J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge and a conservative legal expert who advised former Vice President Mike Pence, testified on June 16 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public.
Luttig said key players within former President Donald Trump’s orbit followed a “blueprint” to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome. He focused on the false claim from Trump legal adviser John Eastman that the vice president had the power to overturn a presidential election and how that false notion drove the pressure campaign to get former Vice President Mike Pence to declare Trump as president though Joe Biden was the declared winner.
“This is constitutional mischief,” Luttig said.
The hearing was the third of several planned by the Jan. 6 committee that focused on Trump’s efforts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to reject Congress’ official count of Electoral College votes on the day of the attack. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day. The committee postponed a hearing scheduled for June 15 that was meant to focus on Trump’s efforts to replace Attorney General Bill Barr, who did not support his claims of voter fraud after the election.
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