITMO. MPs, please escort the witness to a comfortable cell.”
Pence laughed. “That’s what you get for being a snitch.”
Agent Smith leaped from his seat. “What? I thought we agreed on immunity.”
“There’s no immunity for what you’ve done,” Admiral Reynolds said.
Two MPs drew and aimed sidearms at Agent Smith, then cuffed him and escorted him out of the courtroom.
Addressing the panelists, Adm. Reynolds said, “The Office of Military Commissions reserves the right to revoke immunity agreements in certain situations, this being one of them.”
She showed them a sealed evidence bag. Inside were six small thumbnails that JAG had found behind an air vent in Pence’s Carmel, California, home a day after he was arrested.
She called another witness: Dr. Raymond Pedroza, a Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay pathologist.
“Dr. Pedroza, what can you tell us about the nails?”
Pedroza was a diminutive guy, about five-foot-five and 58 years old, with matted salt-and-pepper hair. “They were removed, probably with pliers, from the left hand of six separate people, probably boys between 11-16 years old.”
“Dr. Pedroza, could you determine when this happened or whether the children were alive then?”
“Impossible to pinpoint. Fingernails are made of keratin. Depending on conditions, it can take 5-40 years to decompose. Even longer if preserved. Mummies found in Egyptian tombs still had nails intact. In my professional judgment, the nails I examined were pulled out, say, no more than seven years ago,” Dr. Pedroza said.
“Did your office perform DNA tests?” asked the Admiral.
“We did, but it was futile. No matches, and why would there be on young children,” Dr. Pedroza replied.
The Admiral produced a second evidence pouch, this one containing a skeletal index finger, also unearthed from Pence’s California residence.
“Have you examined this, Dr. Pedroza?” the Admiral asked.
“That, too, yes. Index finger severed from the hand of a boy between 9-12 years old. The degree of decomposition shows it was severed from the hand approximately a decade ago. Again, no DNA match,” the doctor said.
“The defendant sure enjoys some morbid extracurricular activities,” the Admiral said. “You’re excused, Dr. Pedroza.”
I will post the conclusion ASAP.
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