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First on CNN: Classified documents found at Pence’s Indiana home

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Washington
CNN
 — 

A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and how they ended up in Pence’s house in Indiana.

The classified documents were discovered at the former vice president’s new home in Carmel, Indiana, by a lawyer for Pence in the wake of the revelations about classified material discovered in President Joe Biden’s private office and residence, the sources said. The discovery comes after Pence has repeatedly said he did not have any classified documents in his possession.

It is not yet clear what the documents are related to or their level of sensitivity or classification.

Pence’s team notified congressional leaders and relevant committees of the discovery on Tuesday.

Pence asked his lawyer with experience handling classified material to conduct the search of his home out of an abundance of caution. Sources said that the attorney, Matt Morgan, began going through four boxes stored at Pence’s house last week, finding a small number of documents with classified markings.

Pence’s lawyer immediately alerted the National Archives, the sources said. In turn, the Archives informed the Justice Department.

A lawyer for Pence told CNN that the FBI requested to pick up the documents with classified markings that evening, and Pence agreed. Agents from the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis picked up the documents from Pence’s home, the lawyer said.

On Monday, Pence’s legal team drove the boxes back to Washington, DC, and handed them over to the Archives to review the rest of the material for compliance with the Presidential Records Act.

In a letter to the National Archives obtained by CNN, Pence’s representative to the Archives, Greg Jacob, wrote that a “small number of documents bearing classified markings” were inadvertently boxed and transported to the vice president’s home.

“Vice President Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence,” Jacob wrote. “Vice President Pence understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information and stands ready and willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry.”

The classified material was stored in boxes that first went to Pence’s temporary home in Virginia before they were moved to Indiana, according to the sources. The boxes were not in a secure area, but they were taped up and were not believed to have been opened since they were packed, according to Pence’s attorney. Once the classified documents were discovered, the sources said they were placed inside a safe located in the house.

Pence’s Washington, DC, advocacy group office was also searched, Pence’s lawyer said, and no classified material or other records covered by the Presidential Records Act were discovered.

The news about Pence comes as special counsels investigate the handling of classified documents by both Biden and former President Donald Trump. The revelations also come amid speculation that Pence is readying for a run at the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

Since the FBI searched Trump’s home in Florida for classified material in August with a search warrant, Pence has said that he had not retained any classified material upon leaving office. “No, not to my knowledge,” he told The Associated Press in August.

In November, Pence was asked by ABC News at his Indiana home whether he had taken any classified documents from the White House.

“I did not,” Pence responded.

“Well, there’d be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area,” Pence continued. “But I will tell you that I believe there had to be many better ways to resolve that issue than executing a search warrant at the personal residence of a former president of the United States.”

While Pence’s vice presidential office in general did a rigorous job while he was leaving office of sorting through and turning over any classified material and unclassified material covered by the Presidential Records Act, these classified documents appear to have inadvertently slipped through the process because most of the materials were packed up separately from the vice president’s residence, along with Pence’s personal papers, the sources told CNN.

The vice president’s residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington has a secure facility for handling classified material along with other security, and it would be common for classified documents to be there for the vice president to review.

Some of the boxes at Pence’s Indiana home were packed up from the vice president’s residence, while some came from the White House in the final days of the Trump administration, which included last-minute things that did not go through the process the rest of Pence’s documents did.

The discovery of classified documents in Pence’s residence marks the third time in recent history in which a president or vice president has inappropriately possessed classified material after leaving office. Both Biden and Trump are now being investigated by separate special counsels for their handling of classified materials.

Sources familiar with the process say Pence’s discovery of classified documents after the Trump and Biden controversies would suggest a more systemic problem related to classified material and the Presidential Records Act, which requires official records from the White House to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of an administration.

On Friday, the FBI searched Biden’s Wilmington residence for additional classified material, an unprecedented search of a sitting president’s home that turned up six additional items containing classified markings. The search was conducted after Biden’s lawyers discovered classified material in Wilmington following the initial discovery of classified documents at Biden’s private think office in November.

Biden’s attorneys say they are fully cooperating with the Justice Department, seeking to draw a distinction from the Trump investigation.

Tuesday’s development was welcome news for Biden administration officials and allies. As one senior administration official put it: “It turns down the temperature on this being a Biden-only story.”

One hope, this official said, is that the discovery of classified documents at Pence’s home will help to underscore that Biden aides were not alone in making the mistake of packing up classified documents that should have been turned over to the Archives. The development could also be used by the White House, the official said, to emphasize the importance of how the situation was handled once the classified documents were discovered.

Administration officials have maintained that lawyers working for the president did the right thing by immediately informing the Archives as soon as classified documents were first found in early November, drawing the distinction between the Biden legal team’s handling of the matter and the actions of Trump and his team.

The FBI obtained a search warrant to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August. Federal investigators took that step because they believed Trump had not turned over all classified material despite a subpoena and were concerned records at Mar-a-Lago were being moved around.

