On Tuesday night, Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out that a single quote from former vice-president Mike Pence stands out from the rest -- enough so that it could bring down the thrice-indicted former President down.
O'Donnell said that the "witness" mentioned in the indictment must be former Vice President Mike Pence. "You're too honest," Trump told the witness.
"The witness who spoke those words in the grand jury, in his testimony, is obviously Donald Trump's Vice President Mike Pence," the MSNBC host said. "That is the only way that those words could appear in quotation marks, on page 33 of today's indictment. "You're too honest." Page 33 contains a description of, quote, several private phone calls in late December 2020 and early January between the President and Vice President of the United States."
"The only person who could possibly have told Jack Smith and the grand jury about those phone calls is Mike Pence," he continued.
"Mike Pence did not just testify to Jack Smith's grand jury," he said. "He became the star witness, and he will be the star witness when the case that the United States of America versus Donald J. Trump is presented to a trial jury in Washington DC."
"They will be the first jurors in history to see a first former Vice President of the United States raise his right hand and take an oath, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the criminal defendant sitting in front of the jury, the former president of the United States," O'Donnell said. "When the former Vice President is under oath on the witness stand, testifying against the former president, Mike Pence will deliver the testimony that he obviously delivered to the grand jury and is described for the first time in today's indictment."
"On December 25, when the Vice President called the defendant to issue a Merry Christmas, the defendant quickly turned the conversation to January 6 in his request that the Vice President reject the electoral votes," he continued. "The Vice President pushed back, telling the defendant, as the Vice President already had in previous conversations, you know, I don't think that I have the authority to change the outcome."
"Obviously, the quotation marks around that sentence mean that Mike Pence gave those words, exactly those words, to the grand jury under oath," he said. "And another private phone call that only Mike Pence was a witness to, on December 29, the defendant falsely told the Vice President that the justice department was finding major infractions."
That line, you're too honest, will be the headline in that day's coverage of the trial. 'You're too honest' from Donald Trump to Mike Pence.
O'Donnell said that that line would "prove beyond reasonable doubt that Donald Trump knew that he was lying about Mike Pence's power to overturn the election."
He said, "Jack Smith believes that he can prove beyond reasonable doubt that Donald Trump knew that everything he was saying about the election in December and January was a lie."
"But if Donald Trump gets on a witness stand," he said, adding, "He will lie under oath, he will leave the witness stand and commit more crimes on the witness stand, so now, no experienced legal observers expect Donald Trump to testify in his own defense at any of his trials."
"The indictment of Donald Trump responsible for doing nothing to stop the attack on the Capitol while it was going on, and the indictment describes Donald Trump and his coconspirators, including Rudy Giuliani, continuing to commit crimes after the attack on the Capitol."
I doubt that Pence will like being the witness who brings down Trump. He knows what his supporters are capable of. But that's what happens when you tie yourself to the most toxic figure in recent history.
