‘Law is not a toy for presidents’: Mike Pence adviser’s statement leaked ahead of January 6 hearing

The person who advised former Vice President Mike Pence to help him push back against an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election will tell the select committee investigating the January 6 riots at the Capitol with a simple message: “Law is not a toy for presidents. ”

Greg Jacob served as an adviser to Mr. Pence during his vice-presidency and his statement leaked arrive Politico before the third committee hearing date.

“The first instinct of the vice president is that our Constitutionalists, who hate centralized power, would never give any person the power to unilaterally change the outcome of an election. presidential nomination — especially not one with a ticket,” he said in his statement. “The vice president never wavered from that view.”

Mr. Jacob said that he began talking to Mr. Pence about the Voter Count Act and the 12th Amendment, both of which govern the confirmation of Electoral College winners, in December 2020, when former president Donald Trump continues to advertise his lie that the election is stealing. This is also when the White House began to pressure Mr. Pence.

“Our office determined that no one could say that the vice president’s conclusions about the limits of his constitutional authority were the result of failing to consider relevant law, history, or practice. mandarin,” he wrote.

Both before and on the day of ratification of the Electoral College results, Mr. Trump and his legal team, including attorney John C Eastman, repeatedly pressured Mr. Pence to use his powers to overturn the results. fruit. Mr. Eastman famously concocted the memo that would play out the way he would.

Mr Jacob said that while the committee was currently weighing remedies to ensure there was never another crisis, he countered that the existing laws were sufficient.

“However, the truth is that our laws make it clear that the vice president does not possess the extraordinary powers that others urge him to,” Jacob wrote.

“Law is not a toy for presidents or judges to use to recreate the world in their preferred image,” Jacob writes. “Our Constitution and laws form a solid building in which our sincere policy disagreements will be debated and decided.”