Then-Vice President Mike Pence took “contemporaneous notes” of his meetings with Donald Trump leading up to Jan. 6, according to a new federal grand jury indictment lodged against the former president on Tuesday which reveals Trump's continual efforts to pressure Pence into rejecting electoral votes.
Citing them as evidence underpinning its case, the 45-page indictment reveals Pence took the notes after conversations with his boss, both in person and in phone calls in the weeks leading up to the Capitol riots, as Trump attempted to enlist him for help.
“As the January 6 congressional certification proceeding approached and other efforts to impair, obstruct and defeat the federal junction failed, the Defendant sought to enlist the Vice President to use his ceremonial role at the certification to fraudulently alter the election results,” the indictment reads.
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It goes on to allege that nearly two weeks before Jan. 6, on Christmas Day, Pence called Trump simply to wish him a merry Christmas. During the phone call, Trump “quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the Vice President reject electoral votes that day.” Pence pushed pack, citing numerous conversations already undertaken with his boss surrounding the election: “You know I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome.”
In another, according to the notes, Trump also falsely told Pence on Dec. 29, 2020, that the Department of Justice was “finding major infractions.”
Then, on Jan. 1, the President told Pence he was “too honest” in a phone call berating the Vice President for opposing a lawsuit that would reject Biden’s presidency. Pence had told Trump that there was no constitutional basis for such authority and that it was improper; among just a number of pushbacks by Pence at the time.
The indictment alleges Trump and one of his co-conspirators “knowingly made false claims of election fraud” in a meeting on Jan. 4, 2021.
In that meeting, Trump asked Pence to reject or challenge legitimate electors for Democrat Joe Biden from seven states, rather than count them. The indictment claims Trump deliberately excluded his White House counsel from the meeting because lawyers had already pushed back on the idea.
“Bottom line ― won every state by 100,000s of votes,” Trump said at the time, according to Pence.
Then, in a private meeting between the pair on Jan. 5, Trump became “frustrated and told the Vice President that the Defendant would have to publicly criticize him.”
The next day, Trump eventually did just that during a speech at the Ellipse in Washington.
The indictment also notes how a large crowd of Trump’s supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and “Traitor Pence!” while they approached the U.S. Capitol.
In a statement released Tuesday night, Pence said “today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be the President of the United States.”
Pence added he will “have more to say” after reviewing the indictment, echoing special counsel Jack Smith’s earlier comments Tuesday night that Trump is “entitled to the presumption of innocence.”
CBS News’ Robert Costa described Pence on the air as a “central, crucial key witness in this investigation,” adding “he could end up being the most important witness in this case.”
“He can speak to possible criminal intent. By Pence detailing what Trump said... Pence is someone who was weaponized at the end of the presidency for Trump, and to have him cooperating with the investigation gives the special counsel an eyewitness account who is not a lawyer or some Trump functionary.”
