Was illegal....

Trump was told that scheme to have Pence overturn 2020 vote was illegal before Jan. 6, testimony shows

From CNN's Marshall Cohen

Former President Donald Trump was repeatedly told that his plan for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election on Jan. 6 was illegal, according to testimony revealed Thursday by the Jan. 6 committee.

Despite these warnings from Pence himself and the lawyer who concocted the scheme, Trump publicly and privately pressured Pence to go along with the plan, which committee members say shows Trump’s corrupt intentions. Pence refused to overturn the results. 

In a videotaped deposition, which was played Thursday, Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short said Pence advised Trump “many times” that he didn’t have the legal or constitutional authority to overturn the results while presiding over the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 to count the electoral votes.  

The vice president has a ceremonial role in those proceedings — and Trump wanted Pence to abuse that position to throw out Joe Biden’s electoral votes from key states, securing a second Trump term. 

Even John Eastman, the right-wing lawyer who helped devise the scheme and pitched it to Trump, admitted in front of Trump that the plan would require Pence to violate federal law, according to a clip of a deposition from Pence’s senior legal adviser Greg Jacob, which was played at Thursday’s hearing. 

The law in question is the Electoral Count Act, which was passed in 1887 and spells out the Electoral College process for states, and how Congress should handle disputed slates of presidential electors.