The January 6th Committee investigating attack on the Capitol held its third hearing Thursday, focused on former President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to get former Vice President Mike Pence to reject the outcome of the election during the electoral certification. The hearing included testimony about attorney John Eastman’s plan to keep Donald Trump in office by rejecting electors.
“Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our constitution and the good of our country. And if you don’t, I’m going to be very disappointed in you,” former President Trump said during his rally in D.C. that preceded the riot.
The committee showed video of the subsequent death threats rioters screamed, including, “Hang Mike Pence!” and threatening to drag lawmakers into the streets.
The hearing’s witnesses included Greg Jacob, the chief legal counsel to former Vice President Pence, who shed light on attorney Eastman’s plan to overturn the election on behalf of Donald Trump. According to Jacob, Eastman’s plan included using alternative electors, which the committee said did not exist, and rejecting electors. Jacob also said that on Jan. 5, 2021, Eastman had a meeting with Vice President Pence in which he expressly requested that the vice president reject electors during the joint session of Congress.
Jacob said the then-vice president made it clear he would not participate.
“The vice president never budged from the position that I have described as his first instinct that it just made no sense, fom everything that he knew and studied about our Constitution, that one person did not have that kind of authority,” Jacob told the committee.
According to Jacob, Eastman admitted in multiple private conversations that the plan broke the law. Eastman also admitted, according to Jacob, that if the case ever got to the Supreme Court, they would lose 9-0.
Former Vice President Pence did not try to obstruct the election certification and said soon after leaving office that President Trump was wrong.
“I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. There is no idea more un-American that any one person can choose the American president,” former Vice President Pence said in speech.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said the committee will pursue an interview with Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about emails between her and Eastman.