Former US Vice President Mike Pence stole the spotlight without even being present at the third hearing held on Thursday, 16 June, regarding the violence that took place in and around the Capitol Building on 6 January last year.
The hearing also introduced in detail a sinister character named John Eastman, a law professor.
The House Committee panel argued that weeks prior to the attack on the Capitol by supporters of former US President Donald Trump, Eastman fed the former a theory that claimed that Pence, as the head of the US Senate, had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Joe Biden won, or at the very minimum, delay the certification of the results.
Keeping that in mind, here are the three takeaways from the third hearing.
All About Pence
As the hearing concluded it became clear that Pence, like most other of Trump's close aides, never believed that he as VP could overturn the election.
Pence's general counsel, Greg Jacob, in his testimony, claimed that Pence had told him that rejecting Trump's plans "may be the most important thing" that he (Pence) ever does.
He also said that Eastman had tried to pressure him to get Pence to delay the certification of the results, but the the latter did not budge.
Additionally, in a bizarre conversation between Trump and Pence that was brought to light during the hearing, revealed in the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the former president had told the former vice president, "I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this."
And the Democrats showed their appreciation.
Representative Pete Aguilar said at the end of his opening statement,"Let me be clear: Vice President Pence did the right thing that day. He stayed true to his oath to protect and defend the Constitution."
"We are fortunate for Mr Pence's courage," said Representative Bennie Thompson, who is the chairperson of the committee.
"On Jan 6, our democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe. That courage put him in tremendous danger when Mike Pence made it clear that he wouldn’t give in to Donald Trump's scheme."
What tremendous danger? Well, as the investigations and the hearings revealed, anything could have happened to the former vice president on 6 January 2021.
Anything Could Have Happened to Pence
"If Pence caved, we're going to drag m************ through the streets. You politicians are going to be dragged through the streets," a pro-Trump rioter is heard screaming on a video that was played during the hearing.
The blood-thirsty mob got about 40 feet from Pence, chanting "hang Mike Pence."
Aguilar was direct in his argument about Pence's life being in danger when he said, "Vice President Pence was a focus of the violent attack."
The House Committee displayed previously unseen images of the former president taking refuge in a basement bunker in the Capitol Building as the pro-Trump protest escalated into a riot.
The committee also stated that an informant for the FBI belonging to the far-right and neo-fascist group, the Proud Boys, had told the bureau that the Proud Boys "would have killed Mike Pence if given the chance."
The Role of John Eastman
Then there is John Eastman, ex-clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and a law professor at Chapman University.
The hearing revealed two things involving Eastman. Firstly, he put in a significant amount of effort into convincing Trump that Pence could overturn the election. At the same time, however, Eastman knew that his plan violated the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
According to Jacob, Eastman had admitted in front of Trump that his plan made it necessary for Pence to break a federal law, but he should go ahead with it anyway.
The law professor had gone on to the extent of saying that his scheme "would lose 9-0 in the Supreme Court" but believed that the apex court would not want to intervene in a matter concerning the US Congress.
After the violence subsided, Eastman emailed Rudy Giuliani, an advocate part of Trump's personal legal team, requesting him to be put on the president's pardon list.
That did not happen. When brought before the House Committee to testify, Eastman pleaded the Fifth Amendment "at least 100 times," according to NPR, the constitutional amendment that, among other things, protects an individual against self-incrimination.
(With inputs from NYT, CNN, NPR, and The Washington Post.)
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