Former Vice President Mike Pence briefly considered skipping the Jan. 6, 2021, proceedings in which he certified the 2020 Electoral College votes, ABC News has reported.
Sources, speaking exclusively to ABC News, said much of what Pence told special counsel Jack Smith's team in April were things the former vice president has said publicly about then-President Donald Trump’s team and actions leading up to the events of Jan. 6.
However, sources said Pence also told investigators previously undisclosed anecdotes and details about his relationship with Trump in the administration’s final weeks.
A note obtained by Smith’s team from the National Archives showed that Pence briefly considered not appearing for the proceedings to certify the 2020 electoral votes.
The then-vice president wrote that there were "too many questions" and it would otherwise be "too hurtful to my friend."
Pence, though, ultimately performed his duty as president of the Senate and certified the Electoral College votes that confirmed Joe Biden's victory.
A 2024 GOP presidential candidate before bowing out of the race last month, Pence insisted his loyalty to President Trump at the time never faltered — "My only higher loyalty was to God and the Constitution," sources said Pence told Smith's team.
Pence told investigators he was "sure" that he informed Trump he still hadn't seen evidence of significant election fraud. Nonetheless, Trump continued to claim the election was "stolen" and acted "recklessly" on that "tragic day."
Smith’s investigators even asked Pence about the placement of a comma in his book, "So Help Me God."
"When recounting a phone call with Trump on Christmas Day 2020, Pence wrote in his book that he told Trump, ‘You know, I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome’ of the election on Jan. 6," ABC News wrote.
"But Pence allegedly told Smith's investigators that the comma should have never been placed there."
That would mean, as Pence told the investigators, that Trump was well aware of the limitations of the vice president's authority days before Jan. 6.
Appearing at the Indiana State Fair in August, Pence emphasized that a vice president had no right to overturn election results and that only a group of "crackpot lawyers" had told Trump otherwise.
Pence told the special counsel’s team similar things, ABC News reported.
The former vice president told Newsmax in September that he and Trump "parted amicably," even if he hasn't spoken with Trump since the spring of 2021.
In August, Pence told CBS News that he had not ruled out being a prosecution witness during Trump’s trial on charges that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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