Witnesses testified before the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday that Donald Trump’s closest aides thought his last-ditch efforts to urge Vice President Mike Pence to refuse the count of state electors and reverse the 2020 election were ‘insane,’ ‘crazy,’ and even likely to provoke rioting. New evidence also revealed how the crowd that rushed the Capitol that day reached within 40 feet of Pence and his entourage, emphasizing the risk Trump had placed him in.
Donald Trump Released The Mob After VP Rejected His Idea
The panel is examining the plot from conservative attorney John Eastman to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory as illegitimate and unconstitutional with live testimony, also from Pence’s counsel, and other documents from its yearlong inquiry.
According to the panel, Donald Trump’s pressure on Pence, which included a rally on January 6, directly contributed to the Capitol insurgency. The panel revealed a “relentless” pressure assault by Trump on Pence as a keystone of a treasonous conspiracy to maintain the lost president in power at its third public hearing investigating the January 6, 2021 insurgency.
Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, was the mastermind behind the “absurd” idea, according to committee vice-chair Liz Cheney, who pushed the proposal forcefully despite knowing it was illegal.
Eastman stated in front of Trump two days before the incident that his proposal would violate federal law, according to testimony from Pence’s general counsel Greg Jacob. As scores of cases disputing the election were dismissed, the panel launched its third hearing this month, revealing that Trump’s baseless allegations of a rigged election left him groping for alternatives.
As the vice president was set to preside over the joint session of Congress on January 6 to certify Biden’s election, Donald Trump seized on Eastman’s extremely unusual proposal to flout the Electoral Count Act‘s historical tradition and began pressing Pence in public and private. The scheme was unconstitutional, according to the committee, and a federal judge stated it is “more probable than not” that Trump broke the law in his attempt to block the certification.