Watch live January 6: GOP Judge Lutig accuses Trump of ‘treacherous plan’ to steal American democracy

Retired federal judge J. Michael Lutig, who advised Vice President Mike Pence before the Capitol riots, directly accused former President Donald Trump and his allies of waging a “war on democracy” on January 6, 2021.

“Our democracy is on a knife edge today,” said Luttig, a former judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in a blatant witness statement shared by the select committee with CNBC.

Lutig, one of two witnesses who spoke during the committee’s third public hearing, denounced Trump and others’ attempts to reverse the 2020 election, saying “the treacherous plan was no less ambitious than stealing America’s democracy.”

Lutig’s sweeping, hurtful speech slammed Trump for spreading false election-fraud conspiracies, claiming he won the election, which he lost “fair and square” to President Joe Biden. And Luttig said it was “breathtaking” that Trump entertained the useless legal principles that were employed to try to reverse his election losses.

The former judge, who was appointed by Republican former President George HW Bush to the US Court of Appeals, also took aim at the GOP. “The party of the former president justified the reprehensible and shameful act on January 6 as something that got out of hand between a sacred, legitimate public discourse and a visit to the Capitol by visitors,” he said. “January 6, of course, was neither, and the former president and his party know this.”

Lutig also defended Pence, who rejected Trump’s demand that he refuse to count electoral votes for Joe Biden. “On January 6, there were many cowards on the battlefield. The vice president was not among them,” Luttig said.

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Greg Jacobs, attorney for former Vice President Mike Pence, said there was “no way” that Pence had the legal right to refuse counting of electoral votes and select the winner of what was essentially a presidential election.

Jacob told the committee that he first spoke to Pence about the legal doctrine in the month following the 2020 election, when Trump’s then-Vice President began hearing and reading claims that on January 6, 2021 He had an important role.

After looking at the relevant provision in the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, as well as the 19th-century Electoral Counting Act, Jacob and others found this principle to be of no value.

“We have concluded that you have a sentence in the Constitution that has been inadvertently framed,” Jacob said. “But the Vice President’s first instinct when he heard this theory was that there was no way that our framers, who hated the concentrated power that had been torn apart by the tyranny of George the Third, would have ever put a person– especially not a person who had a direct interest in the result, as they were on the ticket for the election – in a role of decisive influence on the outcome of the election.”

“Our review of the text, history and, frankly, common sense, all confirmed the vice president’s first instincts at that point,” Jacob said. “There is no justifiable ground to conclude that the Vice President has such authority.”

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President Representative Benny Thompson, D-Miss, said America was “fortunate to have Mr.

“Trump wanted Pence to decline the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states for counting,” Thompson said at the start of the hearing. “Mike Pence said no.”

“Our democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe. That courage put [Pence] in tremendous danger” when Trump “turned the crowd on him,” Thompson said.

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The selection committee is expected to present a mix of live witnesses and pre-taped interviews, like the first two hearings, in which two of Pence’s former advisers are scheduled to testify in person.

The committee chair, Rep. Benny Thompson, D-Miss., and its vice president, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Vyo. is also expected to speak. Cheney suggested last week that the action of attorney John Eastman, who had been advising Trump on the election, would play a major role in the hearing.

Two of Pence’s aides will testify in person on Thursday. The first vice president’s former attorney is Greg Jacobs, who told Eastman in an email on the day of the riots, “Thanks for your crap, we’re under siege now.”

Another witness J. Michael Luttig, a retired judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, who was Pence’s unofficial adviser in the lead up to Jan.

Committee member Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., is expected to take the lead in Thursday’s hearing.

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Representative Benny Thompson, D-Miss, the chairman of the selection committee, revealed that The panel will ask Ginny ThomasTo speak with congressional investigators, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Ginny Thomas has come under intense scrutiny in recent months after reporting her Trying to challenge the 2020 election results — by sending a series of frantic texts to then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“We think it’s time to invite him to speak to the committee,” Thompson told a group of reporters on Thursday morning. NBC News and other outlets reported.

Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Vy., agrees that the committee should talk to Ginny Thomas, an aide to Cheney told CNBC.

Thompson reportedly said the upcoming invitation is based on “information we have received” about the conservative justice’s spouse. He did not specify when the committee planned to send its invitation.

A Supreme Court spokesperson did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

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Select committee aides told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that the latest hearing would delve into one of Trump’s theories — rejected by most top legal minds and eventually by Pence himself — that the vice president should count the Electoral College votes from disputed states. Can refuse unilaterally.

On January 6, 2021, Pence was tasked with presiding over a joint session of Congress to ratify the results of the Electoral College. He sparked Trump’s fury when he said in a letter just before proceedings that he could not claim a “unilateral right” to exclude electoral votes.

The nine-member committee will plan to show how Trump pressured Pence to adhere to the principle, and how it helped instigate a Capitol riot and “endangered Pence’s life,” an aide said. The panel is also expected to unveil new material documenting Pence’s moves to the Capitol as the rebellion unfolded.

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