An attorney for Donald Trump sent an email to then-Vice President Mike Pence's top adviser, blaming him for the assault on the Capitol on January 6, considering that he had caused the invasion for refusing to block the certification that the president had lost the November elections. 2020.
Pence's adviser, Greg Jacob, described what was happening as "siege" in the exchange of emails.
A mob climbs the exterior walls of the Capitol to prevent Congress from confirming the electoral victory of President Joe Biden on January 6, 2021.Jose Luis Magana / AP
"The 'siege' is because
YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary
to allow the American people to see for themselves what happened," Eastman wrote to Jacob, referring to Trump's allegations of voter fraud, of according to The Washington Post.
Eastman sent the email while Pence, who had been presiding over the Senate,
was guarded with Jacob and other advisers in a safe area
.
The mob, meanwhile, destroyed the Capitol complex and some even called for Pence's execution.
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Jacob included Eastman's emailed comments in a draft opinion piece he wrote in January about Trump's outside legal team, but ultimately decided not to publish.
The Post obtained a copy of the draft.
Pence's top adviser noted in that text that Eastman "showed
a shocking lack of awareness
of how those practical implications were playing out in real time."
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The emails also show that Trump's attorney's attempts to convince his vice president to block the certification of the electoral defeat were greater than known.
Eastman
confirmed the veracity of the emails
in a series of interviews with The Post, but denied that they blamed Pence for the assault, one of the darkest episodes in the history of American democracy.
[The most disturbing images of the assault on the US Capitol by pro-Trump protesters]
The lawyer said in conversations with the newspaper that Trump's team
had to exhaust "all legal means" to challenge a result
that, in the opinion of the then president, was fraudulent.
Eastman further argued that the email blaming Pence's inaction for the assault was a response to a message from Jacob in which he claimed that the dire legal advice Trump was receiving had caused the vice president to be "under siege."