Donald Trump's defence attorney says the former president never asked Mike Pence to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election, but only wanted the former vice president to “pause” the certification of votes to allow states to investigate his claims of election fraud. Those baseless claims had already been rejected by numerous courts.

Speaking on several Sunday morning news shows, Trump attorney John Lauro said Mr Trump was within his First Amendment rights when he petitioned Mr Pence to delay the certification on 6 January 2021.

 

“The ultimate ask of Vice President Pence was to pause the counts and allow the states to weigh in,” Mr Lauro said on CBS' “Face the Nation.” He added that Mr Trump was convinced there were irregularities in the election that needed to be investigated by state authorities before the election could be certified.

Mr Pence, who like Mr Trump is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, flatly rejected that account during an interview Sunday, saying Mr Trump seemed “convinced” as early as December that Pence had the right to reject or return votes and that on 6 January, Trump's attorneys told him “'We want you to reject votes outright."

“They were asking me to overturn the election. I had no right to overturn the election,” Mr Pence said on CNN's "State of the Union."

 

FULL STORY

 

"...only wanted the former vice president to “pause” the certification of votes to allow states to investigate his claims of election fraud."

There is no provision in the Constitution to "pause" the counting of electoral votes that had been certified by the various states. The very concept of "pause" is moronic. All the court cases concerning vote fraud had been settled, and Trump won none of them. His own AG said there was no fraud; his own investigators said no fraud. So why pause?

Remember Trump told Pence he was "too honest"

I can't imagine anyone accusing Trump of being "too honest" or even just "honest"