Still, Trump’s legal team also viewed the Pence development as positive for the former president, according to a source familiar with the matter. While the circumstances are different in each case, members of his legal team believe the developments will make it harder for prosecutors to justify bringing criminal charges against any of them, the source said.

“They are all now linked in a way,” the source said, referring to Pence, Biden and Trump.

Pence told Larry Kudlow in a Fox Business interview earlier this month that he received the President’s Daily Brief at the vice president’s residence.

“I’d rise early. I’d go to the safe where my military aide would place those classified materials. I’d pull them out, review them,” Pence said. “I’d receive a presentation to them and then, frankly, more often than not Larry, I would simply return them back to the file that I’d received them in. They went in commonly into what was called a burn bag that my military aide would gather and then destroy those classified materials—same goes in materials that I would receive at the White House.”

Congressional leaders in both parties were stunned about the new revelations that Pence was also in possession of classified records at his home.

“I don’t understand this,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin.

“The bottom line is I don’t know how this happened, we need to get to the bottom of it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. “I don’t believe for a minute that Mike Pence is trying to intentionally compromise national security. But clearly we’ve got a problem here.”

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul responded to the development, calling it “not permissible.”

“I don’t know what to tell you other than it’s not permissible, whether you’re a chairman of a committee or president of the United States or vice president. And I’ve been dealing in the classified world all my career; I don’t understand people taking these documents home. If you do that, you’re supposed to have a safe designated for storage and you have to have a proper briefcase to carry it in. I don’t know all the facts here,” the Texas Republican said.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is investigating Biden’s classified documents, said in a statement that Pence reached out to him about the classified documents found at his home.

“He has agreed to fully cooperate with congressional oversight and any questions we have about the matter,” said Comer, adding that Pence’s transparency “stands in stark contrast” to the Biden administration’s response to Congress over the classified documents. Comer’s statement did not mention Trump’s classified documents.

The former president, however, came to Pence’s defense on Tuesday. “Mike Pence is an innocent man. He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!” Trump posted on his social media site.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated when Pence appeared on Fox Business. It has also been updated with additional details.

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First on CNN: Classified documents found at Pence’s Indiana home

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Washington
CNN
 — 

A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and how they ended up in Pence’s house in Indiana.

The classified documents were discovered at Pence’s new home in Carmel, Indiana, by a lawyer for Pence in the wake of the revelations about classified material discovered in President Joe Biden’s private office and residence, the sources said. The discovery comes after Pence has repeatedly said he did not have any classified documents in his possession.

It is not yet clear what the documents are related to or their level of sensitivity or classification.

Pence’s team notified congressional leaders and relevant committees of the discovery on Tuesday.

Pence asked his lawyer to conduct the search of his home out of an abundance of caution, and the attorney began going through four boxes stored at Pence’s house last week, finding a small number of documents with classified markings, the sources said.

Pence’s lawyer immediately alerted the National Archives, the sources said. In turn, the Archives informed the Justice Department.

A lawyer for Pence told CNN that the FBI requested to pick up the documents with classified markings that evening, and Pence agreed. Agents from the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis picked up the documents from Pence’s home, the lawyer said.

On Monday, Pence’s legal team drove the boxes back to Washington, DC, and handed them over to the Archives to review the rest of the material for compliance with the Presidential Records Act.

In a letter to the National Archives obtained by CNN, Pence’s representative to the Archives Greg Jacob wrote that a “small number of documents bearing classified markings” were inadvertently boxed and transported to the vice president’s home.

“Vice President Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence,” Jacob wrote. “Vice President Pence understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information and stands ready and willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry.”

The classified material was stored in boxes that first went to Pence’s temporary home in Virginia before they were moved to Indiana, according to the sources. The boxes were not in a secure area, but they were taped up and were not believed to have been opened since they were packed, according to Pence’s attorney. Once the classified documents were discovered, the sources said they were placed inside a safe located in the house.

Pence’s Washington, DC, advocacy group office was also searched, Pence’s lawyer said, and no classified material or other records covered by the Presidential Records Act was discovered.

The news about Pence come as special counsels investigate the handling of classified documents by both Biden and former President Donald Trump. The revelations also come amid speculation that Pence is readying for a run at the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

Since the FBI searched Trump’s home in Florida for classified material in August with a search warrant, Pence has said that he had not retained any classified material upon leaving office. “No, not to my knowledge,” he told The Associated Press in August.

In November, Pence was asked by ABC News at his Indiana home whether he had taken any classified documents from the White House.

“I did not,” Pence responded.

“Well, there’d be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area,” Pence continued. “But I will tell you that I believe there had to be many better ways to resolve that issue than executing a search warrant at the personal residence of a former president of the United States.”

While Pence’s vice presidential office in general did a rigorous job while he was leaving office of sorting through and turning over any classified material and unclassified material covered by the Presidential Records Act, these classified documents appear to have inadvertently slipped through the process because most of the materials were packed up separately from the vice president’s residence, along with Pence’s personal papers, the sources told ClNN.

