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Trump pressed, threatened Pence to overturn election, panel hears

Published 06/16/2022, 06:03 AM
Updated 06/17/2022, 03:03 AM
© Reuters. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks about border security at Cochise College in Sierra Vista, Arizona, U.S., June 13, 2022.  REUTERS/Rebecca Noble

© Reuters. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks about border security at Cochise College in Sierra Vista, Arizona, U.S., June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Rebecca Noble

By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn his 2020 election defeat despite being told repeatedly it was illegal to do so, aides to Pence told the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

Members of the Democratic-led House of Representatives select committee said Trump continued his pressure campaign even though he knew a violent mob of his supporters was threatening the Capitol as Pence and lawmakers met to formally certify President Joe Biden's victory in the November 2020 election.

The nine-member committee has used the first three of at least six public hearings this month to build a case that Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat amounted to illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics.

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, while repeating his false accusations that he lost the election only because of widespread fraud that benefited Democrat Biden. Trump and his supporters - including many Republican members of Congress - dismiss the Jan. 6 panel as a political witchhunt.

The certification vote on Jan. 6 had become a focus for Trump, who saw it as a last-ditch chance to retain the presidency despite his loss at the polls.

Marc Short, who was Pence's chief of staff, said in videotaped testimony that Pence told Trump "many times" that he did not have the authority to stop the vote certification in Congress as the Republican president sought.

Gregory Jacob, an attorney for Pence, said the main proponent of that theory, attorney John Eastman, admitted in front of the president two days before the attack that his plan to have Pence halt the procedure would violate the law.

Eastman had argued that Pence could reject results from certain states if he thought they were illegitimate, giving Republicans in those states an opportunity to declare Trump the victor despite the actual vote count.

Advisers to Pence told the committee that idea had no basis in law.

"It is breathtaking that these arguments even were conceived, let alone entertained by the president of the United States," former U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, an informal Pence adviser, said.

Trump is widely expected to run for president again in 2024, and committee members and witnesses warned that he would not accept defeat no matter the actual outcome.

"Today almost two years after that fateful day in January 2021, that still, Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy," Luttig said.

The committee showed an email Eastman sent to Trump's attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, asking for a presidential pardon. Eastman never received one.

'HANG MIKE PENCE'

The hearing featured several chilling clips of some of the thousands of Trump supporters who descended on the Capitol after a rally in which Trump repeatedly criticized Pence, chanting for Pence to be pulled out of the building or hanged.

Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m., while the attack was going on, that Pence did not have the "courage" to stop the count.

"It felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that," Sarah Matthews, a Trump White House staffer, said in video testimony.

Representative Pete Aguilar said a witness had told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the Proud Boys, one of the right-wing groups participating in the Capitol attack, said the group would have killed Pence if they been able to get to him.

Committee members said Trump's comments against Pence incited the crowd.

The committee displayed photos of Pence sheltering in place during the riot. Jacob, who was with Pence during the attack, said he refused to leave and that he did not want to give the demonstrators the satisfaction of forcing him from the building. "The vice president did not want to take any chance that the world would see the vice president of the United States fleeing the U.S. Capitol," he said.

The attack on the Capitol delayed certification of the election for hours, injured more than 140 police officers and led to several deaths.

© Reuters. An image of former U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed during the third hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building, at Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S., June 16, 2022. Drew Angerer/Pool via REUTERS

Even after police had suppressed the attack and reclaimed the Capitol, Eastman continued to press Pence's team to overturn the vote.

"I implore you one last time, can the Vice President, please do what we've been asking him to do these last two days - suspend the Joint Session, send it back to the States," Eastman wrote to Jacob at 11:44 p.m. in an email released by the committee.

