Lead Jan. 6 investigator details questions special counsel will likely ask of Mike Pence
Timothy Heaphy, the former lead investigator for the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, has a list of questions that special counsel Jack Smith could ask of former Vice President Mike Pence.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday, Heaphy first addressed her questions about why Pence refused to get into the car in the basement of the Capitol that day. Pence had said to his aide that he didn't know who was driving and didn't trust that person. Trump aide Marc Short said that Pence was afraid of how the appearance of the VP's motorcade fleeing from the Capitol might look to the world at a time when the United States Capitol was under attack.
The other questions Heaphy thinks need to be answered involve details about the timeline leading up to Jan. 6.
"I think it goes back to not just what happened, but the predicates for what happened. [It's] hard to understate the closeness between Mike Pence and the president through the four years," said Heaphy. It's "hard to understate the synchronicity of them during the campaign. So all of the predicate issues, the election, stop the steal narrative — he was going to want to develop Mike Pence's awareness of all of that."
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The other questions he wants to know about is what he call "the big ripoff."
"So, immediately after the campaign ends, and the networks declare President-elect Biden the victor, they keep raising money," said Heaphy. "They just shift it from the Trump for President campaign to the Save America PAC as the recipient. And they raised almost $250 million from some of the very same people that had given money during the campaign, between when the election happened and Inauguration Day."
He explained that it appeared Pence wasn't involving himself in that or didn't like the idea of it.
"Some his knowledge of the fundraising strategy, his efforts to distance himself from it, he also we don't believe ever used the words 'stop the steal' in any public statements, which would suggest a different understanding of the issue. And so all of the important contextual things beyond the violence and the attack, the big fraud, the stop the steal, all of that, has a potential for Mike Pence to be a really important witness for Jack Smith," Heaphy closed.
Wallace reiterated what Heaphy said about Pence not thinking that the 2020 election was fraudulent and what an important witness that makes him.
"Mike Pence is an important witness in terms of where you want to unearth, where Joe Biden was the legitimate lawful president-elect and Trump is going to use the military to steal voting machines and Rudy Giuliani to explain it to the country and Ron Johnson and other yahoos in the Congress to rig the certification."
See the clip below or at the link here.
Lead Jan 6 investigator details questions special counsel will likely ask of Mike Pence www.youtube.com
Newspapers in the former Trump International Hotel DC on April 4, 2023, the day of Donald Trump's arraignment on 34 felony charges. Matt Laslo/Raw Story
The soaring bar at the former Trump International Hotel DC. Matt Laslo/Raw Story