The vice president’s residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington has a secure facility for handling classified material along with other security, and it would be common for classified documents to be there for the vice president to review.

Some of the boxes at Pence’s Indiana home were packed up from the vice president’s residence, while some came from the White House in the final days of the Trump administration, which included last-minute things that did not go through the process the rest of Pence’s documents did.

The discovery of classified documents in Pence’s residence marks the third time in recent history in which a president or vice president has inappropriately possessed classified material after leaving office. Both Biden and Trump are now being investigated by separate special counsels for their handling of classified materials.

Sources familiar with the process say Pence’s discovery of classified documents after the Trump and Biden controversies would suggest a more systemic problem related to classified material and the Presidential Records Act, which requires official records from the White House to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of an administration.

On Friday, the FBI searched Biden’s Wilmington residence for additional classified material, an unprecedented search of a sitting president’s home that turned up six additional items containing classified markings. The search was conducted after Biden’s lawyers discovered classified material in Wilmington following the initial discovery of classified documents at Biden’s private think office in November.

Biden’s attorneys say they are fully cooperating with the Justice Department, seeking to draw a distinction from the Trump investigation.

The FBI obtained a search warrant to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August. Federal investigators took that step because they believed Trump had not turned over all classified material despite a subpoena and were concerned records at Mar-a-Lago were being moved around.

Last week, Pence told Larry Kudlow in a Fox Business interview that he received the President’s Daily Brief at the vice president’s residence.

“I’d rise early. I’d go to the safe where my military aide would place those classified materials. I’d pull them out, review them,” Pence said. “I’d receive a presentation to them and then, frankly, more often than not Larry, I would simply return them back to the file that I’d received them in. They went in commonly into what was called a burn bag that my military aide would gather and then destroy those classified materials—same goes in materials that I would receive at the White House.”

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6 takeaways from former Vice President Mike Pence’s CNN town hall

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CNN
 — 

Former Vice President Mike Pence in a CNN town hall on Wednesday refused to commit his support to former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign and left the door open to seeking the Republican nomination himself.

Speaking a day after the release of his memoir, “So Help Me God,” Pence was mostly coy when discussing his own plans while touting the Trump administration’s policy agenda.

But Pence was more direct when asked about the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. The former vice president called it “the most difficult day of my public life.”

Pence also revealed more about his personal feelings about that day and his views on the state of American politics in the aftermath of a presidency that he said did not end well.

Here are takeaways from the town hall:

Asked about Trump’s new campaign for president, which he announced Tuesday, Pence said he believed that there would be “better choices” on the ballot in two years.

Pence left open the possibility that one of those preferable options, as he saw it, might be him.

“I’ll keep you posted,” Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper, who moderated the event.

Moments earlier, as he grappled with the Trump question, Pence said, “I think it’s time for new leadership in this country that will bring us together around our highest ideals.”

Pressed by Tapper about his future, Pence replied, “There may be someone else in that contest I’d prefer more.”

It was, Pence said, the “most difficult day of my public life.”

“I thought it was important, as vice president, that I offer my advice and my counsel to the president confidentially. And we did,” Pence said of his role that day, when Trump and others allied with the then-president tried to convince him to launch an unconstitutional bid to block or overturn the election results.

Pence said his decision to ignore Trump’s entreaties was rooted in something deeper than their relationship.

“I had one higher loyalty, and that was to God and the Constitution. And that’s what set in motion the confrontation that would come to pass on January 6 because I had taken an oath to the Constitution of the United States,” Pence said.

Breaking with the man who selected him as a runningmate ahead of the 2016 election and elevated him to within a whisper of the Oval Office “was difficult,” Pence said.

“But I’ll always believe,” he added, “that we did our duty that day upholding the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this country and the peaceful transfer of power.”

In the days that followed, Pence said, he was upset with Trump over the then-president’s role in the deadly insurrection.

“The president’s words and tweet that day were reckless,” Pence said. “They endangered my family and all the people at the Capitol.”

But Pence also shut down any speculation as to whether he would testify before the House select committee investigating January 6, saying that “Congress has no right to my testimony.” He said it would set a “terrible precedent” for a congressional committee to summon a vice president to discuss deliberations held at the White House, arguing that it would violate the separation of powers and “erode the dynamic” between a president and vice president.

After CNN played footage of January 6 rioters chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” the former vice president said he was saddened to see the images again, but that in the moment, “it angered me.”

Pence, who moved to a secure location as the Capitol was breached, said he told Secret Service that he would not leave, insisting he remain at his post, in part because he did not want the mob to see his motorcade speeding away.

“But frankly, when I saw those images, and when I read a tweet that President Trump issued, saying that I lacked courage in that moment, It angered me greatly,” Pence said. But, he added, “I didn’t have time for it.”

After years standing by Trump’s side through assorted scandals and crises – and also benefiting from the former president’s political rise – Pence said he had decided that, in this fight, they would take opposite sides.

