The Justice Department indicted former President Donald Trump a third time in four months. The indictment flows from testimony and evidence provided by former Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence, a current GOP presidential contender, took “contemporaneous notes” of his conversations with Trump in the days and weeks leading up to the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The new 45-page indictment alleges that testimony before the Jan. 6 Select Committee and Pence’s memoir, “So Help Me God,” indicates Trump knowingly made multiple false statements regarding the 2020 election.
An excerpt from the indictment reads:
“As the January 6 congressional certification proceeding approached and other efforts to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function failed, [Trump] sought to enlist the Vice President to use his ceremonial role at the certification to fraudulently alter the election results.”
According to Fox News, the reference to prosecutors drawing on information from Pence’s “secret notes” is a new revelation — and reportedly includes incriminating information against the former president.
Trump alleges the DOJ has been weaponized by the Biden administration and exercises blatant political bias in its dealings. Prosecutors have hit Trump with three indictments in four months; the latest includes charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Trump has fired back — claiming the DOJ is “corrupt.”
Republicans claim the timing of the indictment is suspect and designed to take the media spotlight off of President Biden and his son Hunter’s current legal issues.
Pence has responded to the indictment by criticizing Trump for prioritizing personal interests over the Constitution, stating that anyone who does this should never hold the office of the president of the United States.
Most of the other GOP presidential contenders state the indictments against Trump are unfair and politically motivated.
The indictment claims: “[Trump] knowingly [made] false claims of election fraud to convince the Vice President to accept the Defendant’s fraudulent electors, reject legitimate electoral votes, or send legitimate electoral votes to state legislatures for review rather than count them. When that failed, the Defendant attempted to use a crowd of supporters that he had gathered in Washington, D.C., to pressure the Vice President to fraudulently alter the election results.”
According to Special Counsel Jack Smith, during a Christmas Day 2020 phone call between Trump and Pence, the president “quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and [reiterated] his request that the Vice President reject electoral votes that day.”
Smith reports that Pence pushed back, asserting that he lacked the authority to change the election outcome.
Smith also alleges that Trump lied to Pence, telling him that law enforcement had discovered evidence of illegal activity in the election.
Pence’s notes state that Trump said the “Justice Department [was] finding major infractions,” a claim the special counsel calls false.
The indictment also profiles a Jan. 1, 2021, meeting between Trump and Pence, during which Trump discussed a lawsuit filed by Republicans in which a judge was asked to declare the vice president had “exclusive authority and sole discretion to decide which electoral votes should count.”
Pence said he reiterated to Trump “that I didn’t believe I possessed that power under the Constitution.”
According to the indictment, on Jan. 2, 2021, Trump called a meeting with Pence; Marc Short, the former chief of staff to the vice president; and Greg Jacob, former counsel to the vice president.
Pence’s notes indicate the purpose of the meeting was to convince Pence to overturn the election.
The indictment claims Trump purposely excluded the White House Counsel from the meeting “because the White House Counsel previously had pushed back on the Defendant’s false claims of election fraud.”
Ultimately, Pence certified the election, allegedly against the instructions of Trump.
The indictments do not seem to negatively impact Trump’s polling numbers, which have continued to climb since his first indictment several months ago.
Trump has vowed to run for president from prison if necessary. He and many leading Republicans claim the Biden administration and DOJ is guilty of “outrageous abuse of power.”