In an unprecedented chain of events, former President Donald Trump was indicted for a third time on August 1 and arraigned for charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. The evidence against Trump includes unreported notes taken by former Vice President Mike Pence of their conversations leading up to that fateful day. Pence recently did an interview with Fox News speaking on the indictment and his role.
Trump faces four federal charges for his actions after the 2020 presidential election and false claims made that the election was stolen. He’s accused of defrauding the U.S; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and the attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
The 45-page indictment states that, “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.”
The indictment continues, “The Defendant did this first by using knowingly 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.”
After Trump’s numerous attempts to pressure Pence, the indictment says he told Pence, “You’re too honest. Hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts… People are gonna think you’re stupid.” According to the court document, this particular argument continued for several days.
In response to the indictment, Pence says, “The president specifically asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me, to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives, and literally chaos would have ensued.”
He went on to say on his X account that, “Our country is more important than one man. Our constitution is more important than any one man’s career. On January 6th, Former President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. I chose the Constitution and I always will.”
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and is expected to plead guilty, as well as be released pending trial.