“The President had decided in that moment to be a part of the problem,” said Pence, who told Tapper he “was determined to be part of the solution.”

Pence then discussed gathering the Republican and Democratic leadership of the House and Senate on a conference call, reaching out to Pentagon brass and Justice Department officials “to surge additional resources” to assist Capitol Hill police officers.

Congress ultimately reconvened on the same day and, after Republican challenges to the count, finally confirmed Biden as the next president.

“We demonstrated to the American people and the world the strength of our institutions (and) the resilience of our democracy,” Pence said. “But those memories, those images will always be with me.”

Pence described in vivid detail his meetings with Trump in the days after the riot at the Capitol. When he first saw Trump at the White House days after January 6, he said the then-president immediately asked about his family and whether they were OK.

Though it was at odds with the public perceptions of Trump, Pence said, he believed that Trump was “deeply remorseful in that moment.”

“I could tell he was saddened by what had happened,” Pence said. “I encouraged him to pray. He told me many times that he was a believer, and I told him to turn to Jesus hoping that he would find the comfort there – and that I was finding in that moment.”

In the days that followed, Pence said he saw Trump for another meeting and that the president was still “downcast.” After they finished talking through administration business, Pence said, “I reminded him that I was praying for him” and Trump was “dismissive about it.”

“As our meeting came to a close, I stood up,” Pence said. “I looked at him and I said, I guess there’s just two things we’ll probably never agree on. And he looked up and said, ‘What?’”

“I referred to my role on January 6,” Pence said. “And then I said, ‘Never gonna stop praying for you.’”

“He smiled faintly and said, ‘That’s right. Don’t ever change.’ And we parted amicably as much as we could in the aftermath of those events.”

In lamenting Republicans’ underwhelming performance in the 2022 midterms, Pence observed that candidates who talked about the future outshone those who focused more on “relitigating the past.”

“And I expect that’s going to be taken to heart by Republicans,” Pence said.

Asked why, then, he chose to campaign alongside election deniers – including GOP Senate nominees Don Bolduc in New Hampshire and Blake Masters in Arizona, both of whom lost last week – Pence said party loyalty trumped other concerns.

“I’ve often said, ‘I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican – in that order. But I am a Republican,” Pence said, “and once Republican primary voters had chosen their nominees I went out and traveled to 35 states over the last year and a half to see if we could elect a Republican majority in the House, Senate, elect Republican governors all across the country.”

Pence added that his appearance on the stump with a candidate “didn’t mean, as it hasn’t meant in the past, that I agreed with every statement or every position candidates that I’m supporting in the Republican Party have taken.”

He also tried to make a false equivalence between Trump’s lies about election fraud in 2020 and Hillary Clinton’s comments after 2016, noting that she said “Donald Trump was not a legitimate president, for years.”

“I think there’s been far too much questioning of elections, not just in 2020 but in 2016,” he said.

Pence has very carefully crafted his explanation of the events leading up to January 6, during that day’s attack on the Capitol and in his conversations with Trump afterward – and isn’t deviating from that explanation.

As he has unspooled those events, Pence’s comments have been virtually identical in his book, in CNN’s town hall and in interviews with other news networks in recent days.

He’d made clear what he is willing to say. Among the key points: That Trump listened to the wrong lawyers in the lead-up to January 6; that he was “angry” watching the attack on the Capitol; that he left Trump with a commitment to continue to pray for him; and that the two no longer talk.

But it’s just as clear where Pence won’t go: He won’t reveal any simmering resentment with Trump, saying his faith commands forgiveness. He won’t place blame fully on Republicans for agitating the party’s base with falsehoods about election fraud. He won’t legitimize the work of the House committee investigating the events surrounding that day.

Pence’s slow, measured delivery of a consistent message is a characteristic that traces back to his days as a self-styled “Rush Limbaugh on decaf” conservative talk radio host in Indiana.

It’s an approach that has remained consistent through his entire political career, including 12 years in the House and four years as Indiana governor. Pence often repeats virtually the same message – line by line, paragraph by paragraph – even when that message doesn’t directly answer the question he was asked.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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Ex-Vice President Pence’s Secret Service agents made calls to loved ones during Jan. 6 riot

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Members of Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail phoned loved ones to say their final farewells on Jan 6, 2021 as rioters called for Pence’s head came within feet of the former vice president, it was revealed on Thursday.

The agents feared for their lives as they made a frantic effort to evacuate Pence from the Senate chamber while angry rioters called for the vice president to be hanged.

“The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives,” an unidentified security official told the select panel investigating the Capitol riot.

“There was a lot of yelling, a lot of very personal calls over the radio, so it was disturbing. I don’t like talking about it,” he testified.

The agents protecting Pence were preparing for a potential clash with the rioters when they placed the desperate phone calls.

“There were calls to say goodbye to family members,” he continued. “For whatever the reason was on the ground, the VP detail thought that this was about to get very ugly.”

