A lawyer for Pence told him the day before January 6 that not certifying the election would lead to a loss in court: report

• Trump asked Pence to certify the 2020 election in his favor.
• A lawyer for Pence said doing so would eventually fail in court, according to a memo obtained by Politico.

A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence told him the day before the Capitol Riot that following former President Donald Trump's request to certify the election for him would eventually fail in court, according to a memo obtained by Politico.

Congress was in the process of certifying the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters who falsely believed the election had been rigged stormed the US Capitol.

Trump had previously asked Pence to certify the election in his favor, but attorney Greg Jacob told Pence in a memo that doing so would break multiple provisions of the Electoral Count Act.

According to Politico, in the memo, Jacob said the move could fail in the courts or put America in a political crisis where Pence would find himself "in an isolated standoff against both houses of Congress … with no neutral arbiter available to break the impasse."

The attorney will testify publicly in front of the House committee investigating the Capitol riots this week, however, his letter has been known to the committee for months, Politico reported.

Trump, on the advice of attorney John Eastman, had asked Pence to certify the election in his favor despite not having enough electoral votes. The effort came after multiple attempts to overturn election results in multiple key states.