Former Vice President Mike Pence initially did not want to preside over the count of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, amid pressure from then-President Trump to overturn the election results, according to a new report from ABC News.
ABC News spoke with sources familiar with what Pence told federal investigators led by special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Sources told the outlet that investigators pushed Pence on personal notes he had taken during his vice presidency that were obtained by investigators from the National Archives.
The notes indicate that Pence had briefly decided that he would not oversee the counting of the electoral votes, writing that there were “too many questions” and that it would otherwise be “too hurtful to my friend,” which likely references Trump.
In August, Trump was indicted on four counts in the federal election interference case, which alleged the former president directed a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and was at the center of the campaign to block the certification of votes Jan. 6. Pence testified for several hours in front of the grand jury investigating the case in April.
According to ABC’s reporting, Pence told Smith’s team that his loyalty to Trump never wavered at the time. Sources described the former vice president telling investigators that his “only higher loyalty was to God and the Constitution.”
Investigators also pressed Pence on his recent memoir, which detailed some of the conversations he had with Trump about certifying the votes. The investigators were interested over the placement of a comma at one point in Pence’s book, which the former vice president said was a mistake, sources told ABC.
In his memoir, Pence wrote that he told Trump “You know, I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome” of the election on Jan. 6. However, Pence reportedly told investigators that the comma was not supposed to be there, which suggested that Trump knew Pence could not overturn the results when overseeing the election.
Smith cites the line from Pence’s memoir in his 45-page indictment against the former president.
Pence ended his four-month campaign for the White House last month. Since leaving office and throughout his campaign, Pence maintained that he did the right thing by not attempting to overturn the election results Jan. 6.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment on ABC’s report.
The Hill has reached out to Pence and Trump for comment.