Retired Judge J. Michael Luttig told the House Jan. 6 Committee on Thursday that former President Donald Trump would have “plunged” the U.S. into its “first constitutional crisis since the founding of the republic” over the 2020 election.
Mr. Luttig, a former member of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, told the panel Thursday that this would have been the result had then-Vice President Mike Pence obeyed the president’s orders to reject the election result in his capacity as president of the Senate during the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“I believe that had Vice President Pence obeyed the orders from his president … and declared Donald Trump the next president of the United States … that declaration of Donald Trump as the next president would have plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution … the first constitutional crisis since the founding of the republic,” Mr. Luttig told the panel.
On Thursday, the committee hosted the third in its series of public proceedings scheduled for this month.
Mr. Luttig, who the committee said acted as an informal adviser to Mr. Pence, testified alongside Greg Jacob, former counsel to the vice president.
Thursday’s hearing is focused on Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign on the vice president in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of the Electoral College vote, a campaign that the committee says directly caused the attack on the Capitol.
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The panel began its series of public hearings with a prime-time broadcast last Thursday to set up its case that the attack on the Capitol was the fault of Mr. Trump.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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