At a hearing on Thursday, Congressman Liz Cheney, ministers of the Trump administration considered invoking a constitutional process to dismiss President Donald J. Trump after a supporter’s attack on the Capitol. She did not immediately provide details when she insisted. evidence.
But when the federal government is upset hours and days after a deadly riot, various ministers will consider their options, stabilize the government, and ensure a peaceful transition to a new president. We talked to each other.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed the possibility of invoking the Article 25 amendment. This required the Vice President and the majority of the Cabinet to agree that the President could no longer. Fulfill his duty to initiate a complex retirement process.
their Discussion Jonathan Karl of ABC News reported in his book “Betrayal” and the person who outlined the discussion explained to the New York Times. Pompeo denied that the exchange had taken place, and Mnuchin declined to comment.
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, Mr. Trump, Told USA Today This week she, along with Vice President Mike Pence, raised whether the Cabinet should consider Article 25 of the Constitutional Amendment. But Mr. Pence said, “It’s very clear that he’s not going in that direction.”
She decided to resign. So did National Security Adviser Matt Potinger.
Eugene Scalia, then Secretary of Labor, discussed with her colleagues the need to stabilize the government shortly after the attack, according to three people familiar with the conversation.
Mr. Scalia called Mr. Pence’s aide, they said, he was uncomfortable with Mr. Trump’s functioning without checking him at that moment and needed more involvement from the Cabinet. I said there was. Mr. Pence’s team didn’t want to do that.
Mr. Scalia also had a conversation with Mr. Pompeo that he shared with several people, and Mr. Scalia had someone Trump about the need to do something to restore trust in the government and a peaceful transition. Of the power that suggested that he should talk to him. In portraying Pompeo’s conversation, which others disputed, Scalia also suggested that someone should talk to Trump about his resignation.
Pompeo replied ironically by asking what Scalia imagined to have a conversation with Trump.
Scalia and Pompeo declined to comment through their aides.
Wyoming Republican and January 6 Vice-Chairman of the House Committee’s reference to the 25th Amendment under consideration by ministers is most impressive at the panel’s two-hour hearing. It was one of the claims. In the first phase of the six planned hearings, the Commission raided Mr. Trump and the Houses of Parliament and presented detailed proceedings against the mob who delayed the congressional recognition of the results of the Electoral College.
Read more about the January 6 House Committee hearing
The panel used the 25th Amendment discussion to show how unconfident the people around him were in his ability to become president, as well as the turmoil that Mr. Trump began to help stir up the riots. I have shown that I am planning to do it.
“We’ll hear about members of the Trump Cabinet who have invoked Twenty-fifth Amendment to the US Constitution and are discussing the possibility of replacing the President of the United States,” Mr. Chaney said in a hearing at the opening statement. “Several members of President Trump’s own cabinet resigned shortly after January 6.”
In addition to Secretary of Transportation Devos, Republican leader Elaine Chao, wife of Senator Mitch McConnell, has also resigned.
At a hearing on Thursday, Mr. Chainy also claimed that Republicans who helped Mr. Trump overturn the election sought an amnesty from the White House on the final day of the administration. The Commission plans to use the amnesty request as evidence of how the people who helped Mr. Trump were guilty of what they did.
Mr. Chaney provided no evidence to substantiate her claim and nominated only Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry as a seeker for amnesty.
Perry’s spokesman, Jay Ostrich, called the claim “a ridiculous, soulless lie” in an email.
Mr Chaney promised to reveal supporting evidence at future hearings, and a person familiar with the Commission’s investigation said the panel had received testimony about the request for amnesty.
Perry has coordinated plans to try to replace the deputy attorney-at-law, who resisted Trump’s attempt to investigate unfounded fraud reports, with a more obedient official. Perry also supported the idea of encouraging Trump’s supporters to march at the Capitol on January 6.
The Commission’s next hearing is scheduled for Monday, and the panel will explain how Mr. Trump and his allies stir up the “big lie” that the election was stolen. Two more hearings are scheduled for next week. One is the Justice Department’s attempt to expel the Attorney General, and the other is a campaign on Thursday to pressure Mr. Pence to block or postpone proof of election votes.
According to a letter sent to the Commission on Friday, three former Justice Ministry officials agreed to testify at a hearing on Wednesday.
Jeffrey A. Rosen, Deputy Attorney General, Richard P. Feynman, Deputy Attorney General, and Stephen A. Engel, former Deputy Attorney General, all attended the tense meeting. Prior to the January 6 attack, Mr. Trump considered dismissing Mr. Rosen and replacing him with a Loyalist.
Even before January 6, government officials under Mr. Trump were discussing the invocation of the 25th Amendment.
After Mr. Trump fired James B. Comey in the spring of 2017, FBI Director and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein rattled at Mr. Trump’s dismissal and drafted an amendment to Article 25. I raised the possibility of activating it. Meetings with high-ranking Justice Department officials and FBI officials.
Deputy FBI Director Andrew G. McCabe has launched a defense investigation into Mr. Trump’s relationship with Russia, pressured Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel. Rosenstein agreed that it was necessary to investigate the possibility of Mr. Trump’s relationship with Russia, but the only remedy if the investigation revealed nasty evidence of Mr. Trump’s relationship with Russia. He said the measure was to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Rosenstein then said he had done the math and believed that at least six cabinet officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, would call it. Despite increasing the potential, the idea didn’t go anywhere, and Rosenstein appointed Robert S. Mueller III as a special counsel.
In the years that followed, there were some disclosures about others who discussed the possibility of calling a fix. In 2019, a book by anonymous executives said senior White House officials believed that Pence would be accompanied by an amendment to expel Mr. Trump. Mr Pence denied the claim.
A veteran CBS news producer named Isla Rosen, in his 2021 book, is a news business where Steven K. Bannon, chief strategist of the White House until August 2017, talked to him about the 25th revision. I’m writing about the time I worked at.
And the last Secretary of Defense, Mark T. Esper, confirmed in Mr. Trump’s Senate, gave a diattribe to the military during a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his recent book, The Holy Oath. I wrote about the aftermath of the incident. Chief of staff later in his term.
“A few months later, one of the police officers in attendance told me on the phone that he went home that night, deeply worried about what he saw at the Commander-in-Chief,” Esper identified the person in question. Said without saying.
“The next morning he said in a very calm tone, he began to read about the 25th Amendment and the role of the Cabinet as a check of the President,” Esper said. “He wanted to understand what the Cabinet needs to consider and what the process is. “
Esper, in his own view, said Mr. Trump’s actions never rose to the standards needed to invoke the Article 25 amendment. But that was before the post-election period, by which time Esper had been fired by Mr. Trump.
Two days after the Capitol riot, Chairman Nancy Pelosi spoke with General Mark A. Milly, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“This is bad, but who knows what he could do?” Pelosi said, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book “Danger.” “He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy. He’s been crazy for a long time. So don’t say you don’t know what his state of mind is. “
“Chair Madam,” replied General Milly, “I agree with you about everything.”
Luke Broadwater When Katie Benner Report that contributed.