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Follow live updates on the House committee hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Former Vice President Mike Pences chief counsel laid out in a memo the day before Jan. 6, 2021, that the vice president would violate federal law if he bowed to pressure from President Donald J. Trump to interfere with the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.s victory.

The three-page memo, obtained by Politico and confirmed as authentic by The New York Times, included arguments from the chief counsel, Greg Jacob, that Mr. Pence could find himself in a legally precarious situation if he decided to block the certification of the Electoral College results either unilaterally or by calling for a 10-day delay in the proceedings.

A lawyer advising Mr. Trump, John Eastman, had insisted that Mr. Pence had the power to take both of those actions, emphasizing the 10-day delay as Jan. 6 grew closer. Mr. Eastman pressed his claims in a meeting with Mr. Pence and Mr. Jacob in the Oval Office on Jan. 4.

But Mr. Pence, who in the weeks after the election told Mr. Trump that he did not believe he had such power but would continue researching the matter, was given concrete guidance by his own aides.

Mr. Jacob wrote in the memo that Mr. Pence would most likely be overruled by the courts if he made such a move.

In a best-case scenario in which the courts refused to get involved, the vice president would likely find himself in an isolated standoff against both houses of Congress, as well as most or all of the applicable state legislatures, with no neutral arbiter available to break the impasse, Mr. Jacob wrote in the memo.

A spokesman for Mr. Pence declined to comment.

Following its prime-time hearing this past week, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot is scheduled to hold three more hearings in the coming week, including one on Thursday at which Mr. Jacob is set to be a key witness.

That session is slated to focus on the pressure campaign on Mr. Pence to insert himself into the certification of the Electoral College vote, a proceeding that is usually routine.

Mr. Jacob has told the committee that he wrote the memo after the meeting with Mr. Eastman, Politico reported.

Mr. Eastmans conduct has been a focal point of the House investigation into the events that took place leading up to the riot. In March, in a civil case stemming from Mr. Eastmans efforts to keep the committee from accessing a tranche of emails related to his advice to Mr. Trump, a federal judge said that he and Mr. Trumpmore likely than not committed crimes as they sought to overturn the results of the election.

The memo from Mr. Jacob was one in a series that he wrote related to the pressure on Mr. Pence following the 2020 election. One came at the beginning of December, after Mr. Pence asked Mr. Jacob to explore what his authority was in relation to the Jan. 6 certification.

Another memo, also obtained by Politico, was written on Jan. 1. It evaluated the various allegations of widespread fraud that Mr. Trumps advisers had pointed to, including in Georgia, where Mr. Trump repeatedly made claims that officials said were baseless.

The memo detailed claims from six key states the ones for which Mr. Pences advisers anticipated that House lawmakers would try to challenge the certification, potentially with support from senators from those states.

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Pence Aide Warned Against Blocking Electoral College Count, Memo Shows - The New York Times

The House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack will hold the first of six televised hearings on Thursday 9 June over the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021, mounted by supporters of 45th president Donald Trump determined to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The panel, chaired by Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson, has already interviewed over 1,000 witnesses behind closed doors, including integral members of Mr Trumps inner circle, about precisely what happened on 6 January 2021, a date to live in infamy on which five people were killed as a violent mob, geed up by their candidates false election fraud narrative, smashed through security barriers and stormed the legislative complex.

The committee has yet to lay out a full schedule or say precisely who most of its witnesses will be for the blockbuster hearings, although two men central to the discussion will of course be Mr Trump and his estranged former vice president Mike Pence.

Having lost the electoral vote on 3 November 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden by 306 to 232 and the popular vote by 81.3m ballots to 74.2m, Mr Trump immediately and baselessly began to insist the contest had been rigged in a vast nationwide conspiracy orchestrated by his opponents, a fallacy he has kept up ever since.

Two months of farcical legal proceedings led by the outgoing presidents personal attorney, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani had concluded with Mr Trumps allies entirely failing to prove his bogus allegations, although his base remained unshakeable in its conviction that the vote had indeed been stolen.

Increasingly desperate, the president began to pile pressure on his own deputy, Mr Pence, whom he implored to use his position overseeing a joint-session of Congress on 6 January to render the election results null and void, keeping the heat on his ally with a series of tweets and in person on the campaign trail.

I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, Mr Trump said, stumping for Republican Senate runoff candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Georgia. I hope our great vice president comes through for us. Hes a great guy. Of course, if he doesnt come through, I wont like him very much.

