Mike Pence’s memoir is being used by prosecutors in Donald Trump‘s election fraud case, newly released court records show.
Prosecutors have submitted lengthy excerpts from Pence’s memoir to Washington, D.C,-based federal judge Tanya Chutkan.
The excerpts suggest that Trump’s exchanges with the former vice president are still central to the election fraud case, despite a July 1 Supreme Court ruling which states Trump cannot be prosecuted for official presidential acts.
SCOTUS ruled a president’s discussions with a vice president are official conduct, and Trump is “at least presumptively immune” from claims he tried to pressure Pence not to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Chief prosecutor, Jack Smith, has included lengthy portions of Pence’s 2022 memoir, So Help Me God.
In one excerpt cited, Pence recalls rolling his eyes when Trump retweeted a claim that Pence could refuse to certify Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election.
Former Vice President Mike Pence signs copies of his book “So Help Me God” at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting on November 18, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Excepts from the book are now being used by prosecutors in Donald Trump’s election fraud case in Washington, D.C.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
As vice president, Pence was automatically also president of the Senate and Trump believed that he had a “Pence card” to pull if all else failed, the book recalls.
At one lunchtime meeting, Pence urged the president to pursue legal challenges to the election result and then “bow out” if those election challenges failed.
Pence also recalled tempering his words at a conservative Turning Point convention for young Republicans after the election. He said, in his speech, he urged the young people to fight for election integrity but was careful not to allege election fraud.
He wrote that he was aware that those young people may be disappointed in a few weeks as it looked as if Joe Biden had won the election.
Prosecutor Jack Smith and his team have highlighted the relevant passages in yellow while submitting them to Chutkan.
Pence also recalled a temper-filled post-election meeting in the White House.
“What began as a briefing that Thursday afternoon quickly turned into a contentious back-and-forth between the campaign lawyers and a growing group of outside attorneys led by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.”
“After the campaign lawyers gave a sober and somewhat pessimistic report on the state of election challenges, the outside cast of characters went on the attack … Giuliani told the president over the speakerphone, ‘Your lawyers are not telling you the truth, Mr President.’
“Even in an office well acquainted with rough-and-tumble debates, it was a new low,” Pence writes, adding that the meeting went “downhill from there”.
A “normally restrained and affable” campaign lawyer, Justin Clark, “lashed out harshly” at Giuliani and Powell and told them they “didn’t know what they were talking about.”
An excerpt from Mike Pence’s memoir, So Help Me God, submitted in court by prosecutors in Donald Trump’s election case case in Washington, D.C. The except, highlighted in yellow, concerns a contentious post-election White House meeting in November, 2020.
Federal District Court, Washington, D.C.
Trump sided with Giuliani and Powell, who were claiming that Democrats had stolen the election, and appointed them as head of legal strategy, according to the book.
Pence saw that as a decision that led up to the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building, in which Trump supporters tried to prevent Congress from ratifying Joe Biden‘s win in the presidential election.
“In the end, that day the president made the fateful decision to put Giuliani and Sidney Powell in charge of the legal strategy … The seeds were being sown for a tragic day in January,” Pence wrote.
Judge Chutkan unsealed nearly 2,000 pages of heavily-redacted evidence in the former president’s election fraud case on Friday despite impassioned pleading from Trump’s lawyers that it could damage his presidential campaign.
The excerpts from Pence’s memoir were included in the release.
Newsweek sought comment from lawyers for Trump and Giuliani via email on Monday.
Trump is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights in connection with an alleged pressure campaign on state officials to reverse the 2020 election results.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and repeatedly said he is the victim of a political witch hunt. He has accused Smith of attempting to interfere in the 2024 presidential election by prosecuting him.
