The Jan. 6 committee lacks authority to charge people with crimes, but it can refer any evidence it uncovers to the Justice Department.
The filing includes excerpts from e-mail exchanges between Eastman and Greg Jacob, who was serving as Pence’s chief counsel, on the day of the insurrection. Here is a look at the exchanges, in which Eastman attempted to convince Jacob to get Pence to violate the Electoral Count Act and change the outcome of the election.
‘YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary’
After the assault on the Capitol was already underway, according to the filing, Trump tweeted, “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!”
Following Trump’s tweet, Eastman e-mailed Jacob. Eastman pushed Jacob to get Pence to “adjourn the session” and then blamed the attack on the pair.
“The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so the American people can see for themselves what happened,” he wrote.
Jacob dismissed his urging to convince Pence to act on behalf of Trump.
“I respect your heart here. I share your concerns about what Democrats will do once in power. I want election integrity fixed. But I have run down every legal trail placed before me to its conclusion, and I respectfully conclude that as a legal framework, it is a results-oriented position that you would never support if attempted by the opposition, and essentially entirely made up.
“And thanks to you [expletive]we are now under siege,” Jacob said.
‘I implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation’
Later that evening, Eastman made an additional plea to the fellow attorney, one in which he apparently acknowledged he was urging Pence’s team to break the law:
“I implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation [of the Electoral Count Act] and adjourn for 10 days to allow the legislatures to finish their investigations, as well as to allow a full forensic audit of the massive amount of illegal activity that has occurred here.”
The panel alleged in the filing that Eastman knew “what he was proposing would violate the law, but he nonetheless urged” Pence to take those actions. Pence rejected the attempts.
Charles Burnham, a lawyer for Eastman, said in a statement sent to media outlets late Wednesday that his client “like all attorneys,” has a “responsibility to protect client confidences, even at great personal risk and expense.”
“The select committee has responded to Dr. Eastman’s efforts to discharge this responsibility for accusing him of criminal conduct,” Burnham said. “Because this is a civil matter, Dr. Eastman will not have the benefit of the constitutional protections normally afforded to those accused by their government of criminal conduct. Nonetheless, we look forward to responding in due course.”
Shannon Larson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @shannonlarson98.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism