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| Photo Credit: AP. |
The House select committee is probing how former President Trump pressured Mike Pence the then Vice President to reject the election results from a number of states were Trump lost.
There will be
two live witnesses Thursday as the House panels gears up to show how Trump’s
false claims of widespread voter fraud could not be substantiated as virtually
every court struck out his many challenge to the electoral system as well as rejected
his conspiracy theory.
According to
AP, Trump latched onto conservative law professor John Eastman’s obscure plan
and launched a public and private pressure campaign on Pence days before the
vice president was to preside over the January 6 joint session of Congress to
certify Joe Biden’s election victory. A federal judge has said it is “more
likely than not” Trump committed crimes over the scheme, AP reported.
“The illegality
of the plan was obvious,” the January 6 panel said in a court filing against
Eastman, according to AP.
The committee
will hear from Greg Jacob, the vice president’s counsel who fended off Eastman’s
ideas for Pence to carry out the plan and retired federal judge Michael Luttig
who called the plan from Eastman, his former law clerk, “incorrect at every
turn.”
The
committee will hear from Greg Jacob, the vice president’s counsel who fended
off Eastman’s ideas for Pence to carry out the plan; and retired federal judge
Michael Luttig, who called the plan from Eastman, his former law clerk,
“incorrect at every turn.”
AP reported
that Thursday’s session is also expected to divulge new evidence about the danger
Pence face that day just as the mob stormed the Capitol shouting “hang Mike
Pence” with a gallows on the Capitol grounds as the vice president fled with
senators into hiding. Nine people died in the riot and its aftermath, some from
suicides.
The session
will also show how Trump’s pressure on Pence “directly contributed” to the attack
on the Capitol and how the Eastman strategy posed a “grave, grave threat” to
democracy, AP quoted a committee aide who insisted on anonymity to discuss the
upcoming hearing.
Mike Pence’s
former chief of staff, Marc Short said ahead of the hearing that his boss was
determined to stay at the Capitol that night and finish the job, despite imminent
threats he faced,
“He knew his
job was to stay at his post,” Short said on CNN on Wednesday.
Short said
Pence didn’t want the world seeing the vice president leaving the Capitol when
“a hallmark of democracy” was under siege.
“He thought
it was important that he stay there and make sure the work of the American
people was completed that night,” said Short, who testified under subpoena to
the committee for eight hours, but has not yet appeared as a live witness, according
to AP.