WASHINGTON – All Donald Trump wanted for Christmas: An overturned election, an unsealed indictment accusing the former president of conspiring to steal the 2020 election alleges.
On Christmas day, the indictment reads, Mike Pence called his boss 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 reiterated to the former president his stance from prior conversations when Trump attempted to pressure him to overturn his election loss, telling him, “You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome.”
Trump’s efforts to overturn the election led to the eventual attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and a mob of supporters calling to hang his second-in-command.
Trump tried to leverage violence at Capitol to pressure Pence to overturn election loss, indictment alleges
The indictment details various manners Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election in his favor. Among those manners is a weeks-long campaign to convince Pence he had the authority to reject the certification of electors.
“As the January 6 congressional certification proceeding approached and other efforts to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function failed, the Defendant sought to enlist the Vice President to use his ceremonial role at the certification to fraudulently alter the election results,” reads the indictment.
As Pence continued to reject Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn his loss, the indictment alleges, Trump turned to the mob that breached the Capitol and attempted to pressure Pence to reject the certification of electors on Jan. 6. The indictment points out the crowds chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” and “Traitor Pence!”
At one point, Trump chided Pence as “too honest,” a moment Pence recounted in his personal memoir that published last year.
As Jan. 6 approached, even though Trump knew Pence did not believe he had the authority to overturn his loss, the indictment accuses Trump of setting “the false expectation that the Vice President had the authority to and might use his ceremonial role at the certification proceeding to reverse the election outcome in the Defendant’s favor.”
Live updates:Donald Trump indicted for allegedly organizing a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election
Indictment details as Pence doubts Trump’s actions as ‘not criminal’
The details behind Trump and Pence’s interactions in the days leading up to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021 comes as Pence publicly expressed doubt as to whether Trump’s actions were criminal.
““I’ve said many times the president’s words were reckless that day. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But while his words were reckless, based on what I know, I’m not yet convinced that they were criminal.”
