Committee of inquiry into the US Capitol storm: ex-adviser calls Trump's pressure on Vice Pence unlawful after election

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Snippets of an email from Greg Jacob, ex-counsel to former Vice President Mike Pence, will be shown at the Capitol Storm Inquiry Committee hearing on January 6, 2021

Photo: Susan Walsh/AP

Former US President Donald Trump's attempts to urge his deputy Mike Pence to block Congressional recognition of Biden's election victory were unlawful, according to former administration advisers.

Pence's adviser at the time, Greg Jacob, said at a hearing in the investigative committee into the US Capitol attack that an intensive review at the time revealed that "there is no reasonable basis for concluding that the vice president has that authority".

Retired judge Michael Luttig, who also advised Pence on the matter, said that if Pence had heeded Trump's call at the time, it would have plunged America into a "revolution" and a "constitutional crisis."

Trump claims to this day without any evidence that he was deprived of victory in the 2020 presidential election by electoral fraud.

For weeks, the Republican tried to use the most questionable methods to subsequently overturn the election victory of Democrat Joe Biden.

Resistance to the outcome of the election culminated in the attack on the Capitol, which the investigative committee in Congress is now working on.

Trump supporters stormed the seat of parliament in Washington on January 6, 2021.

The US Congress met there to formally confirm Biden's election victory.

The violent crowd wanted to prevent that.

Several people died in the attack.

At that time, Pence chaired the congress session in his role as Vice President – ​​legally a purely ceremonial task.

Trump had previously openly called on his deputy to block the procedure.

So Pence should help him to win the election afterwards.

Greg Jacob described how Pence, against the advice of his security forces, refused to leave the compound despite the outbreak of violence at Congress headquarters.

Pence "didn't want to risk the world seeing the Vice President of the United States fleeing the US Capitol," said Jacob, who was with 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.

When asked if President Donald Trump ever called Pence to ask if he was safe, Jacob said, "He didn't." Pence was "frustrated."

"Totally crazy"

In a written statement, ex-Judge Luttig said Trump and his allies knew full well that he had lost the 2020 presidential election.

Nevertheless, they claimed that he had won the election and tried to overturn the outcome.

The "treacherous plan" was to "steal America's democracy."

Disturbingly, Trump promises his re-election won't be "stolen" next time.

There is speculation that Trump could run again in the next presidential election in 2024.

He himself has not yet announced a decision.

Jacob emphasized that the authors of the US Constitution had by no means intended that an incumbent vice president who might also have run for re-election could reverse the outcome of the election.

Republicans also wouldn't want Biden's Vice President Kamala Harris to have that power if a Republican wins the 2024 election.

The committee again showed video recordings of previous witness interviews, in which Trump advisers at the time also dismissed the theory that Pence could have turned Trump's election defeat during the formal procedure in Congress.

Former Trump White House Attorney Eric Herschmann called the theory "completely insane."

At the time he said to one of Trump's advisers - John Eastman, who promoted this idea - "Are you crazy?"

He also warned Eastman it would "cause riots in the streets."

Shortly before the storming of the US Capitol, Trump had again incited his supporters at a rally that the election victory had been stolen from him.

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.

Democratic commissioner of inquiry chairman Bennie Thompson paid tribute to Pence's stance.

"He held up under the pressure," Thompson said.

'He knew it was illegal.

He knew it was wrong.” The country can count itself lucky that the then Vice President was so brave.

"That courage put him in grave danger." Thompson warned, "On January 6, democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe."

ktz/dpa