Overview
- ABC News published previously unseen, handwritten notes from Mike Pence documenting a Jan. 6, 2021 call in which Trump told him, “You’ll go down as a wimp,” as Pence refused to block certification of the 2020 election.
- Court filings show Special Counsel Jack Smith intended to use Pence’s day‑planner notes at trial alongside drafts of Trump’s Ellipse speech that were hastily revised to target Pence.
- Investigators also obtained a forensic copy of Trump’s phone that, according to the reporting, logged his digital activity and access to images of violence at the Capitol to help establish his state of mind.
- Witnesses including Ivanka Trump and aide Nicholas Luna told the House Jan. 6 committee the call was “heated,” with Luna recalling hearing the word “wimp,” and Keith Kellogg saying Trump told Pence he wasn’t “tough enough.”
- The case never reached a jury after the Supreme Court’s July 2024 immunity ruling and Trump’s reelection; in his final report, Smith wrote the admissible evidence would have been sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction.