WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump has pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to undo his defeat in the 2020 election even though he has been repeatedly told it was illegal to do so. that was what Pence’s collaborators told the congressional committee that was investigating Jan. 6. 2021, attack on the US Capitol on Thursday.
Members of the Democratic-led House of Representatives select committee said Trump continued his campaign of pressure even though he knew a violent mob of his supporters threatened the Capitol as Pence and lawmakers met to formally certify victory of President Joe Biden 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 undo his defeat led to illegal conduct, far beyond politics. normal.
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Trump has repeatedly denied hurting, 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 witch hunt.
The January 6 certification vote had become a focus for Trump, who saw it as his last chance to retain the presidency despite his loss at the polls.
Marc Short, who was Pence’s chief of staff, said in a videotaped testimony that Pence told Trump “many times” that he did not have the authority to stop voting certification in Congress as the president intended. republican.
Gregory Jacob, Pence’s attorney, said the main proponent of this theory, Attorney John Eastman, admitted to the president two days before the attack that his plan to have Pence stop the proceedings would violate the law. .
Eastman had argued that Pence could reject the results of certain states if he believed they were illegitimate, giving Republicans in those states a chance to declare Trump the winner despite the actual vote count.
Pence’s advisers told the committee that the idea had no legal basis.
“It’s impressive that these arguments have even been conceived, let alone entertained by the President of the United States,” said former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig, an informal adviser to Pence.
Trump is expected to run for president again in 2024, and committee members and witnesses warned that he would not accept defeat regardless of the actual outcome.
An image of former US President Donald Trump is shown during the third hearing of the select committee of the House to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol in the office building of Cannon House, Capitol Hill, Washington, USA, June 16, 2022. Drew Angerer / Pool via REUTERS
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“Today is almost two years after that fateful day in January 2021, when Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are still a clear and present danger to American democracy,” Luttig said.
The committee showed an email that Eastman sent to Trump’s attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, asking for a presidential pardon. Eastman never received any.
‘PENJA MIKE PENCE’
The hearing included several creepy clips of some of the thousands of Trump supporters who took to the Capitol after a rally in which Trump repeatedly criticized Pence, calling for Pence to be removed from the building or hanged.
Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m., while the attack was underway, that Pence did not have the “courage” to stop the count.
“He looked like he was pouring gas into the fire while tweeting this,” Sarah Matthews, a Trump White House employee, said in a 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 involved in the Capitol attack, said the group would have killed Pence if they could. get to him.
Committee members said Trump’s comments against Pence incited the crowd.
The committee showed photos of Pence taking refuge at the site during the riots. Jacob, who was with Pence during the attack, said he refused to leave and did not want to give protesters the satisfaction of forcing him to leave the building. “The vice president didn’t want to risk the world seeing the vice president of the United States fleeing the United States Capitol,” he said.
The attack on the Capitol delayed election certification for hours, injured more than 140 police and killed several people.
Even after police suppressed the attack and recaptured the Capitol, Eastman continued to pressure Pence’s team to cancel the vote.
“I beg you one last time, Vice President, please do what we have asked you to do these last two days: suspend the joint session, send it to the United States,” Eastman wrote to Jacob at 11:44. pm in an email posted by the committee.
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Report by Patricia Zengerle, Richard Cowan and Doina Chiacu; Additional report by Katherine Jackson; Edited by Andy Sullivan and Alistair Bell
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