Blog Post

Key Takeaways from the Third January 6 Hearing

On Thursday, June 16, the nonpartisan January 6 Select Committee held its third public hearing. The committee revealed the details behind Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to try and force the former Vice President Mike Pence to go along with an unlawful scheme to overturn the 2020 election. Trump and Eastman began their campaign as early as December 2020. They pursued the radical theory knowing it was unconstitutional.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Upset that he lost the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman, hatched a radical theory into motion that would allow the Vice President to pick a president over the will of the people. It was unconstitutional—and they knew it.

2. As early as December 2020, Donald Trump and John Eastman began their pressure campaign for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the will of the people, knowing the plan went against the law.

3. Vice President Mike Pence and his staff did not believe and did not support Trump’s radical attempts to have the Vice President overturn the election.

4. Judge Michael Luttig outlined the constitutional crisis Trump would have created if his plan had worked.

5. Even though Vice President Mike Pence told Donald Trump he would not—and legally could not—reject the American people’s votes in the 2020 election, Donald Trump waged a public pressure campaign anyway—including at the rally the morning of January 6.

6. On January 5 and 6, John Eastman and Donald Trump explicitly asked Vice President Mike Pence to reject the votes of the American people. Trump did so both privately and publicly, including at the rally before the attack on the Capitol.

7. On January 6 at 2:24 pm, Trump tweeted criticizing Vice President Mike Pence for not participating in Trump’s illegal scheme. Immediately after, the mob at the Capitol “surged.”

8. Donald Trump knew the insurrectionists were attacking the Capitol when he sent the tweet criticizing Vice President Mike Pence.

9. Even after the violent insurrectionists broke into the Capitol, Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, again asked Vice President Mike Pence to break the law and refuse to certify the 2020 election.

10. Following the violent insurrection on January 6, John Eastman asked for a pardon. He has pleaded the 5th more than 100 times.

11. The Vice President of the United States of America was forced into hiding 40 feet away from the insurrectionists.

12. Former Federal Judge Luttig reminded us that those who attacked our country have not stopped. We must hold accountable everyone who planned and promoted January 6.

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