He added: “We came very close to either Service having to use lethal options or worse.”

Mike Pence’s agents were prepared for the rioting after there were desperate phone calls placed on their behalf regarding the clash.
Siavosh Hosseini/SOPA Images/Shu

As Pence was held in an office off the Senate floor at 2:13 p.m., a female agent was heard saying on the radio: “They gained access to the second floor and they are about five feet from me down below.”

“If we lose any more time, we may lose the ability to leave, so if we are going to leave, we need to go now,” another agent recalled.

Security footage showed the corridors of the building filling with smoke as the tension grew.

The panel’s eighth hearing on Thursday focused on former President Donald Trump’s failure to call on the rioters to leave the Capitol for more than three hours after the building was breached.

Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s former national security advisor and former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews told lawmakers that his inaction led them to hand in their resignations that same day.

The select panel said hearings will be scheduled for September after lawmakers spend next month organizing an abundance of new evidence about the former president’s role in the riots.

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Trump put target on Pence’s back, witnesses say

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‘Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 … is a stain on our history,’ Kinzinger says

House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) delivers opening remarks during a prime-time hearing in the Cannon House Office Building on July 21, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

“Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 … is a stain on our history,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger said at the close of the hearing.

Kinzinger, R-Ill., blasted Trump for failing to call off the mob of his supporters attacking the Capitol, and for sending out tweets from the comfort of his private dining room in the White House “that inflamed and expressed support for the desire of some to literally kill Vice President Mike Pence.”

“For three hours he refused to call off the attack,” Kinzinger said. “Donald Trump refused to take the urgent advice he received that day … from his own family, his own friends, his own staff, and his own advisors.:

“Still he refused to lead, and meet the moment to honor his oath,” Kinzinger said.

“Whatever your politics, whatever you think about the outcome of the election, we as Americans must all agree on this: Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 was a supreme violation of this oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation,” he said. “It is a stain on our history, it is a dishonor to all those who have sacrificed and died in service to our democracy, when we present our full findings we will recommend changes to laws and policies to guard against another Jan. 6.”

Kinzinger said the forces and people Trump unleashed that day are still around. “They’re still out there, ready to go. That’s the elephant in the room,” the lawmaker said.

– Dan Mangan

Hearing adjourns

U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, speaks during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, July 21, 2022. 

Al Drago | Reuters

The Jan. 6 committee concluded its primetime hearing about 15 minutes before 11 p.m. ET. It started at 8 p.m., meaning the hearing was shorter than the 187 minutes Trump didn’t act to halt his supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office,” Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney said during her closing statement.

Ex-Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia urged Trump not to listen to Giuliani after riot

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney to U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 7, 2020.

Eduardo Munoz | Reuters

In a memo drafted after the riot, then-Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia urged Trump not to publicly deny the election results for the rest of his presidency, and not listen to private individuals who have served him “poorly.”

Those individuals were unnamed in Scalia’s memo, which pushed for Trump to convene a Cabinet meeting to gain their advice on what decisions to make in the final weeks of his presidency.

But Kinzinger said that Scalia was referring to Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s then-personal attorney who was deeply involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, among others.

— Kevin Breuninger

House Republicans call their own employee Matthews ‘liar’ and ‘pawn’ in ‘witch-hunt’

The official House Republicans Twitter account called GOP congressional employee Sarah Matthews “just another liar and pawn in [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s witch-hunt” during the hearing, where she was testifying.

That tweet about Matthews, who had worked as a Trump White House press aide, was soon deleted.

So was another House Republicans tweet referring to hearing: “This is all heresy.”

A number of Twitter accounts quickly mocked the GOP account, saying it apparently meant to say the testimony was “hearsay.” But others suggested that “heresy” was how the Republicans saw it.

Matthews, 27, resigned within hours of the attack of the Capitol by Trump supporters.

She currently works as the communications director for Republicans who serve on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

Matthews testified that Jan. 6 “was one of the darkest days in American history.”

“Make no mistake, the events on the 6th were a coup attempt, a term we’d use had they happened in any other country, and former President Trump failed to meet the moment,” Matthews tweeted earlier this year.

– Dan Mangan

Trump’s ‘we love you’ message to rioters was ‘disturbing,’ Matthews says

Former US President Donald Trump displayed on a screen during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, July 21, 2022.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Former White House press aide Sarah Matthews said it was “disturbing” to hear Trump tell the rioters “we love you, you’re very special” in his 4:17 p.m. video finally calling for an end to the riot.

Matthews said she knew that as a communications staffer, she would be asked to defend that message. But she believed that his message “was indefensible,” and therefore “I knew that I would be resigning that evening.”

Trump’s Rose Garden message was delivered “off the cuff,” another witness told the committee, even though more forceful language had been written for him to read.

The committee played deleted scenes from the video, showing Trump refining his message, which included numerous false claims about election theft that had spurred the mob to invade the Capitol in the first place.

Jared Kushner: McCarthy was ‘scared’ when he called and asked for help during riot

A video of Jared Kushner is shown on a screen, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 21, 2022. 

