Pence and Trump’s frayed relationship leading up to Jan. 6 insurrection on full display in latest special counsel filing

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s role in certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win over Donald Trump and his repeated refusals to help the former president overturn the results, was under a microscope in special counsel Jack Smith’s detailed court filing Wednesday.

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s role in certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win over Donald Trump and his repeated refusals to help the former president overturn the results, was under a microscope in special counsel Jack Smith’s detailed court filing Wednesday. Smith, in the 165-page document, provides the fullest accounting yet of evidence in his 2020 election conspiracy case against Trump, Pence’s former boss. Within its pages, the document provides a detailed recounting of the hours leading up to the US Capitol riot and the deterioration of the relationship between the two men that led crowds of Trump supporters to call for violence against Pence. The role that Trump’s vice president is playing in federal prosecution against him has always been one of the most remarkable things about Smith’s case. But a ruling over the summer by the Supreme Court, which granted Trump sweeping immunity for official actions but left the door open for prosecutors to pursue him for unofficial steps he took, also explains why those interactions make a hefty part of the historic new brief. While the Supreme Court did not fully strip away allegations against Trump related to Pence from the case, the conservative majority indicated that it was skeptical that Trump’s conduct toward Pence could be prosecuted. Addressing the allegations that Trump pressured Pence to disrupt Congress’ certification, the high court deemed that conduct a “presumptively immune” official act and set a high bar for prosecutors to clear if they wanted to keep it in their case. Smith, in an attempt to clear that hurdle, went into granular detail about the circumstances around various Trump-Pence conversations – where they occurred, who else was there and what each party said – to argue that those interactions were beyond immunity as they could serve no executive function. At least some of that evidence came from Pence’s book, according to footnotes, while other pieces came from his contemporaneous notes and likely other non-public sources, including perhaps his own grand jury testimony.