Special counsel Jack Smith’s court filing unsealed Wednesday reveals the mounting tension between former President Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, as Trump worked to overturn his election loss.
The document details Trump’s repeated attempts to badger Pence with requests to help halt the process of confirming President Biden as the next commander in chief — and how Pence gently encouraged Trump to accept reality and look ahead.
It describes a number of meetings and conversations between the two throughout November as the campaign was developing its strategy to fight the results.
In a call on Nov. 7, as news outlets were projecting Biden’s victory, prosecutors say Pence “tried to encourage” Trump, telling him “you took a dying political party and gave it a new lease on life.”
During a lunch on Nov. 12, the filing says Pence suggested Trump “recognize the process is over,” without officially conceding. At another lunch four days later, Pence encouraged Trump to accept the result and run again in 2024, to which the president responded, “I don’t know, 2024 is so far off,” it says.
During a Dec. 21 private lunch, prosecutors say Pence “encouraged” Trump “not to look at the election ‘as a loss — just an intermission.’” Later that day, Trump asked Pence during a private discussion in the Oval Office what they should do, to which Pence said, “After we have exhausted every legal process in the courts and Congress, if we still came up short, [Trump] should ‘take a bow.’”
Trump did not take the advice. On Jan. 1, 2021, Trump attacked Pence during a phone call for filing a brief opposing a lawsuit brought by Trump and his allies seeking to force Pence to help overturn the election, prosecutors say. On the call, Trump told Pence that “hundreds of thousands” of people “are gonna hate your guts” and “people are gonna think you’re stupid,” also calling Pence “too honest,” according to the filing.
In the days following, Trump started pressuring his vice president publicly.
The filing alleges that Trump dismissed concerns from aides about Pence’s safety as pro-Trump rioters pushed their way into the Capitol building on Jan. 6. Amid the attempted insurrection, he continued to pressure Pence.
“If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency,” Trump wrote on Twitter, now called X, at 1 p.m. EDT on Jan. 6. “Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!”
At 2:24 p.m., Trump ramped up his rhetoric on social media.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” Trump posted at 2:24 p.m.
One minute later, the Secret Service evacuated Pence to a secure location. When an aide alerted Trump that the vice president had been taken to a secure location, he replied only, “So what?”
At one point, Trump’s post was read aloud to rioters, according to court documents. Some in the crowd at the Capitol chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” “Where is Pence? Bring him out!” and “Traitor Pence!”
Trump has fumed over the timing of Jack Smith’s latest filing, about a month ahead of the election. He called the unsealing a “weaponization of government” during an exclusive interview with NewsNation on Wednesday in Houston.
The former president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) still refuse to admit he lost the 2020 election. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) called out Vance for his election denialism during their debate on Tuesday.
“This was a threat to our democracy in a way we had not seen. And it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say — he is still saying he didn’t lose the election,” Walz said.
The Democratic party unveiled an ad Wednesday that focuses on Vance’s “nonanswer” to the 2020 election question.