Jan. 6 hearing told Trump knew plan to pressure Pence was illegal, went ahead anyway
The committee said the mob attacking the Capitol got within 40 feet of Pence.
The House's Jan. 6 committee held its third public hearing of the month, on Thursday, with the focus on the pressure campaign on then-Vice President Mike Pence.
The committee detailed the efforts of then-President Donald Trump and his allies before and on Jan. 6, 2021, to get Pence to reject electoral votes Congress was certifying -- as part of what it says was a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Here is how the hearing unfolded:
- Chair teases tip line, exhibits available to public online
- Cheney previews next hearing
- Eastman emailed Rudy Giuliani to be on 'pardon list,' committee says
- Trump attorney pressured Pence to delay certification even after the riot, email shows
- Witnesses recount for first time ‘heated’ Jan. 6 call between Trump, Pence: 'Wimp'
Retired judge says Trump risked throwing country into ‘revolution’
In his testimony on Thursday, former federal judge Michael Luttig painted a dire picture of what he believed would have happened had Pence followed through with Trump’s plea to remain in power.
“That declaration of Donald Trump as the next president would have plunged America into what I believe would’ve been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis in America,” Luttig said, “which in my view, and I am only one man, would’ve been the first constitutional crisis since the founding of the republic.”
Luttig is one of the panel's two live witnesses in today's hearing. The former judge informally advised Pence on his role in affirming the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Clip played of Pence saying Trump was 'wrong'
In her opening statement, Vice Chair Liz Cheney played a clip of a Pence pushing back against Trump’s claim that he had the power to overturn the 2020 election in the weeks after the Jan. 6 attack.
“President Trump is wrong,” Pence said in a speech in February before The Federalist Society. “I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president."
Cheney said the select committee will now reveal the details of that pressure campaign.
Thompson commends Pence's 'courage' in rejecting Trump's orders
The House select committee has kicked off its third of seven public hearings slated for this month.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., gaveled in the hearing just after 1 p.m.
“Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no other vice president has ever done," Thompson said in his opening remarks. "The former president wanted Pence to reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be counted again. Mike Pence said no. He resisted the pressure. He knew it was illegal. He knew it was wrong. We are fortunate for Mr. Pence's courage on Jan. 6. Our democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe. That courage put him in tremendous danger."
Pence adviser to rebuke arguments VP could have overturned election
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.