WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – A congressional congressional commission investigating last year’s deadly attack on the US Capitol drew attention Thursday to then-President Donald Trump’s attempts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to undo his defeat. 2020
The House Election Commission has scheduled a hearing for 13:00 EDT (17:00 GMT), reviewing efforts by Trump and some of his aides to persuade Pence to prevent Congress from officially certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November presidential election. 2020
Thousands of Trump supporters – many chanting “Hang Mike Pence” – marched through the Capitol on January 6, 2021, while Pence watched a session where lawmakers met on what is usually a routine procedure for verifying election results. Some erected a makeshift gallows that said it was intended for Pence.
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The certification became a focus for Trump, who saw it as his last chance to retain the presidency despite losing the election. His supporters flocked to Washington to reunite with Trump, who had repeatedly made false allegations that the election had been stolen through widespread voting fraud. They stormed the Capitol, attacked police and sent Pence and MPs to flee for their safety.
Trump’s responsibility for the January 6 uprising is “accidental to his accountability and accountability for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American people,” retired U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J.W. Michael Lutig, according to written testimony from CNN. Read more
“It is breathtaking that these arguments were even thought out, let alone amused by the President of the United States at that dangerous time in history,” said Lutig, Pence’s informal adviser.
If Pence obeyed, according to Lutig’s testimony, the country would be plunged into a “revolution in the midst of a paralyzing constitutional crisis.”
Thursday’s hearing will include testimony from Greg Jacob, who serves as Pence’s adviser. Video testimony of former Pence chief of staff Mark Short is also expected to be shown.
The hearing is the third of at least six public hearings scheduled for this month, in which the nine-member Democrat-led committee will discuss preliminary results from its nearly year-long investigation into the events leading up to the January 6 attack.
Aides to the commission said the hearing would consider the emergence of a plan advocated by Trump aides, including attorney John Eastman, that Pence could unilaterally reject certified voters from certain states where the results have been challenged. Pence refused to accept this theory.
In February this year, Pence said Trump, with whom he had been vice president for four years, was wrong to believe that Pence had the power to reverse the election.
“I had no right to cancel the election,” Pence told a public in Florida.
The hearing will look at Trump’s Pence pressure campaign, commission officials said on condition of anonymity. They promised new material documenting these efforts, with testimony from witnesses in the room, as well as recorded testimony from some of the more than 1,000 testimonies and interviews.
Democrat Jamie Ruskin, a member of the committee, was asked on CNN about a New York Times report that Trump adviser John Eastman said he knew about a “heated battle” between Supreme Court judges over whether to hear arguments about Trump’s efforts. to cancel the election.
“We want to know if this is true,” Ruskin said. “To determine if the same people who created the back channel to the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the 3 percent, and the domestic violence extremist movement also have some way back to the United States Supreme Court.”
The groups Ruskin mentioned are far-right organizations.
The committee intends to set a schedule for Pence’s day on January 6, which could describe in detail the contacts with Trump and Secret Service agents who took the vice president to safety while the mob threatened him.
The attack on the Capitol delayed election certification for hours, injured more than 140 police officers and resulted in several deaths. So far, more than 840 people have been arrested and charged.
The offensive was the only time in US history when power was not transferred peacefully from one president to another.
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Report by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; edited by Andy Sullivan, Will Dunham and David Gregorio
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