Alex Brandon | Reuters

Trump’s son-in-law and former senior advisor Jared Kushner told the committee that he believed House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy was “scared” when he called Kushner during the riot and asked for help.

McCarthy had also spoken with Trump on the phone, but the then-president did not act to call off the mob until later in the afternoon.

Kushner, in a video clip from his interview with the select committee, said McCarthy “told me it was getting really ugly.”

Kushner added: “He was scared, yes.”

— Kevin Breuninger

White House staff wanted rioters to leave the Capitol, Cipollone said — but Trump refused

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone told investigators that he couldn’t think of any members of the White House staff who did not want the mob immediately dispersed from the Capitol — but Trump refused, the committee said.

Cipollone named an array of then-White House staffers, lawyers and Trump family members, all of whom wanted the rioters to leave the building. Among those he named were Kayleigh McEnany, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Eric Herschmann, Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino.

But when asked if Trump wanted the same thing, Cipollone said he could not discuss his communications with the former president, citing executive privilege.

— Kevin Breuninger

Pence’s security team started ‘to fear for their own lives’

Shocking new surveillance video footage and security chat logs show that Vice President Pence’s security detail started “to fear for their own lives” as Trump-supporting rioters got close to them in the Capitol.

“If we lose any more time, we may lose the ability to leave,” one member of Pence’s security team said on a radio call. “So if we’re going to leave, we need to do it now.”

Radio traffic obtained by the committee revealed members of Pence’s security asking colleagues to tell their families “goodbye” as fear rose that they would be attacked as they moved the vice president.

– Dan Mangan

Trump’s mid-riot tweet attacking Pence ‘put a target on his own vice president’s back’

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol hold a prime-time hearing in the Cannon House Office Building on July 21, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Win Mcnamee | Getty Images

Trump attacked Vice President Mike Pence in a 2:24 p.m. ET tweet on Jan. 6, despite knowing that the violent mob had entered the Capitol, “adding fuel to the fire,” Rep. Elaine Luria said.

“He put a target on his own vice president’s back,” Luria said.

Trump in that tweet wrote that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”

Matthews and Pottinger, the two former Trump aides testifying in person, strongly criticized the tweet.

“That was the moment that I decided I was going to resign,” Pottinger said. “I didn’t want to be associated with the events that were unfolding at the Capitol.”

Pottinger and Matthews both submitted their resignations on Jan. 6.

— Kevin Breuninger

Matthews: If Trump wanted to make a statement, he could have been on camera ‘almost instantly’

Former Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews speaks during a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2022.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Former White House press aide Sarah Matthews testified that if Trump wanted to quickly call for his supporters to disperse from the Capitol, he could have been on camera “almost instantly.”

Trump was in the White House dining room, adjacent to the Oval Office, for much of the 187-minute interval, the committee said. That room is near the White House briefing room; in between both is the Rose Garden, where Trump eventually recorded his video call for the rioters to “go home.”

A diagram of the Oval Office of the White House and grounds displayed on a screen during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, July 21, 2022. 

Al Drago | Reuters

Cipollone said he and others — including Ivanka and Mark Meadows — pushed for stronger calls for mob to leave

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in his deposition with investigators that as soon as he learned of violence at the Capitol, he and others had forcefully pushed for the release of a statement telling rioters to leave the building immediately.

“People need to be told, there needs to be a public announcement fast that they need to leave the Capitol,” Cipollone said. He refused to relay his direct conversations with Trump during the interview, citing executive privilege.

But he said he was joined in that effort by other officials, including Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and White House lawyer Eric Herschmann.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump was told Capitol was under attack within 15 minutes of leaving rally stage.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol hold a prime-time hearing in the Cannon House Office Building on July 21, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images

Trump was told as soon he returned to the White House from a rally just outside that the U.S. Capitol was being attacked, Rep. Elaine Luria revealed.

Luria, D-Va., pointed out a photo of Trump, still wearing his overcoat from the rally, in the Oval Office when he came back inside, after the Secret Service refused to take him to the Capitol to lead his supporters in a protest there, as he had wanted.

“A White House employee informed the president, as soon he returned, about the riot at the Capitol,” Luria said.

“Let me repeat that: Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack.”

Luria said that witnesses have told the committee that Trump then, at 1:25 p.m., went to his private dining room off the Oval Office, where he sat until 4 p.m. watching Fox News, which was showing the scenes inside and outside the Capitol.

She noted that there is no record of Trump receiving or placing a call between 11:06 a.m. and 6:54 p.m.

– Dan Mangan

Multiple sources tell committee Trump angrily demanded ride to Capitol

Trump was “irate” and got in a heated argument when his security officials refused to drive him to the Capitol after his rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, more witnesses testified to the select committee.

The newly revealed testimony appears to align with what former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the select committee in sworn testimony last month. Some of Trump’s allies, and unnamed Secret Service sources, had initially pushed back on Hutchinson’s testimony.

