Former special counsel Jack Smith told members of Congress in his testimony that he believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that President Donald Trump's angry tweet on Jan. 6, 2021, at 2:24 p.m., further put former Vice President Mike Pence's life in danger.
Smith was in charge of the federal criminal cases against Trump, including for the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, but his office was shut down after Trump was re-elected last year.
The portion of the transcript in question was highlighted by Politico's Kyle Cheney on Wednesday afternoon.
"As I said, our evidence is that he in the weeks leading up to January 6th created a level of distrust. He used that level of distrust to get people to believe fraud claims that weren't true," said Smith. He made false statements to state legislatures, to his supporters in all sorts of contexts and was aware in the days leading up to January 6th that his supporters were angry when he invited them and then he directed them to the Capitol."
"Now, once they were at the Capitol and once the attack on the Capitol happened, he refused to stop it," said Smith. "He instead issued a tweet that without question in my mind endangered the life of his own Vice President. And when the violence was going on, he had to be pushed repeatedly by his staff members to do anything to quell it. And then even afterwards he directed co-conspirators to make calls to Members of 21 Congress, people who had were his political allies, to further delay the proceedings."
In the tweet in question, Trump proclaimed, "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!" There remains no evidence the 2020 election results were ever "fraudulent or inaccurate."
This occurred as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and chanted "Hang Mike Pence," because he had been unwilling to violate the Constitution and refuse to certify the election results. The House January 6 Committee later received evidence that Trump expressed support for Pence to face the lynch mob.