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Mr Pence refused to oblige, writing a letter to Congress in which he explained: I do not believe that the founders of our country intended to invest the vice president with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the joint session of Congress, and no vice president in American history has ever asserted such authority.

On the day itself, as the elected representatives convened to ratify the results, Mr Trump, Mr Giuliani and other MAGA luminaries addressed a rally organised by the Stop the Steal movement in Washington, DC, in which the president told his followers to fight like hell and beseeched them to march on the Capitol, pledging to join them before slinking off back to the White House instead to watch the carnage unfold on TV.

The rest is history and for the committee to determine, suffice to say that Mr Trumps mob, whose number included armed members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and QAnon, came uncomfortably close to confronting Mr Pence and other lawmakers opposed to their misguided cause like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Mitt Romney after forcing their way through the barricades.

So incensed were the would-be insurrections by Mr Pences refusal to support Mr Trump that they called for his hanging on the National Mall and even erected a gallows before order could be restored later that evening, as a shocked world looked on.

Former US vice president Mike Pence gives a lecture at Stanford University in California on 17 February 2022 (Justin Sullivan/Getty)

To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today: you did not win, Mr Pence said in the aftermath.

Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the peoples house. And as we reconvene in this chamber the world will again witness the resilience and strength of our democracy.

His justifiably indignant tone stood in sharp contrast to that of the president, who issued a number of tweets that day calling on his supporters to Stay peaceful! and respect law enforcement before appearing in a hastily shot, somewhat reluctant video from the White House Rose Garden in which, without admitting he had been wrong, he urged his great patriots to go home, telling them: We love you. Youre very special.

The former running -mates would not speak for several days after 6 January but did eventually hold clear-the-air talks on 11 January that would expose how far apart the two men stood in their attitudes to what had unfolded.

Mr Trump had never once inquired about the wellbeing of Mr Pence and his family after the ordeal they had been exposed to and their relationship would never recover.

Since leaving DC after attending President Bidens inauguration, an event at which he stood in for him for Mr Trump the final time, Mr Pence has kept busy, joining the conservative think tanks the Heritage Foundation and the Young Americas Foundation, travelling abroad, making endorsement speeches on behalf of preferred Republican candidates and working on a pair of books.

MAGA rioters lay siege to the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 (AP)

He has gradually begun to be more forthcoming about the thwarted insurrection, however.

That day, 6 January, was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol, he told a Republican dinner in New Hampshire in June 2021.

But thanks to the swift action of the Capitol police and federal law enforcement, violence was quelled. The Capitol was secured. And that same day, we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the constitution and the laws of the United States.

He concluded by saying: You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office. And I dont know if well ever see eye to eye on that day.

Speaking to Sean Hannity of Fox News the following October, Mr Pence said of his former boss: Look, you cant spend almost five years in a political foxhole with somebody without developing a strong relationship.

And, you know, 6 January was a tragic day in the history of our Capitol Building. But thanks to the efforts of Capitol Hill Police, federal officials, the Capitol was secured. We finished our work, and the president and I sat down a few days later and talked through all of it.

He also issued a distinctly Trumpian attack on the press, commenting: I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administrations failed agenda by focusing on one day in January.

They want to use that one day to try and demean the character and intentions of 74m Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020.

But for our part, I truly believe we all ought to remain completely focused on the future. Thats where Im focused and I believe the future is bright.

Those comments drew plenty of criticism, not least from people astonished that the former veep was apparently happy to continue to toe the party line even after a serious threat had been made against his own life.

By February 2022, perhaps with one eye on a possible run for the presidency himself within two years, Mr Pence began to change his attitude towards Mr Trump.

Donald Trump (AP)

He told the conservative Federalist Society: I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.

Furious, Mr Trump hit back, insisting in a statement that Mr Pence could have sent back the election results and argued that the House investigators should be probing Mr Pence more closely.

Later that month, following the outbreak of Russias unjust invasion of Ukraine, the ex-Indiana governor again broke with Mr Trump to tell Republican donors congregating in New Orleans that there is no room in this party for apologists for Vladimir Putin, seemingly a nod to the former presidents admiration for the Kremlin leader, whom he had called a genius and whose denials of election meddling in 2016 he had accepted at face value at the Helsinki summit of July 2018, publicly favouring Mr Putins version of events over that of his own intelligence officials.

Most recently, Mr Pence has broken with Mr Trump once again by backing Georgia governor Brian Kemp and hinted in an interview with The New York Times that he could run for the presidency himself in 2024, saying that prayer will guide his decision-making.

