Jan. 6 hearing told Trump knew plan to pressure Pence was illegal, went ahead anyway

Former top Pence adviser Greg Jacob will tell the committee that his team came to the conclusion that the vice president’s role in counting electoral votes is “purely ministerial,” according to a copy of his written statement obtained by ABC News.

“The law is not a plaything for Presidents or judges to use to remake the world in their preferred image,” the written statement reads.

“When our elected and appointed leaders break, twist, and fail to enforce our laws in order to achieve their partisan ends, or to accomplish frustrated policy objectives they consider existentially important, they are breaking America,” the statement reads.

ABC News' Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.

Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters Thursday that the panel will "soon" invite Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to speak with the panel.

Thompson declined to give any details about public or private testimony, or when the committee would formally ask Ginni Thomas to appear.

The House panel is in possession of emails between former Trump lawyer John Eastman and Ginni Thomas, sources confirm to ABC News. The hearing Thursday will explore Eastman's alleged role to pressure Pence to unilaterally reject state electors after the 2020 election.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders

Pence himself will not appear before the committee, but his adviser Greg Jacob -- who was with the former vice president the day of the Capitol insurrection -- is slated to testify. Jacobs, who is an attorney, pushed back against legal theories that Pence could single-handedly stop Joe Biden from becoming president.

Former federal judge Michael Luttig will also testify in front of lawmakers. Luttig previously told ABC News that if Pence had attempted to keep Trump in power, he would’ve "plunged the country into a constitutional crisis of the highest order."

In addition to the live witnesses, the committee is expected to include pre-recorded video testimony from Marc Short, Pence's former chief of staff, and others who have been deposed behind closed doors.

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., is going to be leading this third hearing, which he said will “lay out new evidence about the pressure campaign against Vice President Pence asking him to reject the votes of millions of people.”

Former U.S. Attorney John Wood will also be questioning the witnesses on Thursday, according to committee aides. Wood was federal prosecutor during the George W. Bush administration and is now a senior investigative counsel for the House committee.

Aguilar told reporters earlier this week that through these public hearings, the committee is making the point that “Trump was at the center of a coordinated strategy to overturn the results of a free and fair election.”