PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: June 16, 2022
Top Takeaways from the First Half: Trump and his MAGA Allies Concocted an Illegal Scheme to Pressure Mike Pence to Overturn the Election.
Despite Being Told by the Architect of the Plan Himself That It Was Illegal, Trump Went Ahead with the Scheme Anyway
Washington, DC – The January 6th Select Committee just wrapped up part one of its third hearing. Testimony showed Trump was told repeatedly that his scheme to pressure Mike Pence to unilaterally select the president was illegal and unconstitutional. When Pence refused to go along with it, Trump unleashed a violent mob against Pence at the Capitol.
“Today’s hearing shows Trump deliberately embraced an illegal scheme to overturn the will of the people by placing pressure on Mike Pence to unilaterally select the president, despite being repeatedly told the scheme was unconstitutional,” said Defend Democracy Project Communications Director Nicole Haley. “Trump and his MAGA allies don’t care about the Constitution. They will stop at nothing to continue their ongoing attempt to make sure they have the final say on who leads us.”
Here is what we have heard so far about the weeks-long, illegal, and unconstitutional campaign to overturn the election by pressuring Vice President Mike Pence.
1. Trump Hatched An Illegal Scheme To Overturn The Election: In early January 2021, Trump attorney John Eastman drafted a memo that said the Vice President could unilaterally decide to overturn the election results and give Trump the presidency.
- Mike Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, said that, “There is no justifiable basis to conclude that the Vice President has that kind of authority.”
- Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig said that if Pence had done what Trump was pressuring him to do, it would’ve been “tantamount to revolution” and “the first Constitutional crisis since the founding of the Republic.” Luttig later said Eastman’s legal theory had, “No constitutional basis. At all. None.”
2. Trump Knew The Pressure Campaign To Enact The Scheme Was Illegal: Mike Pence’s lawyer Greg Jacob testified that John Eastman – the architect of the scheme – admitted in front of Donald Trump that the pressure campaign to get Mike Pence to overturn the election was illegal.
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This criminal conspiracy extends well beyond the violence perpetrated on January 6, 2021, that injured 140 police officers, including making it harder for people to vote, attempting to appoint bogus electors to overturn the will of voters, and intimidating state officials to change the results in contested states.
Getting to the truth during these hearings and then demanding accountability at the courts and the ballot box is how we stop the current MAGA campaign to sabotage future elections by changing state laws, threatening state officials, and packing election administration offices so that they can have the final say over election results – even when they lose.
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