For his part, Mr Trump has sneered at the prospect of a challenge from Mr Pence and indicated that his base would not permit a second Trump-Pence ticket, even if their damaged relationship could be repaired.

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What Mike Pence has said about the January 6 riot - Yahoo News

Former Vice President Mike Pence recently joined Focus on the Family for a wide-ranging and insightful interview on the Focus on the Familys Daily Broadcast.

The former vice president sat down to discuss his Christian faith, his passion for the pro-life cause, and his convictions on the importance of religious freedom with Tim Goeglein, Focus Vice President of External and Government Affairs.

Goeglein began by asking the vice president how, as a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a former state governor, and then as vice president, his faith has changed or grown.

For us, our family, our relationship with Christ is everything, Pence said. Its where everything begins. Its where our best days begin. And as our life has changed, and our family has changed, that hasnt changed.

Goeglein then asked about Pences passionate pro-life convictions.

In fact, the pro-life issue had led you into politics, even though the issue in one sense should not even be political. What are you and Karen doing now as private citizens to advance the cause of human life? Goeglein asked.

For me to have been a part of a season of service, where I was able to author the first legislation to defund Planned Parenthood in the Congress, where we were able to pass pro-life legislation that made it all the way to the Supreme Court, expand adoption in Indiana when I was governor, was deeply meaningful, Vice President Pence answered.

It is hard to describe, uh, the sense of privilege I felt being vice president in the most pro-life administration in American history. I mean, I saw this administration from day one, stand without apology for the sanctity of life. And not only in policies like, making sure taxpayer dollars were not being used to fund abortion at home and abroad, but also in the way we protected conscience rights of doctors and nurses around the country and stood for religious liberty.

Pence also mentioned the importance of the nomination and confirmation of three justices to the United States Supreme Court, who may all soon be vital in the courts potential decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

My hope and my prayer, is that that draft decision will soon become the majority opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, that well send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history and give America a new beginning on the right to life, Pence stated.

If you would like to listen to the entire interview with former Vice President Mike Pence, titled Optimism, Faith and Freedom in America, click here. In it, youll hear about Vice President Pences Christian faith, his bold and passionate defense of preborn life, and his discussion of the importance of religious freedom in America.

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Vice President Mike Pence Talks Faith and Freedom in America with Focus on the Family - Daily Citizen

UPDATE: The impact of the January 6th Committee hearing was probably felt more in the Cannon Caucus Room than outside of it: As an extended video was played of the attack, it was particularly wrenching for the lawmakers, law enforcement and members of the media who were there that day and witnessed it.

But the hearing itself went by rather briskly relative to other congressional events, as the committee seemed to want to give a taste of their case ahead that Trump is to blame for what happened on January 6th. The bits of revelation were like teasers of the topics for the hearings ahead.

What happened on January 6th is kind of the end of the story, but really the root of it is that Trump was determined to stay in power, regardless of the election, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said afterward.

As the committees vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) put it, President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame.

Committee members promised new revelations, and there were some.

Among those that stood out:

What Trump said about Pence: According to Cheney, when Trump saw rioters chanting to hang Mike Pence, he said, Maybe our supporters have the riot idea. Mike Pence deserves it.

What Mark Milley said about Mark Meadows: On January 6, as the attack unfolded, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley spoke with Mark Meadows, Trumps chief of staff, who told him, in effect, We have to kill the narrative that the vice president is making all the decisions. We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the president is still in charge and that things are steady or stable.

What Ivanka Trump said about her fathers election claims: After Attorney General William Barr said that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud, Trumps daughter told the committee in video testimony, It affected my perspective. I respect Attorney General Barr. So I accepted what he was saying.

What Jared Kushner thought of the White House counsel threatening to resign: Trumps son in law and adviser Jared Kusher was asked in video testimony whether he was aware of instances where White House Counsel Pat Cipollone threatened to resign. But Kushner tried to distance himself to what was going on in the Trump circle post-election, saying that he was focused on pardons and that he took Cipollones threats as just whining.

Members of congress sought pardons: Cheney said that Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) sought a presidential pardon for his role in trying to reverse the election results. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Cheney said, giving a preview of more to come.

PREVIOUSLY: The January 6th Committees hearing concluded with the videotaped testimony of Trump supporters who trekked to Washington, D.C. on January 6th, answering his call to show up in the capital on that day.

He said, I have something important to say,' Matthew Walker said in one of the clips. Another supporter said, He laid out what is happening in our government.

