went completely off the deep end and later had to come crawling back and say, by the way, can i get a pardon for this because i said and did all kinds of things that are exposing me to real legal problems. the fact that the secret service was contacted and told in advance we may have a problem here. the vice president s life may be in danger tells you all you need to know what the mood was like in these circles, what was developing. and the fact that everyone knew it was developing and taking steps to get around it legally, the security situation. all we saw. this is like a seminar for the american people how democracy goes off the rails. if you can answer two quick questions. number one, eastman and trump s legal jeopardy, are they the same here? how do they intersect? if the goal is accountability, which john is talking about, it comes from the justice department. why wouldn t the committee give them their work product, like,
knew about the violence at the capitol but sent the tweet anyway, calling pence a coward on january 6th. something one aide said poured gasoline on the fire and put pence s life in danger. former president trump relentlessly pressured vice president pence to prevent the certification of the presidential election despite knowing pence didn t have that authority. he resisted the pressure. he knew it was illegal. he knew it was wrong. reporter: the select committee investigating the january 6th attack chronicling the plan to have pence overturn the election that was pushed by trump s lawyer, john eastman. the 11th hour pressure campaign reached a boiling point on the morning of january 6th. during a con ten courthouse phone call between trump and the vice president. he was on the telephone with who i later found out to be was the vice president.
united states of america. reporter: the rioters made it within 40 feet of the vice president. minutes before pence was taken to a secure location within the capitol, trump put out a tweet blaming pence. . the situation was already bad. and so it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that. reporter: in the months before the capitol attack, eastman peddled the theory that pence could overturn the election in his capacity as president of the senate. . he this thought he was crazy. i said are you out of your f-ing mind. you re going to cause riots in the street. reporter: pence pushed back on it was not his authority to enact. . the vice president has that authority. there is almost no idea more unamerican than the notion that any one person would chose the
following hush money allegations. mcmahon has agreed to step back from his responsibilities as chairman and ceo while the wrestling company s board investigates him for alleged misconduct. the wall street journal reports mcmahon paid a secret $3 million settlement to a former employee he allegedly had an affair with. his daughter stephanie mcmahon will serve as interim ceo and interim chair. cnn s coverage continues right now. it is the top of the hour this friday morning. good morning, everyone. i m poppy harlow. jim sciutto has the day off. today, more attention shifting to the justice department and what steps it may soon take after thursday s pivotal hearing from the january 6th select committee. the big headline the panel detailing evidence that former president trump and his attorney john eastman knew the plan to overturn the 2020 election was not legal, but still pressed
overturn the 2020 electoral results. she s among those who were in frequent email contact, it turns out, with john eastman in the leadup to the january 6th insurrection. thomas, a conservative activist, appears open to speaking with the committee telling conservative outlets that she can t wait to clear up misconceptions. with we have more on that in a moment. first, though, our pamela brown takes us through a moment by moment breakdown of how the committee laid out its evidence. former president trump relentlessly pressured his vice president pence to prevent the certification of the presidential election, despite knowing pence didn t have that authority. he resisted the pressure. he knew it was illegal. he knew it was wrong. the select committee investigating the january 6th attack chronicling the plan to have pence overturn the election that was pushed by trump s lawyer john eastman. the 11th hour pressure campaign