In Thursday’s hearing, the committee said that one White House employee, who was unnamed out of fears of retribution, said that they heard from Trump’s security chief Tony Ornato on Jan. 6 that Trump was “irate” when another agent, Bobby Engel, refused to drive him to Capitol.’

Another witness, retired D.C. Police Department Sgt. Mark Robinson, told the committee, “There was a heated argument or discussion about going to the Capitol.”

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump didn’t fail to act for 187 minutes — ‘He chose not to act,’ Kinzinger says

“187 Minutes” is displayed on a screen between images of former US President Donald Trump during a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2022.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Trump’s refusal to call off the mob of his supporters for more than three hours was a “dereliction of duty,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said — but it was a deliberate choice, not a failure of action, by the former president.

Trump’s plan was to halt or delay Congress from counting key electoral votes for Biden, Kinzinger said, and the evacuation of Congress caused by the mob accomplished Trump’s goal. “So of course he didn’t intervene,” Kinzinger said.

Trump didn’t “fail to act,” Kinzinger said, “He chose not to act.”

— Kevin Breuninger

Almost no one defended Trump after Jan. 6 ‘and no one should do so today,’ Cheney says

Vice Chair U.S. Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) speaks during a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2022.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Cheney said that Trump’s staff, his counsel, his allies in Congress and members of his family had implored him to act to quickly stop the violence on Jan. 6 — but Trump refused.

After his other efforts to reverse Biden’s electoral victory failed, only the violent mob was achieving Trump’s goal of disrupting Congress from confirming the election results, Cheney explained.

In the days after the riot, almost no one would defend Trump’s conduct, “and no one should do so today,” Cheney said.

That remark came right after Cheney noted that House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy “was scared, as were others in congress,” during the riot. McCarthy, and many other Republicans, have since resumed vocally supporting Trump.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump ‘could not be moved’ to stop the mob on Jan. 6, Thompson says

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, delivers opening remarks via video due to being positive for COVID-19 in the Cannon House Office Building on July 21, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images

Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said that Trump refused to move from the White House dining room to quell the violent mob of his supporters even as he knew they were storming the Capitol.

“He could not be moved” for 187 minutes,” Thompson said of Trump at the start of the hearing.

The president, who had “emphatically commanded the heavily armed mob to fight like hell,” suddenly “could not be moved to rise from his dining room table” during the riot, Thompson said.

“There needs to be accountability” under the law, the chairman said. “There must be stiff consequences for those responsible.”

— Kevin Breuninger

Select committee will hold more hearings in September

Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, center, speaks during hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The select committee will hold more hearings in September, NBC News reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is expected to announce the new schedule during Thursday’s hearing, NBC reported.

“The dam has begun to break,” Cheney said during the hearing, confirming the NBC report.

— Kevin Breuninger

Two ex-Trump administration aides expected to testify in person

Sarah Matthews, White House deputy press secretary, listens during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Former White House press aide Sarah Matthews and ex-national security aide Matthew Pottinger are expected to testify before the select committee in the hearing, NBC News reported.

Matthews, who was White House deputy press secretary under Trump, resigned on the evening of the Capitol riot. “As someone who worked in the halls of Congress I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today,” she said in a statement at the time.

Pottinger, the former U.S. deputy national security advisor, submitted his resignation that same day.

Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a previous hearing that Pottinger “was in the vicinity of the Oval Office at various points throughout the day.”

Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger arrives for a Medal of Honor ceremony for Sergeant Major Thomas P. Payne, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry in the East Room of the White House on September 11, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Other high-level Trump officials, including former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, resigned in the aftermath of the insurrection. Chao’s resignation statement appeared to place blame on Trump, lamenting the “entirely avoidable event” caused by “supporters of the President … following a rally he addressed.”

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump was watching TV in White House dining room during riot, witnesses told committee

Trump was watching television in a White House dining room while rioters were raging at the Capitol, multiple witnesses told the select committee.

That’s according to a video shared hours before the hearing by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who is set to co-lead the presentation with Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.

The 49-second video shared on Kinzinger’s Twitter account included clips of the committee’s interviews with multiple former Trump administration officials, who described their experiences at the White House on Jan. 6.

“To the best of my recollection, he was always in the dining room,” former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told investigators, the video showed.

In another clip, Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg said he recalled “everyone was watching the TV” during his brief encounter in that dining room.

Trump’s former executive assistant Molly Michael told the committee that when she talked to Trump on Jan. 6, “It’s my understanding he was watching television.”

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, a highly sought-after witness who spoke with the investigation under subpoena in recent weeks, confirmed that the violence occurring at the Capitol was visible on the television screen when he was in the dining room with Trump.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump lashes out at select committee, Pelosi ahead of hearing

Donald Trump started criticizing the select committee on social media hours before the hearing began.

In a post on his online platform Truth Social, the former president trotted out a much-disputed claim to suggest that two Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, were to blame for the Capitol riot.

