Trump's team was filing in court.[94] Herschmann did not think that Sekulow shared the memo with the President.[95]
5.2 PRESIDENT TRUMP AND HIS ALLIES EXERT INTENSE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PRESSURE ON THE VICE PRESIDENT IN ADVANCE OF THE JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS ON JANUARY 6TH
JANUARY 2, 2021: THE VICE PRESIDENT MEETS WITH HIS ADVISORS, CEMENTING HIS INTENDED PATH FOR THE JOINT SESSION.
On January 2, 2021, Vice President Pence met with his counsel Greg Jacob, Chief of Staff Marc Short, and Matt Morgan to discuss the joint session.[96] Morgan was the Trump Campaign's General Counsel and had previously served as counsel to Vice President Pence. At this point, the Vice President already had a clear understanding of what his role would be in the electoral count.[97] Vice President Pence was concerned that most people did not understand how the certification of the electoral votes worked. So Jacob began drafting a statement for the Vice President to issue on January 6th. The statement was intended to provide a "civic education" on the joint session, explaining to the American people his actions, including why the Vice President "didn't have the authorities that others had suggested that he might."[98]
The men discussed the various points of pressure being applied to the Vice President, including Eastman's theories, the Gohmert suit, Ellis's arguments, as well as how the electoral count process should work. They also discussed allegations of irregularities and maladministration of the election, concluding that none of the allegations raised was sufficient to reverse President Trump's defeat.[99]
While Vice President Pence recognized Congress's authority under the Electoral Count Act to raise objections to the certification, neither he nor his staff were aware of any evidence of fraud that would have had a material effect on the outcome of the election in any State.[100] Because of President Trump's repetition of election fraud allegations, Jacob and the Vice President's staff conducted their own evaluation of these claims. Jacob asked Morgan to send the campaign's best evidence of election "fraud, maladministration, irregularities, [and] abuses in the system."[101] The Vice President's legal staff memorialized the review they conducted of these materials in a memo to Vice President Pence, which concluded: "most allegations of substantive voter fraud—defined to mean the casting of illegal ballots in violation of prevailing election laws—are either relatively small in number, or cannot be verified."[102]
