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Pence’s Letter of Explanation Written on January 5th

Bill Haskell | June 16, 2022 6:30 am

Journalism

Law

Politics

As taken from “Letters from an American,” June 12, 2022, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson

“Yesterday, Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney reported on January 5, 2021, then – vice president Pence’s attorney Greg Jacob wrote a three-page memo concluding what the president and his supporters were demanding Pence do the next day would break the 1887 Electoral College Act—that is, the law – in four different ways.
The memo responded to John Eastman’s memo laying out the plan for Pence to hand the election to Trump by refusing to count a number of Biden electors. Lawyer Jacob was noting Eastman himself was ‘acknowledging his proposal violates several provisions of statutory law.’ Additionally both historical court decisions and one as recent as the day before contradicted Eastman’s plan.
Jacob’s memo concluded that if Pence did what Trump demanded, the best possible outcome was that ‘[t]he 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….’
It is no wonder that Pence declined to participate.”

This is a well-written piece. I have no issues with how it is written. Prof. Heather is an excellent writer.

The salutation of Vice President is intentionally written as vice president. Read the first sentence and tell me what is wrong, not the sentence, the thought pattern, and not Prof. Heather’s.

My response?

“How does this work? Every attorney takes an unconditional oath to support the Constitution. I do not think there are exclusions for insurrections either. The oaths may vary by state except with support for the constitution. Pence is an attorney. His attorney Greg Jacob writing a three-page letter (redundant alert) is an attorney. Greg is writing about what the ‘president and his supporters were demanding Pence do the next day would break the 1887 Electoral College Act.’ Really? John Eastman is an attorney. Most of Congress are attorneys. They all swore oaths to support the constitution.
Seems to me we can hold a mass disbarment of those who failed to take action in warning people of the insurrection on the 6th (Pence and Jacob) and those who were silent. The committee already has the evidence. These people need to experience what the inside of a jail cell looks like.
Why are there exceptions for these critters? The insurrectionists who showed up on the 6th are being dealt with in courts and jail cells. Why do they get a by? In comparison, these people are worse than the insurrectionists. They knew, sat back, and ‘let’ it all happen.
Sermon complete.”

On January 5th, Attorney Michael Pence’s attorney Greg Jacob is writing a letter about what trump and his followers are demanding Pence do on January 6th to usurp the election thereby violating the 1887 Electoral College Act.

On January 5th, Jacob is writing this letter. One day before the attack on the capitol. Ahhh does anybody get the same feeling? If Pence and Greg Jacobs are against what trump and his coconspirators are doing, why didn’t they tell anyone on the 5th? There are telephones, emails, etc. What good is a letter on January 6th? And it took three pages?

6 Comments

Fred C. Dobbs says:

June 16, 2022 at 8:37 am

Pence Aide Warned Against Blocking Electoral College Count, Memo Shows

NY Times – June 12

Shortly before Jan. 6, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief counsel wrote that holding up the certification of the election results would violate federal law.

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s 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. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  June 16, 2022 at 8:41 am
  
  “what the ‘president and his supporters were demanding Pence do the next day would break the 1887 Electoral College Act.’ Really?”
  
  At this point, Trump & Eastman, et al. were throwing Pence under a bus, apparently.
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  June 16, 2022 at 10:30 am
  
  (Not so vaguely related.)
  
  Trump Lawyer Cited ‘Heated Fight’ Among Justices Over Election Suits
  
  NY Times – June 16
  
  A lawyer advising President Donald J. Trump claimed in an email after Election Day 2020 to have insight into a “heated fight” among the Supreme Court justices over whether to hear arguments about the president’s efforts to overturn his defeat at the polls, two people briefed on the email said.
  
  The lawyer, John Eastman, made the statement in a Dec. 24, 2020, exchange with a pro-Trump lawyer and Trump campaign officials over whether to file legal papers that they hoped might prompt four justices to agree to hear an election case from Wisconsin.
  
  “So the odds are not based on the legal merits but an assessment of the justices’ spines, and I understand that there is a heated fight underway,” Mr. Eastman wrote, according to the people briefed on the contents of the email. Referring to the process by which at least four justices are needed to take up a case, he added, “For those willing to do their duty, we should help them by giving them a Wisconsin cert petition to add into the mix.”
  
  The pro-Trump lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, replied that the “odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable if the justices start to fear that there will be ‘wild’ chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way.”
  