Latest comments

when more than one person like that are trying to overturn the will of the people, what do you call that?
vote every Republican out of office, they dont care the safety of our kids in school, they dont like the people selecting their leader. vote them out!
It is clear with the documented evidence and testimony from the committee now that Trump and Eastman (and possibly others) engaged in a criminal conspiracy. It is only a matter of time before they are indicted and the only people for whom it will be a surprise will be those who have willfully insisted on avoiding the facts.
We are paying $6.00 a gallon for gas under Biden. I could care less about any of this Jan 06 nonsense.
Let us know when do care less.
after midterms no more Dems in charge no brainwashing tv sharade will change that
traitor trump says the election was rigged his boyfriend putin says Russia did not invade Ukraine.
Gaslighting means making people think they are crazy for believing something they clearly seen with their own eyes didn't happen. When people say the 2020 election was fair and that creepy sleepy, kiddy fiddler Joe got the most votes in history, they are gaslighting you.
So, GSGreer, following your 'logic', it means you "clearly seen" the election get stolen, with your own eyes? Interesting. A much better example of gaslighting is when plenty of audits and investigations, including by Republicans, find no proof of election fraud, yet people like you insist that somehow they are all wrong and you are right.
What a deranged loser traitor trump is. Why do the poorly educated American citizens like him so much?
Because he doesn't like mass graves from communist regimes like most other decent human beings... Ds love communism.
The answer is in your question.
imagine a financial meltdown ....meanwhile on every channel run election propaganda for an election they can't win anyway
"imagine a financial meltdown ...."  -- I can see you are doing that pretty well all on your own, although at some point you would need to come back to reality, but no rush, take your time
Just curious, in what country do you live?
Not allowed the Algo's here thanked me for my Unpublished comment.. didn't like my lib.. ***comment and the Big O still whispering the order comment?
Weird day we were in the oval office Trump said hey pencey Sean Hannity said you’re a wussy and Indiana isn’t nothing but potholes and mamas boy’s i’ll give you $10,000 if you give jimmy over here a slow wet kiss he said don’t worry just imagine that it’s Indiana voters asses I asked for VP they give me a *******with a magic eraser on his head
Reuters Global Comunism Midia ^^^
comments section awash with braindead trumpanzee minions. entertaining to read their moronic drivel, but sad to know they are still not extinct
It is sad, isn't it? Avoiding reality with such determination.
 it's easy to avoid reality, just put on FoxNews and you can pretend there is no congressional hearing at all!
Hey! It's a high pressure office!
“Panel hears?” whatever they want.Note in the last paragraph. “We’ve been “ASKING””No threat or coercion.If Pence had not certified the electoral vote, it wouldnt have been any different than Nancy Pelosi & Co. are doing now.Yet he did only 2.5 hours after the “insurrection” committed by people armed with phones, sandwiches, and chants.Security was inconsistent, (as we ought to expect from bureaucrats with badges), some folk invited in, and one (Ashley Babbit) murdered by a guy counseled for losing his weapon in a bathroom.Surprised?Unasked questions.Who’s Ray Epps?Nancy turning down national guard?Trump requesting folks to “peacefully and patriotically” letting their voice be heard?Thats not incitement any more (and way less) than schumer, waters, and biden have said in the last few years.Any questions about that in this indictment (hearing)?Yawn…when do i get to peacefully (and with some verification) vote again?
history will never forgive Trump & his supporters for the chaos they created in Capitol.
Oh yeah, you're a trump supporter. I can tell by the racist comment.
get out of the internet you should be in the mar-a-lago
You are right. Trump will go down in American history as the worst president. A few years from now, people will deny to their grandchildren that they ever supported him. He'll will be right up the with Benadict Arnold.
Send Putin's bestie to Russia so they can be together
well regardless of it biden supporters are getting it up the wazoo. they are the ones the woke who don't want to work etc. Trump supporters will weather the financial storm and make money from it because they are smarter, more educated, love America and its constitution. I love seeing what's going on because it is exposing tge Dems for what tgey are...incompetent 7
LOL. Ah yes, the higher education Mecca that is the American south!
JustSome User, the comment was about education, not intelligence. But considering you think university education is just indoctrination, I suppose that means that you prefer your local witch doctor over the university-educated physician? University actually encourages students to think on their own, research and make new discoveries, solve problems in society. Indoctrination, on the other hand, is what you get on FOX, Breitbart, NewsMax, and 'MAGA' rallies.
Imagine, if Pence had done his duty, we would not be subjected to Biden, today.
This notion, that a single person has the right to change the outcome of an election in the US, is precisely what will send Trump and Eastman to jail.
Isn't it ironic how Trump supporters worry so much about "tyrannical government" yet they believe that one person (the VP) has the power (and even duty) to single-handedly decide the results of the election? If that were true, then what's the point of even having an election? Try "thinking" first, Sam. Pence actually DID do his duty, by correctly certifying the election results, even if he didn't like the results.
Biden is crushing common everyday people's lives. no one cares about your stupid witch hunt
no one cares. today people are being crushed by this administration idiotic policies
and there it is, trump a traitor to the nation, lock him up!
You can’t fix stupid. This minimus minimus character is just a sheep, has no clothes. Nor brain. We all know 1+1 = 2, but of this minimus minimus person watches cnn and/msnbc/abc/cbs/etc and was told 1+1 is not 2, it’s = -0 by any of those racist fake news, minimus would believe those woke fake news. Because minimus can’t think for himself/herself/itself/animalself. Lol
It's pretty clear now that Trump criminally conspired with John Eastman and it is only a matter of time before Trump is indicted.
Proof
Thats funny.
the election was absolutely positively stolen. Trump hated them and they hated Trump. it's funny how they turn it all around. plandemic created to bankrupt us and turn us into a socialist state
Ratcliffe was a trump puppet with ZERO experience in security or intelligence that botched everything he touched.
- it appears you have difficulty recognizing either literary genre or TRUTH
Why, yes, as a matter of fact. The bipartisan committee spent a session looking at the various claims of election fraud. You'll have to man up and get your head out of the sand, but if you watch it, you will come to understand why people who continue to push the election fraud nonsense are looked down upon as know-nothing kooks.
I would not vote for either Biden or Trump. We don't need MAGA we need MASA. Make America Sane Again. If the Republicans can bring in a non ***candidate that would be good.
Exactly. I like the republican values in many sense. But why can't they choose a sane candidate?
It is amazing that "The President", and his lawyer, have not even been indicted a year and a half later. WOW !!
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