Select text to annotate, Click play in YouTube to begin
00:00:00
this is Michael popac legal AF brace for impact new reporting is that Donald Trump and his minions wanted to push Mike Pence out of the way have him not preside over the senate in the
00:00:13
certification of the election on JN 6th but instead use Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa who would do their bidding him being the president a prot tempor of the
00:00:25
Senate who would be presiding over the chamber in Mike Pence's absence this is based on reporting of Mike Pence's interviews with the special counsel and particularly notes that Jack Smith
00:00:38
obtained from the National Archive you know the place where presidential and vice presidential record should be and there they found a note that Mike Pence wrote himself personal notes that he
00:00:51
turned over to the National Archive at the end of December of 2020 well before Jan 6th in which he said allowed in WR ing I don't think I should preside over
00:01:02
the Electoral certification because of my relationship with Donald Trump and that if that had happened and it looked like it was seriously considered then Donald Trump would have executed his
00:01:14
plan to have Chuck Grassley of Iowa preside over the chamber not recognize the legitimate certificates of election in favor of Joe Biden and either throw it over to a house vote or to the IND
00:01:27
individual State legislation or legislators to votee for the president and that would have been Donald Trump that apparently was the plan it wasn't to pressure Mike Pence to do quote
00:01:38
unquote the right thing at the Senate uh hearing or the Senate uh proceedings to certify the election it was for Mike Pence to step out of the way and let
00:01:50
Chuck Grassley do the Dirty Work and if you and that's piecing together comments made by Chuck Grassley himself the day before the Gen certification the notes obtained by uh Jack Smith from the
00:02:04
National Archive about Mike Pence and his squeamishness about and deciding that he was not going to actually serve in that role and then testimony or um uh
00:02:16
evidence that Mike Pence has given to Jack Smith let's start with Chuck Grassley because he actually revealed the whole plan on January 5th to his local newspaper the register but nobody paid attention he said in an interview
00:02:30
to the to the Iowa newspaper on the 5th of January quote if the vice president isn't there and we don't expect him to be there I will be presiding over the
00:02:42
Senate and obviously listening to the debate without saying anything Grassley set on a call with agriculture reporters on Jan 5 because you know when you're going to talk about a constitutional crisis and the peaceful transfer of
00:02:55
power you do that to the agricultural Bureau of your newspaper and then he went on to tell the agricultural reporters quote you're you're asking me how I'm going to vote I'm going to listen to that debate on what my colleagues have to say during
00:03:08
the the debate and decide how to cast my vote after considering the information before me but if the plan was for Donald Trump to take out Mike Pence who was too squeamish and too much of a PW Donald
00:03:21
Trump's uh word for Mike Pence as was as was revealed in the John 6 committee and I don't mean the peace stands for Pence then they were going to have grassly step in and do it and he here is saying the quiet part out loud it was so bad
00:03:35
that his own spokesperson had a clarify to the newspaper in a quick uh clarification issued that he was not talking about the possibility of presiding over the actual certification vote but only over the debate makes no
00:03:48
sense here's the statement you be the judge if the vice president isn't there and we don't expect him to be there then you have Mike Pence's own notes in which he says in in his notes and I will read
00:04:01
it for you that um he's not only having second thoughts as late as Christmas Eve of 2020 he was not going to actually serve the Constitutional role that he
00:04:14
was required to serve and here's the note quote not feeling like I should attend electoral count that means not doing your constitutional Duty Mike as
00:04:26
the vice president under the Constitution uh he then continued to write in his own personal notes given to the National Archive too many questions too many doubts too hurtful to my friend
00:04:38
that's Trump therefore I'm not going to participate in certification of election there's only one thing to conclude from that but the pressure campaign led by by guys like John Eastman and others was so
00:04:52
uh powerful and so robust on Mike Pence and his slender shoulders that he cave and seriously considered at least in that moment in time just days before the
00:05:05
J January 6th electoral count vote and certification not to do his constitutional Duty and step aside knowing that the next in line to take his spot was Chuck Grassley who would be more than willing to topple democracy
00:05:20
Mike Pence wrote a biography called so help me God he's supposed to defend the Constitution as the vice president not consider stepping aside and letting uh
00:05:33
somebody else Donald Trump's henchmen do his bidding but there's no other way to piece these parts together further reporting is that Mike Pence has told Jack Smith that in no uncertain terms he
00:05:46
told Donald Trump that there was no outcome determinative fraud that changed the outcome of the election that there was no fraud in the election he even went so far as to correct the record because
00:06:00
there was a typo according to Mike Pence in his own biography his own Memoir so help me God where the editors have put the the comma in the wrong place and
00:06:11
what what he told Jack Smith is I told Donald Trump you know I don't think there was outcome determinative fraud to change the outcome of the election right
00:06:24
they had putting a comma in the wrong place and it looked like um he was asking a question of Donald Trump rather than giving him an instruction or his view but he clarified that with Jack Smith he also made it clear because you
00:06:37
know at the time he was running for office although that looks like his career is now over that his loyalty was to Donald Trump the Constitution and to God in that particular order and he
00:06:49
didn't want to hurt his friend although it was clear that he had told Donald Trump that he had lost the election let's just take a moment here to talk about what the testimony is going to be when Mike Pence comes
00:07:02
through the wood paneling of a courtroom and testifies against Donald Trump at the DC election interference case I always like to Astro project Astro project myself into a courtroom comes from being a longtime trial lawyer I
00:07:15
think about how things play out in courts of Law and here's how this is going to play out when the vice president enters the room besides the jury being in raptured in attention
00:07:26
wrapped in attention watching Mike Pence testify against Donald Trump against his will but he'll have no choice because all of these statements he's made of course between his book his Memoir conversations with Jack Smith notes in the National Archive he's
00:07:39
screwed and in his testimony he is going to say now this next quote you're going to think we made it up on the Midas touch Network sounds like something we would say here's what here's what Mike Pence has reported to have said to Jack
00:07:52
Smith as part of his future testimony that Trump surrounded himself with crank his words crank lawyers that espoused an unamerican unamerican legal
00:08:04
theories um that would lead to the brink of a constitutional crisis that's not my words sounds like our words That's Mike Pence's words that's what he's going to testify to he's going to testify that
00:08:19
Donald Trump purposely surrounded himself with crackpot lawyers who blew smoke and sunshine up his backside told him what he wanted to hear even if it was untr true with unamerican legal
00:08:31
theories that brought this country to the brink of constitutional crisis and that he had told him that Mike Pence had joined the chorus of
00:08:42
other senior leaders right the most senior most rarified heir of Apex people around Donald Trump right his White House Council his Deputy White House counsel his attorney
00:08:55
general Bill bar the acting attorney general after Bill bar left the deputy acting attorney general his head of cyber security and infrastructure and Mike Pence now telling him there was no fraud in the election that would have
00:09:09
changed the results and that he had basically lost the election so Mike Pence wants to jump on that train as well but the bombshell the brace for impact as I started the top of the hot
00:09:21
take is that now we've got the plan right the the uh fog of War Has Lifted and what are we and what is revealed now several years later as this giant jigsaw
00:09:34
puzzle is pieced together by Jack Smith what are we see we see Donald Trump held bent on retaining power stopping the peaceful transfer of power pressuring not only by him but by John Eastman and
00:09:47
others around him pressuring the vice president pressuring him so hard that he almost turned not into a diamond but into dust and almost almost abdicated
00:10:00
his constitutional responsibility his job office his office title is in the Constitution to certify the election and he at the end of December during the holidays was
00:10:12
considering not doing that and stepping aside knowing full well that the number two in line was Chuck Grassley of Iowa the president prot tempor of the Senate who was more than willing to recognize
00:10:25
the fake elector certificates brought into the chamber through Mike Roman and or call a constitutional tie between the Biden electoral votes and the Trump electoral votes turn it over
00:10:39
to the house to determine the president and failing that turn it over to each state to vote for the president and if we did it by States there's more red States than blue States not by
00:10:50
population but just by by uh a ordinal number that Donald Trump would have been president so that was was the plan we see it now fog of war is lifted Mike Pence National Archive documents Jack
00:11:04
Smith doing his job that's why Jack Smith has so much confidence when he responds to these crackpot filings by Donald Trump's current lawyers what I like to call the third or fourth string lawyers first string lawyers The Varsity
00:11:17
for Donald Trump have all been indicted convicted pled guilty lost their bar licenses looking to lose their bar licenses staring down the barrel of losing their Liberty that's that was the
00:11:29
first tier that was the varsity then there was the junior varsity and they came in under them and then they all got convicted lost their bar license and now we're up to the third string after Donald Trump is done firing everybody
00:11:41
and or people don't want to touch him because he's radioactive and now this third string group Todd blanch John Loro Alina Haba Chris kis who have left their law firms or
00:11:54
don't even have a law firm just to represent one client Donald Trump these are the arguments crackpot arguments that they make and that's why like a chesher cat that we see with Leticia
00:12:06
James the New York attorney general up in New York fonny Willis the Fon County district attorney and Jack Smith all share all share a common facial
00:12:18
expression that of being content with their place that with a chesher cat because there's always an information asymmetry between the government and the defense they always the government always knows more than they than the
00:12:32
defense does they know their documents better they have their documents they have the witnesses cooperating with them they don't just have the witness statements they have the notes they have everything and they can piece and pull it all together not by artificial
00:12:44
intelligence but by intelligence and so that's what we're watching here a very self-confident self-satisfied Jack Smith who knows he's got Mike Pence in his
00:12:56
back pocket and has him buy the another anatomical region on Mike Pence we continue to report as we learn new information and explain it on htics just like this one at the intersection of law
00:13:10
politics and Justice so in Mike Pence the former vice president and the bombshell news that he's not just testifying against Donald Trump he's revealed through his notes the grand scheme and plan that was going to be
00:13:23
implemented until at the last minute Lord knows how uh Mike Pence a brain and decided to do the job that he was elected to do Under the Constitution
00:13:35
and defend preserve and protect that Constitution uh and vote uh for the Biden certification but he's not a hero it's not a profile and courage as Michael BOS the historian has said it's
00:13:49
far from it and we'll report it here and on legal AF that leading podcast at the intersection of law politics and Justice that we curate and present to you every Wednesday and Saturday 8:00 p.m. eastern
00:14:01
time where the Midas touch Network and their YouTube Channel free subscribe help them get to 2 million and as importantly for me give me a thumbs up here leave a comment it helps with the ratings helps keep me on the air so
00:14:16
until my next hot take till my next legal AF this is Michael popok reporting hey mid is mighty love this report continue the conversation by following us on Instagram @ mest touch to keep
00:14:28
with the most important news of the day what are you waiting for follow us [Music] now
End of transcript