(Headline USA) Former Vice President Mike Pence took “contemporaneous notes” of his conversations with former President Donald Trump in the days before the Jan. 6 Capitol protests, and then handed over those notes to special counsel Jack Smith, according to the DOJ’s latest indictment.
Smith indicted Trump this week for questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election, accusing the former president of three conspiracy charges and one obstruction charge.
Smith’s indictment depends in part on Pence’s recollections with Trump during the last days of the administration. It cites several phone calls between Trump and Pence in late December and early January, during which Trump allegedly made “knowingly false” claims about the election and pressured his vice president to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.
According to Smith, Pence called Trump on Dec. 25, 2020, to wish him a Merry Christmas but Trump “quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the vice president reject electoral votes that day.”
Trump reiterated his request to Pence during a phone call four days later, telling Pence law enforcement had discovered evidenceof illegal activity in the election, according to the indictment. Pence’s notes state that Trump believed the “Justice Department was finding major infractions” with the election’s results.
During a conversation on Jan. 1, 2021, Trump urged Pence once again to block Congress from certifying the election’s results, but Pence argued he did not have the constitutional authority to do so.
“You’re too honest,” Trump replied, according to Pence’s notes. “Hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts… People are gonna think you’re stupid.”
Pence has since turned Trump’s J6 indictment into a fundraising gimmick, selling merchandise, including T-shirts and hats, that read “Too honest.”
Pence drops "Too Honest" merch, fundraising off of Trump's complaint in the indictment that his former VP wouldn't go along with plan to throw out 2020. pic.twitter.com/lxaMgmub8I
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 3, 2023
Pence has not commented on the legality of Smith’s indictment, but argued it “serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States.”
“I will have more to say about the government’s case after reviewing the indictment,” he added.
