- Two people heard secondhand that Trump agreed with calls to hang Mike Pence on January 6, NYT reports.
- Two witnesses testified to the January 6 Committee that Mark Meadows told them about it.
- Trump had also complained to Meadows about Pence being taken out of the Capitol, the people said.
Two witnesses have testified to the House January 6 Committee that they heard secondhand that then-President Donald Trump reacted positively to calls by January 6 rioters to hang Vice President Mike Pence, The New York Times and Politico report.
The witnesses said then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told them that Trump had complained to him about Pence being taken out of the Capitol by security during the insurrection, and made a comment that Pence should perhaps be hung, The Times reported. The newspaper reported that it was "not clear what tone" Trump used.
One unnamed witness first told the committee they had heard the remark, which was later confirmed by testimony from former Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson, The Times reported.
The first witness and Hutchinson, who was at the White House on January 6, testified to the committee that Meadows told other people around him at the White House that day about Trump's remarks shortly after Trump made the comments in his private dining room off the Oval Office, The Times and Politico reported.
Meadows himself stopped voluntarily cooperating with the January 6 committee in December. He also defied a subpoena to provide testimony to the panel, leading the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to vote to hold him in contempt of Congress and refer his case to the Justice Department. So far, DOJ has not acted.
A spokesman for Trump, Taylor Budowich, did not deny the reported testimony and instead attacked the committee in a statement to The Times and Politico.
"This partisan committee's vague 'leaks,' anonymous testimony and willingness to alter evidence proves it's just an extension of the Democrat smear campaign that has been exposed time and time again for being fabricated and dishonest," Budowich said. "Americans are tired of the Democrat lies and the charades, but, sadly, it's the only thing they have to offer."
Trump and his associates, including legal scholar John Eastman, spent the weeks leading up to the joint session of Congress on January 6 pressuring Pence to reject slates of electors of Biden, something Pence did not have the power to do in his ceremonial role leading the count.
On January 6 itself, Trump urged Pence to "send back" slates of Biden electors to the states so they could "correct their votes" in a tweet at 8:17 a.m. tweet.
Then, in a tweet posted at 2:24 p.m. after rioters breached the building, Trump wrote: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"
Trump later appeared to defend the "hang Mike Pence" chants from his supporters in an on-the-record interview with ABC News correspondent Jon Karl for his book "Betrayal," saying, "the people were very angry."
"It's common sense, Jon. It's common sense that you're supposed to protect," Trump added. "How can you, if you know a vote is fraudulent, right, how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress?"
Michigan's chief election official Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, also recently told NBC News that she heard secondhand that Trump had said she should be arrested for treason and executed in the wake of his 2020 election loss in Michigan. Budowich, Trump's spokesman, denied that Trump had made the remark and accused Benson of lying.