Their words were a bit of a teaser for the next hearing, as the committee will try to establish that Trump was the one who motivated his supporters to turn out at the Capitol for an attempted coup.

PREVIOUSLY: Nick Quested, a documentary filmmaker who was following the Proud Boys on January 6th, testified that they attended Trumps speech at the Ellipse that day but he was confused when they left it early to go to the Capitol.

That is important as the committee tried to make the case that the siege on the Capitol was pre-planned, and that groups like the Proud Boys scoped out security at the Capitol to seek out weak spots where barricades could be breached.

For anyone who didnt understand how violent that event was, I saw it, I documented it, and I experienced it, Quested said.

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described trying to fend off the mob. As it grew, she said that she made the understatement of the century to her sergeant. Sarge, I think were going to need a few more people down here.

She, like other officers that day, described scenes of carnage and chaos.

It was just hours of hand to hand combat, she said.

I saw friends with blood all over their faces, she said. I was slipping in peoples blood. You know, I was catching people as they fell. She described the attack as more of a battle than a riot.

Edwards was injured when she was struck on the top of her head by a bike rack and she stumbled on some concrete stairs. Her chin hit a rail and her head struck the stairs, knocking her unconsciousness. When she came to, she returned to try to help the other officers. One of those she saw was Officer Brian Sicknick, and he was ghostly pale. He died the next day of a stroke. His mother was in the hearing room, along with other members of law enforcement, including Aquilino Gonell and Harry Dunn, both of whom testified at a committee hearing last year. Dunn had a T-shirt with the definition of the word insurrection on it.

At one moment, she said looked out over the Capitol grounds and recalled just seeing the war zone that the west front had become.

PREVIOUSLY: The January 6th Committee presented an extended, graphic video of the attack on the Capitol, including footage not seen before, intended to show the magnitude of the siege, chaos and the violence.

Included in the video were officers calling for help as the rioters began to surge forward and break through barricades.

The footage also include excerpts from Donald Trumps rally at the Ellipse that preceded the attack, as he told his supporters, Mike Pence, I hope you are going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. The committee is trying to show how Trump incited the attack.

The footage also highlighted the role of the Proud Boys, the far-right, neofascist group whose members were part of the attack.

Among those in the gallery in the hearing room was Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who fought back tears as she watched the footage, having escaped the House chamber that day. It was difficult to watch, she told reporters. Its not a movie. Its not like something that happened in a different country that is removed from us. These folks (the rioters) are from our communities.

PREVIOUSLY: The chairman of the January 6th Committee opened its primetime hearing by laying the blame for the attack on former President Donald Trump and suggesting that it was a pre-planned attempt to subvert democracy.

Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the chairman of the committee, said in his opening remarks.

He said that it was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt.

Thompson looked directly at the camera, as he introduced himself to viewers and, recalling his background from his home state, noting that he grew up in an environment where people tried to justify the actions of the KKK. He compared that the the voices trying to justify the actions of the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, 2021.

Thompsons opener also included a clip of video testimony from former Attorney General William Barr, who told the committee that he told Trump that his claim that the election was stolen was bullshit. In another clip, shared by the committees vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY, Barr said that he told the president that he didnt see any evidence of fraud. In another clip, Ivanka Trump said that she accepted what Barr was saying. In the hearing room, the clips were played on a large screen above the committee members.

Cheney said that Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.

She also said that Trump, reacting to January 6th rioters calls to hang Mike Pence, said in private, Maybe our supporters have the riot idea. Mike Pence deserves it.

Cheney also put Trumps actions in historical context, noting that Trump was the first president in history to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

PREVIOUSLY: The chairman of the January 6th Committee, getting its first primetime moment, plans to start the hearing by warning that our democracy remains in danger.

We cant sweep what happened under the rug, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), plans to say. The American people deserve answers.

Addressing his remarks to the viewing audience, Thompson will say that the hearing, the first of six planned over the next few weeks, will remind you of the reality of what happened that day. But our work must do much more that just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger. The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.

Thursdays event may be less important for the potential bombshells and more as a way to garner the publics attention again, with the benefit of a high profile time slot and coverage across broadcast and cable news networks, save for Fox News Channel, which has diverted live coverage to their business network. Unlike other committee hearings, which have typically deferred to lawmaker seniority, this hearing was expected to be a greater mix of video segments and witness testimony, with former ABC News president James Goldston enlisted to assist in the presentation.

