RALEIGH, N.C. — On Jan. 5, 2021, Mike Pence had a decision to make.
Supporters of then-President Donald Trump were gathered in Washington. Many of them — with Trump’s heavy encouragement — were looking to his vice president, Pence, to enact a plan the next day to keep Trump in office despite having lost the election.
One of the last-minute calls from Pence’s inner circle went to Michael Luttig, a former federal appellate judge with a long career at the top echelon of conservative legal circles. Luttig advised that Pence had no legal authority to overturn the results of the election, he recently told a small group of reporters that included The News & Observer.
