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President Donald Trump and his aides knew it was illegal for his vice president, Mike Pence, to try to thwart Joe Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021, but they organized a campaign of relentless pressure that did not abate even after the rebels invaded. The Capitol is threatening Pence’s life, according to new evidence presented Thursday by a House of Representatives committee investigating the attack.
The campaign was led by Trump’s attorney, John Eastman, who spoke repeatedly to senior Pence officials in the two days before Jan. 6 about whether the vice president would either reject the countdown to Biden’s electoral college, which won or would suspend proceedings for the day. to allow seven disputed states to reconsider their popular votes, witnesses said.
Pence never considered it, said former Vice Presidential Adviser Greg Jacob – and even Eastman acknowledged that the gambit was illegal, Jacob said. In addition to this Apparently, several former White House staffers testified that they – and Pence – said the same thing to Trump.
“I said, “John, if the vice president did what you want him to do, we’d lose nine to nothing in the Supreme Court, wouldn’t we?” Jacob recalled. “And after some discussion, he admitted, ‘Well, yes, you’re right, we’d lose nine to nothing.'”
The commission also showed an email on January 11, 2021, from Eastman to Trump’s lead lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, asking for a pardon from the outgoing president, although Eastman did not receive one. Member of the Commission, Representative Pete Aguilar (D-California) said that in his testimony before the commission, the lawyer defended his right to the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination “a hundred times”.
A House of Representatives committee that spent a year investigating the January 6 attack continued to argue at Thursday’s three-hour afternoon hearing that the attack was a violent culmination of a coup attempt by Trump.
With new details and unprecedented videos and photos, the process focuses on Pence and his largely ceremonial role, chairing the final step in a four-year presidential election process: counting the votes in a joint congressional session.
The commission members pointed to the case not only because Trump and his advisers knew that Pence did not have the power to block Biden’s victory, but also that their public statements to the contrary prompted insurgents who stormed the Capitol that day, chanting “Ten Mike Pence! ” as they passed a fake gallows erected in front of the building.
“Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no other vice president has done,” said Commissioner Benny G. Thompson (D-Miss.), Chairman of the committee. “The former president wanted Pence to reject the vote and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be recounted. Mike Pence said no. He resisted the pressure. He knew it was illegal. He knew it was wrong. “
The committee provided new evidence of how close the rebels were to Pence’s erection – within 40 feet – as his secret service detail escorted him to safety in the Capitol complex.
“Is it surprising to see how close the crowd is to the evacuation route you took?” Aguilar asked Jacob, who was with Pence that day. “Forty feet is the distance from me to you, approximately.”
Jacob replied: “I could hear the noise of the rebels in the building as we moved, but I don’t think I knew they were that close.
The charts show – for the first time – how Pence was evacuated from the Senate and how close the rebels came to him on January 6, 2021. (Video: The Washington Post)
The attack: The January 6 siege of the US Capitol was neither a spontaneous act nor an isolated event
Several witnesses said there was never any doubt that Pence would not interfere with the count that day. The Constitution calls on states to determine how their presidential voters are elected; all states follow the popular vote. As for the counting of these electoral votes, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution instructed only the Senate President, Pence at the time, to “open all certificates” and that “the votes will be counted.”
Jacob said Pence had begun questioning his powers and responsibilities to monitor the census in early December.
“There was no way our creators, who were disgusted by the concentrated power, who had broken away from the tyranny of George III, could ever put one person, especially not one who has a direct interest in the result, because they were on the election map. the role should have a decisive impact on the outcome of the election, “said Jacob.
Former adviser to Vice President Pence George Jacob said on June 16th that vice presidents have no authority to reject the voter list. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)
J. Michael Lutig, a retired federal appeals judge and prominent conservative who advised Pence during the crisis, testified that what Trump wanted Pence to do was “constitutional mischief” and a serious threat to American democracy.
“I would put my body on the other side of the road before allowing the vice president to cancel the 2020 election,” Lutig said.
None of this has prevented Trump from stepping up pressure as January 6 approaches Congress. On this day, the effort began in the morning when Trump called Pence at his official residence. Both Jacob and Pence’s former chief of staff, Mark Short, recalls being with the vice president when the call came and watching Pence leave the room.
Several Trump aides – including his daughter Ivanka – were in the Oval Office at the time and could hear the president’s side of the conversation. In a video testimony released during the hearing, Ivanka Trump described her father in a “different tone” than she had heard from the vice president before.
Ivanka Trump also told others in the West Wing that her father called the vice president a “p-word” and spoke of Pence’s lack of courage, her former chief of staff Julie Radford said on Thursday. During the conversation, Pence made it clear to Trump that he did not have the authority to do what Trump asked.
The committee also described in detail how Trump’s pressure on Pence during his speech at the Ellipse Rally that day was not part of his initial speech, but was instead advertised.
Trump told the gathering that he spoke with Pence before the rally about the need to have the “courage” to help him stay in office for another four years.
““I hope Mike does the right thing,” Trump told supporters. “I hope so. I hope so, because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we will win the election.
Later, with the attack on the Capitol in progress, Trump “poured gasoline on the fire” by tweeting an angry message to Pence, said Sarah Matthews, a former Trump associate in the press, in a video interview with investigators that aired Thursday.
“Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what needed to be done to protect our country and our constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, rather than the fraudulent or inaccurate ones previously asked to prove.” “Trump tweets at 2:24 p.m.” US demands truth! “
The committee showed footage of rebels reading tweets aloud and others angrily demanding Pence’s head. A moment later, Capitol rebels reached the east side of the Rotunda.
Several Pence associates testified that they were shocked and disappointed when Trump issued a statement the day before the uprising that Pence and Trump “fully agree that the vice president has the power to act” in the cancellation of the 2020 election results.
Short, Pence’s chief of staff, said the information in the statement was “false” and recalled an angry conversation with Trump aide Jason Miller, who testified that he had written the statement with Trump’s contribution.
“I was annoyed and expressed dissatisfaction that a statement could be made that misrepresented the vice president’s point of view without consultation,” Short told Miller.
More than any other figure in the days leading up to and including Jan. 6, Thursday’s hearing revealed Eastman, Trump’s lawyer, outlining scenarios for Biden’s resignation from the presidency in legal notes and a January 4 meeting in the Oval Office with Pence and Trump. .
Eastman repeatedly tried to convince Pence and his lawyers that the vice president could unilaterally overturn the election results. A fruitful email, Eastman struggled for months to keep the emails the commission requested, and only last week a federal judge ordered Eastman to hand over an additional 400 documents to the commission.
Thursday was probably only the first hearing Eastman was presented with, as the commission continues its investigation behind closed doors, shaping the procedure with the release of new information.
Thompson said the commission plans to invite Virginia “Ginny” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for an interview. The Post reported on Wednesday that the commission had received an email correspondence between Thomas and Eastman. The emails show that Thomas’ efforts to cancel the election were more extensive than previously known, according to two people familiar with the correspondence, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
Jacob, along with Trump’s former White House lawyer Eric Hershman, made it clear in his testimony on Thursday that they thought Eastman’s plan was ridiculous and illegal. Jacob recalled sending an email to Eastman after Pence was evacuated to safety: “Thanks to your stupidity, we are now under siege.
Eastman did not repent in response, accusing Pence of not …
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