President Donald J. Trump’s threat to his vice president, Mike Pence, was clear and direct: If you defy my efforts to overturn the 2020 election by certifying the results, your Republican political future is over.
“Mike, if you do this, you are killing your political career,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Pence by telephone on the morning of January 6, 2021, according to the White House valet who was with the president during a most of the day. and told Congress that he had overheard the conversation.
Testimony from Mr. Trump’s valet, provided to the now-defunct House January 6 Committee in 2022 but not previously made public, offers a rare glimpse into the former president’s behavior in the hours before, during and after a crowd of his supporters. stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory.
In the valet account, featured in a transcript obtained by The New York Times, an agitated Mr. Trump pressured Mr. Pence to overturn the election and mulled over Mr. Pence’s refusal for hours after violence engulfed Congress. After learning that a civilian had been shot outside the House of Representatives amid the mob attack, Mr. Trump appeared unconcerned.
“I just remember seeing it in front of him,” the valet said of a card Mr. Trump received breaking the news of the victim as he watched the riot unfold on television. “I don’t remember how it got there or anything. But there was no reaction.
As unflattering as parts of the aide’s testimony were to Mr. Trump, he did not confirm some of the most explicit and damning assertions made by witnesses before the committee on January 6.
For example, the valet said he did not remember hearing Mr. Trump use vulgar language to describe his view that Mr. Pence was a coward, nor agreeing with the rioters who chanted for Mr. Pence to be hanged. And he remembers hearing the president ask whether he should contact senior officials about the possibility of sending the National Guard to the Capitol — although there is no indication he ever followed through.
“Did you hear the president say that?” a Jan. 6 House committee investigator asked the valet, inquiring about reports that Mr. Trump called Mr. Pence an expletive intended to refer to a wimp.
“I didn’t – no, sir,” the valet replied.
Mr. Trump himself did not dispute the use of this language, and Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff said that Ms. Trump told her that Mr. Trump had an “upsetting” conversation with Mr. Pence and that the president had accused him of cowardice, using “the ‘p’ word.” The valet also acknowledged that he was not always with the president and that he left the Oval Office during part of Mr. Trump’s call with Mr. Pence.
At another point, the valet was asked if he remembered “any comments the president or anyone around him made about those ‘Hang Mike Pence’ slogans.” »
He responded that he remembered the chorus, “but I don’t remember any comments from the president or any staff member.”
Mr. Trump has previously defended the rioters’ use of chanting, telling ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that “people were very angry” and calling the anger “common sense.”
House Republicans provided the transcript to The Times after obtaining it from the White House, which was reviewing and redacting it along with a handful of others provided by the House committee on Jan. 6. The copy reviewed by The Times is heavily redacted and the valet is referred to simply as “a White House employee.”
For more than a year after taking control of the House, Republicans have been investigating the work of the Jan. 6 committee, looking for signs of bias. They suggested that the committee withheld certain transcripts because they contradict certain testimonies from a prominent witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an assistant to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff at the time. Although much of her testimony was corroborated, Ms. Hutchinson acknowledged that in some cases she relied on second-hand or third-hand accounts of events in her testimony to the committee.
“It took a lot of work to get these documents,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican who is leading the GOP investigation, said of the transcript of the valet’s testimony and a batch of other documents. he obtained from the White House and the department. of Homeland Security.
Mr. Loudermilk admitted that it contained “some testimony that might not be favorable to Trump,” but added: “We’re publishing all of this, not doing what the select committee did, and publishing things that will be favorable to our side.
However, in court filings, federal prosecutors who charged Mr. Trump with crimes for his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election said some of the committee’s transcripts were subject to confidentiality agreements and that they had been sent to the White House and Secret. Revision and writing service before publication. Federal prosecutors said they provided these “sensitive, non-public transcripts” to Mr. Trump and his legal team, according to a court filing last year.
Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chaired the House committee on January 6, said nothing in the valet’s account changed the basic facts of what his panel found about Mr. Trump’s role. by summoning his supporters to Washington to contest the election results and doing nothing to do so. stop their attack on the Capitol.
“Despite Mr. Loudermilk’s attempts to rewrite the violent history of January 6, the facts outlined in the select committee’s final report remain undisputed – and nothing of substance has been left out or hidden,” he said. he declares. “Although the valet did not witness everything that happened at the White House that day, the testimony confirms Trump’s indifference to the violence and his anger at the vice president Pence for fulfilling his duty under the Constitution.”
The Valet also shed light on how Mr. Trump’s White House became dysfunctional during his final weeks in office. He said Mr. Trump was often “frustrated,” “upset” and “angry” with Pat A. Cipollone, the White House lawyer who frequently served to control some of the former president’s more extreme impulses. – so much so that the valet asked his aides to keep the lawyer away from the president at lunchtime to avoid upsetting him.
The valet also confirmed Mr. Trump’s penchant for tearing up documents and other materials given to him, which under the law governing presidential records is prohibited. supposed to be preserved.
“That’s generally what he would do once he’s done with a document,” the valet said of Mr. Trump. “But that was his sign that he had finished reading it, and he would just throw it on the floor. He tore up everything – newspapers, photos.
The valet also testified that Mr. Trump had expressed interest on Jan. 6 in speaking to Gen. Mark A. Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi about sending of the National Guard to the Capitol – a move that was a subject of controversy given the hours-long delay upon the possible arrival of troops.
Mr Loudermilk said it was this aspect of the valet’s account that caught his attention.
“It stuck with me saying, ‘OK, this is totally in contrast to what we’ve seen, and I’ve never seen this before.’ And that’s when we started digging,” Mr. Loudermilk said.
Ultimately, however, Mr. Trump made no such call, General Milley told the House panel.
The valet also testified to the contrast between the reaction of White House staff members and that of Mr. Trump while the riot was underway.
After returning from a speech to a noisy crowd at the Ellipse, Mr. Trump was informed that “there was a riot at the Capitol,” the valet recalled.
“And he was like, ‘Oh, really?’ And then he said to me, ‘Okay, let’s go see,’ and he went to watch the violence on television.
The valet speaks of a feeling of “disbelief” then panic which seized the staff.
“It was like, ‘What are we going to do?’ He said officials were “running around — running from office to office and everywhere,” while Mr. Trump seemed calm.
Hours later, however, the president was still talking about Mr. Pence.
“Me and him, I think towards the end of the day he just mentioned that Mike had dropped him,” the valet said. “And that was it.”