  Their exchange took place five days after Mr. Trump issued a call for his supporters to attend a “protest” at the Ellipse near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress would certify the electoral vote count confirming Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. “Be there. Will be wild!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.
  
  The previously unreported exchange is part of a group of emails obtained by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters. …
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    June 16, 2022 at 10:35 am
    
    Mr. Chesebro’s comment about the justices being more open to hearing a case if they fear chaos was striking for its link to the potential for the kind of mob scene that materialized at the Capitol weeks later.
    
    And Mr. Eastman’s email, if taken at face value, raised the question of how he would have known about internal tension among the justices about dealing with election cases. Mr. Eastman had been a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas. …
Watt4Bob says:

June 16, 2022 at 7:24 pm

I you examine the government’s reaction to the Business Plot you’ll see that we’ve been this way before, and if the situation follows the pattern of the past, the PTB will close ranks to avoid airing their dirty laundry in public.

“Nothing to see here, move along.”

Our masters consider this sort of thing to be a logical extension of politics, just part of the ‘game’.

We have also to consider that considering Biden and the dims dismal performance, the republicans may well retake control starting later this year, and, as has been threatened, if Trump is prosecuted, the coming republican president and congress would bring down the wrath of god on the dims, and by extension, the rest of us.

There’s a lot of people who should be in jail, but virtually no one has the guts to tackle the job.
- run75441 says:
  
  June 17, 2022 at 1:02 am
  
  Watt4:
  
  I had to dig you out of the trash. The spam machine is working overtime and throws out legit comments. I check it, so do not think you are being ignored.
  
  You must know, I am aware of Smedley and what he did. Am aware of Chesty who never got the Congressional Medal although he did get 4 Navy Crosses. You think he could trade them in for one Medal of Honor? My cousin was a Master Gunnery Sergeant and another was a Major flying F4s. Maybe you know and maybe you do not know, I am a XMarine Sergent severing 68-74. They promised me everything. Instead I went off active duty because, “I had to go see about a girl.” In spite of me, she is still here fifty-some years later.
  
  Not welcome at NC because of a few comments I made. Did not appreciate the treatment Coberly received on SS by Susan. The former some time we will discuss.
  
  What was 2008 like and afterwards? Did Participation Rate ever return to what it was pre-2008? In 2001 when Greenspan was dropping the Fed Rate like a rock, PR was over 67%. Greenspan in 2000:
  
  In remarks before Congress, Greenspan said there is little evidence that the Fed’s series of four short-term interest rate hikes since June 1999 have had much impact on quelling the threat of an overheated economy. He said that while inflation has remained in check so far — surging energy prices being the notable exception — this situation cannot last unless growth slows.
  
  Greenspan had concerns the tight labor market, which he said could cause the economy to inflate if workers demanded higher wages and cause consumer prices to spiral upward. Unemployment has fallen to a 30-year low of 4 percent, shrinking the available labor pool – although Greenspan said that so far the tight labor market has not been accompanied by a sharp increase in wages that could drive up prices.
  
  Drucker and myself always felt Labor is the smallest cost of manufacturing. It is the Overhead and materials which has the greatest portion of the costs. Traditionists Greenspan, Paulson, Bernanke, Yellen, and now this one believe differently. Every company which has ever hired me, had me fixing materials and planning. Which I did, materials does not whine.
  
  When yo look at 2007 – 2010; how do you feel about it? PP dropped from 66% to 61% and then at 63 percentage pre-pandemic. It dropped during the pandemic and is a short ways away from the Pre-pandemic PR New DEAL Dem has a good post(s) up on this. Obama has his hands tied and Biden has to contend with Manchin and Sinema. I am in AZ now so I will contend with Sinema.
  
  For an ass who stuck it to students on student loans, he has done rather well for us. DEMS have issue with rowing the boat forward. We did dodge a bullet though. Right now we have supply chain issues with companies not maintaining orders during the pandemic and rent taking. Energy is one of the issues. Planning of chips is another which I lived through in 2009/10. I know what is going on with the latter especially. RJS reports on energy each week and I put his posts up. He reads like a stockbroker with little punctuation. I edit it.
  
  In comparison to 2009/10, Biden did damn well in 2021/22 even with an insurrection going on by trump and half of the Repubs. Pence never said a word.