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A newly-reported memo to then-Vice President Mike Pence—from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, written by Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis—has shed new light on the pressure Pence faced from Trump to keep the former President in power despite the results of the 2020 election.
Citing fantasies that the 2020 election was somehow "stolen" from him by Democrats engaging in widespread election fraud, Trump publicly pressured Pence to unilaterally throw out the electoral votes of six swing states during the joint session of Congress certifying Biden's victory—a joint session the Vice President oversees.
The Vice President's role in these proceedings is purely administrative. Any disputed electoral votes must be objected to by both a House member and a Senator, after which each chamber votes separately to count or reject the state's electoral votes. The Vice President does not have the power to singlehandedly reject any of these votes.
Pence reached that same conclusion and, in a public letter, announced the morning of January 6 that he wouldn't comply with Trump's demands.
The newly-reported memo, which ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl discloses in his book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, laid out the steps for what would've happened if Pence made the unconstitutional decision to unilaterally reject electoral votes.
The disputed swing states were to be given a deadline of January 15—five days before the presidential inauguration—to send new votes. Any state that failed to comply wouldn't be counted, thereby denying Biden the 270 electoral votes required to be the victor and sending the election to the House. Though Democrats held control of the House, the votes would've been on a state-by-state basis, which would've favored Republicans and solidified Trump as the next President.
As history will remember, after Pence rejected Trump's demands, a mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the United States Capitol in a deadly failed insurrection. They chanted "Hang Mike Pence," chants which Trump would later defend.
The new memo reinvigorated calls for Trump and his allies to be held accountable for attempting to overthrow the election.
Or, to put it more succinctly:\n\nIt was a seditious conspiracy.https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— Ed Bott (@Ed Bott) 1636985735
Treason.https://twitter.com/billkristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— Nathan Quarry (@Nathan Quarry) 1636924977
They tried their utmost- to steal the franchise from tens of millions of citizens. \nCrimes don\u2019t get any bigger.\n#Jan6https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— SFDukie (@SFDukie) 1636949578
and nobody is doing anything about it. trump is running a shadow govt and sending "envoys" to foreign countries - the headlines are the "WH are rolling their collective eyes" and then sending out pithy tweets.https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— NACMtrader17 (@NACMtrader17) 1636983933
Why are trump, his cronies, and the assoc legislators, lawyers, collaborators NOT IN PRISON right now?https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— K. Sennholz MD (@K. Sennholz MD) 1636946439
Isn\u2019t this a crime? A Federal crime? Where is @DOJPH?https://twitter.com/billkristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— Pat Ciarrocchi (@Pat Ciarrocchi) 1636965541
It also reinforced the severity of the events leading up to January 6, and the Trump team's role in them.
The White House chief of staff sent a memo to the Vice President's top aide on the process by which they could overturn the result of a free and fair election. It was a coup attempt. Full stop.https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— Brendan Nyhan (@Brendan Nyhan) 1636983486
We have to confront this travesty head on. \n\nWe cannot sugar coat it, white wash it or sweep it under the rug.\n\nHead on.https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— Sybil Luddington #WallOfWomen #WeAreTheStorm (@Sybil Luddington #WallOfWomen #WeAreTheStorm) 1636910809
Why are so many news organizations still afraid to call #January6th what it was? Unquestionably it was an attempted COUP D\u2019ETAT, planned for weeks, built on lies, and plotted by Trump and his henchmen. The goal: Theft of an election and a Republic.https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1459932751709327366\u00a0\u2026— Larry Sabato (@Larry Sabato) 1636938052
Both Meadows and Ellis have refused to comply with subpoenas from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.