The post asked rhetorically why the “Unselects” are not making Pelosi and Bowser testify “as to why they turned down my recommendation on January 3rd of 10,000 to 20,000 troops to stand guard at the Capitol Building on January 6th.”

“Had they followed this recommendation, there would have been no problem January 6th!!!” Trump claimed.

Fact-checkers have repeatedly determined that there is no evidence that Pelosi rejected a request from Trump to authorize National Guard troops ahead of Jan. 6, 2021. Some have pointed out the D.C. National Guard falls under the control of the president.

Select committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., has also noted that on the day of the riot itself, Trump “gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day, and made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets.”

— Kevin Breuninger

What to expect from the hearing

US President Donald Trump’s supporters gather outside the Capitol building, January 6, 2021.

Probal Rashid | LightRocket | Getty Images

The committee’s prime-time hearing Thursday evening will serve as the next chapter in a summer of revelations of how former President Donald Trump behaved before and during the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The bipartisan committee, though several key witnesses, has painted the former commander-in-chief as a vitriolic and dangerous leader who urged supporters to storm the Capitol in protest of the presidential election he lost to President Joe Biden.

One of the witnesses the panel plans to question on Thursday is Matthew Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration until he resigned on Jan. 6. Pottinger, a Marine Corps veteran, is expected to detail how the former president failed to act for hours as his supporters broke into the Capitol.

The committee also plans to play a number of recorded testimonies that document Trump’s failure to reinforce Capitol police on Jan. 6, including remarks from Pat Cipollone, the former White House counsel.

— Thomas Franck

Criminal probe launched after the deletion of Secret Service Jan. 6 text messages

U.S. Secret Service agents stand watch as Marine One, with U.S. President Donald Trump on board, departs the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Committee Chairman Thompson won’t be in the room due to Covid diagnosis

Committee Chairperson U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) speaks during fifth public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2022. 

Jim Bourg | Reuters

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, will miss Thursday evening’s hearing as he recovers from Covid-19.

The Mississippi Democrat, who is fully vaccinated and boosted against the coronavirus, wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning that he was experiencing mild symptoms after receiving a positive test result. Committee spokesman Tim Mulvey told reporters that Thompson directed the panel to proceed with Thursday evening’s hearing without him.

The chairman is expected to attending the hearing virtually and his isolation is not expected to affect the hearing otherwise.

— Thomas Franck



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Tuberville again says he told Trump about Pence’s evacuation

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  • GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville has again said he told Trump when Pence was evacuated during the Capitol riot.
  • GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy asked about the timeline, and Trump’s tweet attacking Pence, during the trial.
  • Trump’s defense lawyer dismissed Tuberville’s account as “hearsay.”
  • Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Friday repeated his assertion that he informed President Donald Trump of Vice President Mike Pence’s evacuation from the Senate during the Capitol siege. Trump’s team had cast doubt on the claim during their defense.

“I said: Mr. President, they’ve taken the vice president out. They want me to get off the phone, I gotta go,” Tuberville said, according to CNN and other accounts. Tuberville also said he was “probably the only guy in the world” to hang up on the president.

The phone call, and the timeline, have come under scrutiny during Trump’s impeachment trial, as senators question if Trump knew Pence was in danger from the violent mob when he sent out a tweet attacking the vice president.

Read more: Meet the little-known power player with the ‘hardest job’ on Capitol Hill. She’s shaping Trump’s impeachment trial and Joe Biden’s agenda.

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,” Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m. on January 6, as a mob of his supporters closed in on the Senate chamber. Pence was evacuated at 2:13 p.m. local time.

Tuberville first revealed Wednesday evening he had informed Trump of Pence’s evacuation. The president had called the Alabama senator to encourage him to protest the certification of the election, according to multiple reports.

Trump had actually dialed Sen. Mike Lee, who passed his cell phone along to Tuberville. Lee’s office said Friday he received the call from Trump at 2:26 p.m., or two minutes after Trump’s tweet, the Washington Post reported.

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana asked Trump’s lawyers and the impeachment managers specifically about the tweet during the questioning portion of the trial Friday.

“The tweet and lack of response suggest President Trump did not care that Vice President Pence was endangered or that law enforcement was overwhelmed,” Cassidy said. “Does this show that President Trump was tolerant of the intimidation of Vice President Pence?”

Trump’s defense lawyer Michael van der Veen disputed the facts of the timeline that Cassidy presented, calling Tuberville’s claim “hearsay.”

Following the exchange, reporters questioned Tuberville about the phone call, prompting him to reiterate his version of the events.

Some lawmakers were also dissatisfied with the response of Trump’s lawyers. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren told reporters she did not think the response was adequate and that the question was important, but “Donald Trump’s lawyers simply, once again, tried to distract, look another way, and take attention away from the underlying question about what the evidence showed that Donald Trump knew and when he knew it.”

Independent Sen. Angus King told also reporters he thought the question was important and that the response of Trump’s lawyers was insufficient.



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