this is one where i mean, this is so childish when you step back. i mean, again, it is just not a serious discussion when you think about, even to stretch slightly beneath the surface here. okay, on sunday, john lauro changed his story from the one he told on television last week. here s what john lauro said last week. professor eastman laid out a series of options that were discussed with vice president pence. vice president pence disagreed on certain issues, but ultimately what president trump said, let s go with option d. let s just halt. let s just bought the voting around the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections or handled fairly.
now, that appears to be john lauro offering donald trump s admission that he did do exactly what the indictment says that he did in asking for a so-called pause in the counting of the electoral votes. and congress donald trump actually achieve through the violent attack on the capitol, and trump going with coconspirators, desperately calling and emailing senators, including rudy giuliani, john eastman, who have at 11:44 pm on january 6th, when congress had returned to count the electoral votes, sent an email to the vice president s counsel, asking him for a pause in the process. and admitting in writing in that email that the pause would be what john eastman called in the email, a minor violation off the electoral count act. john lauro falsely claimed yesterday that donald trump asked for a pause in his speech on january 6th. that is a lie. donald trump never once used the word pause in his speech on january six, not once. here s how that new story went yesterday. the ultimate op
trump asked for at the ellipse speech was merely to pass the voting for a period of time, to allow the state legislature and even then, mr. eastman said, it was a violation of the law. so he did know that he was breaking the law. no, he didn t say that he said it was a minor violation of the law. he said that the electoral count act was not constitutional. and the only thing required under the electoral count act is a vote on january 6th. what mr. eastman said it was a violation you have to let me finish. so, neal katyal, constitutional expert, john lauro saying that donald trump
trump asked for, president trump asked for at the ellipse speech was merely to pass the voting for a period of time, to allow the state legislature and even then, mr. eastman said, it was a violation of the law. so he did know that he was breaking the law. no, he didn t say that he said it was a minor violation of the law. he said that the electoral count act was not constitutional. and the only thing required under the electoral count act is a vote on january 6th. what mr. eastman said it was a violation you have to let me finish. so, neal katyal, constitutional expert, john lauro saying that donald trump could violate any law that he thinks is unconstitutional. so, my constitutional expertise tells me one thing, lawrence, which is that donald trump s lawyer, john lauro, should know there s only one person who can pull off five back to tv interviews and remain coherent, and that is andrew weissmann. [laughter]
and their defense is, listen to john eastman, i am sorry, john eastman is a constitutional nobody. and there was a person after person who told trump from his own attorney general bill barr to the white house counsel, to all the other lawyers in the white house counsel s office, all thoughts of people said, you lost this election. you ve got nothing here. trump shopped with one lawyer john eastman, who said something he didn t believe it because he thought he d lose 9 to 0 in the supreme court as the indictment says. harry litman, george stephanopoulos repeatedly tried to get an answer to the question that, will donald trump take the witness stand and testify that he did not say to mike pence, you are too honest. and john lauro absolutely ran away from that question multiple times, as far as he could. george stephanopoulos did with it as long as he could. and the only response he ever got was john lauro saying basically the defense doesn t have to prove anything. he will run aw