Some 100 members of the media were credentialed to cover the hearing in person in the Cannon Caucus Room, a stately, chandeliered venue that, according to House history, was the site of the House Un-American Activities hearings. Some House members not on the committee were gathered as spectators, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D_WA) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN).

The January 6th Committee has held a hearing and public business meetings before, but with public interest potentially fading, there is some pressure on the panel to lay out a narrative of their findings, with the expectation that a share of the blame will be to former President Donald Trump.

Trumps allies have dismissed the committee itself as a partisan exercise, even though it contains two Republicans, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who have broken with their party orthodoxy, which has been to deny the importance of January 6 or embrace conspiracy theories over its cause. The former president has been helped out by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who blasted the hearing earlier on Thursday, and the three Fox News primetime hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, whose shows will not be pre-empted despite a major news event. They each were expected to attack and even mock the committee, as they have done in the past, but Hannity and Ingraham have found themselves part of the panels investigation. Cheney last year read texts that the Fox personalities sent to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as the attack unfolded on January 6, urging him to try to get Trump to try to put a stop to it.

Fox News decision to forgo coverage on its main network has drawn harsh criticism from lawmakers and media critics. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor earlier on Thursday and called Fox News decision cowardly and one that should end any debate that they are not a real news organization.

Fox News is a propaganda machine of the hard right and it is plain as day that they are scared of their viewers learning the truth about January 6th, he said, arguing that they have isolated their viewers in an alternate reality of conspiracy theories.

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January 6th Committees Primetime Hearing: Officer Testifies On Capitol Hill War Zone - Deadline

Voters in swing House districts are fixated on rising inflation and rising gas prices, according to fresh Republican polling, highlighting the difficult political challenges confronting Democrats ahead of midterm elections.

In polling commissioned for former Vice President Mike Pences political nonprofit group, 25% of registered voters in four battleground House districts cited inflation and rising gas prices as the issues they are most concerned about. Another 12% said their top priority was the economy and jobs. With President Joe Biden struggling to connect with voters on these issues, the Democrats five-seat House majority is increasingly in jeopardy as is their slim Senate majority.

Pences group, Advancing American Freedom, is in the middle of a $10 million campaign to boost Republican prospects in the midterm elections as the former vice president mulls a 2024 presidential bid. As a part of that investment, Advancing American Freedom hired veteran Republican pollster Dave Sackett to survey voters in four swing House districts to gain a broader understanding of the issues driving the electorate. As suggested in national polling, the economy, specifically inflation, is king.

Sackett, from the Tarrance Group, examined voter attitudes in Iowas Des Moines-anchored 3rd Congressional District; eastern Kansass 3rd Congressional District, dominated by the Kansas City suburbs; Minnesotas St. Paul-anchored 2nd Congressional District; and northeastern Pennsylvanias Scranton-anchored 8th Congressional District. The sample size was 400, with 100 coming from each district, and the margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

BIDEN IS TRAMPLING ON SEPARATION OF POWERS COURTS SHOULD REIN HIM IN

There was one bright spot for Democrats in the data. After inflation and rising gas prices, the issue most concerning to voters (20%) was the Supreme Court and a pending decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating federal protection for abortion rights. Coming in third on voters priority list, at 14%, was climate change and the environment. But overall, the polling pointed to more advantages for the Republicans.

Among the surveys key findings:

Accelerated activity by Advancing American Freedom is another sign that Pence is gearing up for a 2024 presidential run, although no decisions have been made.

The former vice president, who is traveling prodigiously to support GOP candidates on the 2022 ballot, has made several trips to key early primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Pence was recently in Georgia to support Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who held off a primary challenge from former Sen. David Perdue, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Pence is making it known that his decision on whether to seek the White House in 2024 is not predicated on Trumps plans. In a March interview with the Washington Examiner, the former president said he was disinclined to pick Pence as his running mate should he run for president a third time and win the GOP nomination. Pences inner circle has made it clear that the feeling is mutual.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

In comments Pence posted on Twitter just after Kemps victory over Perdue, the former vice president took a veiled shot at Trump and his focus on the last election. Trump continues to insist that the 2020 election was stolen and has made that issue both the centerpiece of his messaging and a priority when considering candidate endorsements.

Republicans can only win by offering real, lasting solutions to the problems Democrats have created for the American people, Pence tweeted. If Republicans come together and focus on the future, we wont just win the next election, we will win a future of freedom for all the American people.

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Inflation and gas prices are the top concerns in swing House districts: Poll - Washington Examiner