Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation has unveiled fresh details around Donald Trump’s indifference toward stopping the Capitol riot on January 6— including his reaction to the news that his vice president had been relocated for safety purposes, according to a report.
Trump aide Nick Luna told Mr Smith’s team about the moment Mr Trump was informed that Vice President Mike Pence had to be moved to a secure location, ABC News reported. The then-president allegedly responded, “So what?”
Mr Luna was apparently shocked at this response, given Mr Pence’s loyalty to his boss over the years, the outlet wrote. During the riot, those in the mob were chanting to “hang Mike Pence,” given his reluctance to listen to Mr Trump, who had asked him to not certify the 2020 election results.
The outlet also reported that the deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino, told federal investigators that Mr Trump “was just not interested” in trying to stop the escalating violence.
The then-president was “very angry” that day over the election results coming to fruition — not over what was happening to the Capitol building by rioters, who were “angry on his behalf,” the outlet reported Mr Scavino telling investigators. The former deputy chief of staff thought Mr Trump’s reaction was “very unsettling.”
Then, after numerous failed attempts to persuade the then-president to try to stop the mob, his aides decided to give Mr Trump some space.
While he was alone, sources told ABC News, Mr Trump posted his infamous tweet about Mike Pence. He wrote that his number two “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.”
Shocked at the post, aides and staff approached Mr Scavino, who often posted on Mr Trump’s behalf to ask why he had written it. “I didn’t do it,” Mr Scavino reportedly told the special counsel’s team.
Hours later, that evening, Mr Scavino reportedly told Mr Trump over the phone: “This is all your legacy here, and there’s smoke coming out of the Capitol.”
In the aftermath of the attack, witnesses testified to the January 6 House Select Committee that the then-president was watching TV in the dining room of the Oval Office as the storming of the Capitol building unfolded. They also remarked on his hours-long refusal to intervene.
In its final report, the January 6 House panel wrote that “the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed.
The revelations come as part of Mr Smith’s probe into Mr Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and the events leading up to the riot.
