reporter: it will all focus on the pressure on mike pence to take that unconstitutional action on january 6, 2021 to overturn the electoral certified votes of the states here on january 6, something of course that he rejected doing. but going to the genesis of how this theory first came about. looking at the trump attorney john eastman who is a prominent supporter of this and directly tie donald trump s words to the violence that occurred on january 6 as words about mike pence into exactly what happened here in the capitol. now, two people will be testifying who are very close to mike pence, we expect to hear from greg jake sob who is a former counsel for mike pence and as well as judge mike luttig, former judge and adviser of sorts to pence to understand what the vice president was thinking at the time. we do also expect to see video deposition from his former chief of staff marc short, who will be featured prominently in today s hearing. we ve gotten a copy of judge lutti
outrageous. that is not necessarily a crime. did john eastman cross the line, however, and i think that we have to look at what was behind the ridiculous legal theory. witnesses today will tell you that that legal theory was crazy and i think the argument will be his purpose was to ob strstruct congressional counting and that intent could make it criminal. much of the focus of the hearing is going to be the pressure that was put on vice president mike pence. liz cheney was quoting president trump saying that maybe the supporters have the right idea, that maybe, quote, pence deserves it. how much of the intention today is to demonstrate that there was this overwhelming pressure on mike pence and that trump almost got pence killed? yeah, let s remember, this is the end game. when you are thinking about the time line from the election up to january 6, this is all happening at the very end.
featured prominently in today s hearing. we ve gotten a copy of judge luttig s opening statement that he does plan to deliver to the committee. he makes some very strong comments about donald trump, donald trump s effort to try to cling on to power and push this bogus notion that the vice president could have simply rejected the will of the electorate. he says had the vice president of the united states obeyed the president of the united states of america, america would immediately have been plunged into what would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis. today s hearing will be led in part by a committee counsel who will be asking questions. coo congressman aguilar will be part of the questioning and it is only the beginning of what will still be several more hearings later this month as this committee continues to both pr promise more and more evidence
think that the law is pretty clear, that the vice president s only role is to count the votes and announce the votes, but eastman s local thwhole theory the vice president has the authority to throw out certain votes. so quite an easy fix. august you need to say is that the vice president s only job is to count and announce the votes. he can t decide to throw any out. so it is the language of the statute. yeah, the statute needs to be fixed. and let s keep in mind, the committee has said in court our purpose is not necessarily investigative, as legislative. and would not thing that one important here, we were talking about it yesterday in terms of intent, prove intent, what did he really believe. but for i don t john eastman, i critical. yes. and there is a critical line here between lawyers are allowed to and i will tell you first hand often do make arguments that are reaches, that are shaky. sometimes that are even
reporter: it will all focus on the pressure on mike pence to take that unconstitutional action on january 6, 2021 to overturn the electoral certified votes of the states here on january 6, something of course that he rejected doing. but going to the genesis of how this theory first came about. looking at the trump attorney john eastman who is a prominent supporter of this and directly tie donald trump s words to the violence that occurred on january 6 as words about mike pence into exactly what happened here in the capitol. now, two people will be testifying who are very close to mike pence, we expect to hear from greg jake sob who is a former counsel for mike pence and as well as judge mike luttig, former judge and adviser of sorts to pence to understand what the vice president was thinking at the time. we do also expect to see video deposition from his former chief of staff marc short, who will be