‘Hard to Believe’: Jan. 6 Committee Presents Email from John Eastman Blaming Riot on Mike Pence

John Eastman, the attorney who pushed a half-baked legal theory stating that Vice President Mike Pence could have denied certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, blamed Pence for the Capitol riot.

The Jan. 6 committee continued its public hearings on the riot on Thursday, presenting evidence of the extent of Eastman’s efforts to delay or even thwart congressional certification of Biden as the winner of the presidential election. Eastman told then-President Donald Trump that as the presiding officer of the certification, Pence could deny certification of results from states Trump lost.

Documents released by the committee this week contained correspondence between Eastman and Greg Jacob, the top White House lawyer for Pence. Jacob testified before the committee on Thursday.

Committee attorney John Wood reviewed the emails during Jacob’s testimony:

Mr. Jacob, immediately before you and the vice president were evacuated to a secure location within the Capitol, you hit send on an email to John Eastman explaining why his legal theory about the vice president’s role was wrong. You ended your email by stating that, quote, “Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.”

[…]

And Dr. Eastman replied – and this is hard to believe – that his reply back to you was, “The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss” – presumably referring to the vice president of the United States – “did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so the American people can see for themselves what happened.”

Wood asked Jacob if he heard from Eastman after the riot had ended. Jacob replied that he had and that after certification resumed, Eastman claimed certification of the results in Arizona had violated the Electoral Count Act because it had taken too long.

Jacob replied by noting that a riot had just occurred in the Capitol for several hours, thus delaying certification.

Watch above via CNN.