US Congressional Investigation: Witnesses say Trump pressured Pence over 2020 election result
A committee investigating the 6 January Capitol insurrection in Washington on Thursday revealed the extraordinary efforts President Donald Trump and his team pursued in an attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.
Testimonies by aides to former US Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday revealed Trump pressuring Vice President Mike Pence in vulgar private taunts and public entreaties to stop the certification of Biden’s victory in the run-up to the 6 January Capitol insurrection.
The panel also revealed how Trump put his vice president’s life in danger as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress. Rioters came within 40 feet of the place where Pence and others had been evacuated.
The testimonies were heard at a public hearing of a US Congressional committee investigating the deadly attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
Witnesses close to Pence said that on the day of the attack, Pence was preparing to announce Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election.
They said the then-president kept telling Pence over the phone to declare that he was the winner, even though Trump’s legal advisers had told him it was illegal to do.
After Pence rejected the demand, Trump accused him of lacking courage. Trump supporters then rushed into the Capitol building.
The committee said the mob briefly came within 12 meters of the place at the Capitol where Pence and others had been evacuated. It also showed photos of Pence and his team sheltering in the basement of the building. They spent four-and-a-half hours there.
Another session is scheduled for next week. Democrats hope the hearings will help them gain the upper hand over Trump ahead of the mid-term elections in November. Trump still has a strong influence among Republicans.
The panel’s yearlong investigation is piecing together Trump’s final weeks in office, as the defeated president clung to “the big lie” of a rigged election even as those around him — his family, top aides, officials at the highest levels of government — were telling him he had lost.
The panel is also considering whether to send a referral for criminal charges against Trump to the Justice Department. No president or former president has ever been indicted by the Justice Department. US Attorney General Merrick Garland has said he and his team are following the proceedings.
The panel, which is expected to deliver a final report on its findings later this year, intends for its work to be a record for the history of the most violent attack on the US Capitol in over two centuries.
More than 800 people have been arrested for their involvement, including members of extremist groups facing rare sedition charges.
LENS with wire reports
