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Former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff told the head of his security detail he was concerned for Pence’s safety after he informed then-President Donald Trump he would not obstruct the certification of the 2020 election, according to a new indictment of Trump issued on Tuesday.
The indictment of the former president on charges relating to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election cited concerns expressed by Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, as well as Secret Service agents evacuating the vice president during the riot.
The Secret Service has previously faced scrutiny about its agents’ actions on January 6, 2021, after it emerged that text messages from January 5 and 6 of that year had been deleted. Newsweek has reached out to the Secret Service via email for comment.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty
A grand jury indicted Trump on Wednesday on four charges in the Capitol riot probe, which include conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
Trump denies all wrongdoing and he has repeatedly criticized the special counsel’s probe, claiming it’s politically motivated. In a social media post on Tuesday, he accused Smith of “Prosecutorial Misconduct.”
The 45-page indictment mentions the Secret Service briefly as part of its discussion of the Capitol riot and alleged efforts to encourage then Vice President Pence to obstruct the certification of the election.
The indictment says that on January 5, 2021, “the Defendant [Trump] met alone with the Vice President. When the Vice President refused to agree to Defendant’s request that he obstruct the certification, the Defendant grew frustrated and told the Vice President that the Defendant would have to publicly criticize him.”
“Upon learning of this, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff was concerned for the Vice President’s safety and alerted the head of the Vice President’s Secret Service detail,” the indictment said.
Later, the indictment notes that at 2.25 p.m. on January 6, 2021, “the United States Secret Service was forced to evacuate the Vice President to a secure location.”
The chairs of two congressional committees suggested last year that there had been a cover up of Secret Service text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021.
In August 2022, Democratic Representatives Carolyn Maloney, then-chair of the House Oversight Committee, and Bennie Thompson, then-chair of the Homeland Security Committee, wrote to Inspector General Joseph Cuffari and highlighted their “grave new concerns” about his office’s actions.
They said that documents they had obtained “indicate that your office may have taken steps to cover up the extent of missing records, raising further concerns about your ability to independently and effectively perform your duties as Inspector General.”
In April, a probe into the Office of Inspector General expanded to include Cuffari’s potential role in the missing text messages. He has denied any wrongdoing and said that his efforts to reform the office have been met with resistance from employees.
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