In the investigative committee into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, witnesses have revealed new details about the chaotic hours of that day. A former adviser to then-US Vice President Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, described in a public hearing on Thursday (local time) how Pence, despite the outbreak of violence at Congress headquarters, refused to leave the premises against the advice of his security forces.
“There was no way the vice president wanted to risk the world seeing the vice president of the United States flee the US Capitol,” said Jacob, who was accompanying Pence at the time. His boss was determined to complete the certification of the presidential election results. He saw it as a “constitutional duty” to bring this to an end. Pence therefore stayed in a safe place on the Capitol grounds for hours and later returned to the Senate room from there.
Trump did not inquire
When asked if President Donald Trump ever called Pence to ask if he was safe, Jacob said, “He didn’t.” Pence was “frustrated.”
Several witnesses also described a heated phone call between Trump and Pence that morning, during which the then President used multiple swear words.
Trump supporters stormed the seat of parliament on January 6, 2021. The US Congress met there to formally confirm the election victory of Trump’s democratic challenger Joe Biden. The violent crowd wanted to prevent that. Pence then chaired the crucial session of Congress in his role as Vice President. After dozens of lawsuits against the outcome of the election had failed in court, Trump Pence openly called for the procedure to be blocked.
A Trump speech is played as evidence before the investigative committee.
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Image: AP/Susan Walsh
Shortly before the attack, Trump had incited his supporters at a rally that his election victory had been stolen. He also explicitly incited his supporters against Pence. At the time, they were looking for the vice president in the building, whom they called a traitor and threatened to hang because he did not prevent Biden’s confirmation. The committee is working on the unprecedented outbreak of violence from back then.
constitutional crisis averted
Also speaking before the investigative committee Thursday, retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig said Trump’s plan to use Pence to stay in power despite his electoral defeat could have plunged the country into a “revolution” and “constitutional crisis.”
The controversial lawyer John Eastman had submitted a memo to Trump, according to which Pence, in his role as Senate President at the Congress session, could have rejected the electoral votes of individual states due to allegations of fraud. Ex-Judge Luttig advised Pence at the time and rejected this representation. The vice president eventually declined to torpedo the certification of Biden’s election victory.
“There was no basis in the United States Constitution or in the laws of the United States for Mr. Eastman’s theory,” Luttig told the committee. “None.” Deputy committee chair Liz Cheney of the Republican Party spoke of a “nonsense theory”. “It was wrong, and Dr. Eastman knew it was wrong. In other words, it was a lie.”
The committee also considered the testimony of a then White House Counsel, Eric Herschmann. According to Eastman, the day after the storming of the Capitol, he said: “Get a damn good criminal defense attorney. You’re going to need him.”