Marc Short, who served as Mike Pence’s chief of staff during the Republican’s tenure as vice president, may not have a high national profile, but he has an important perspective. It’s against this backdrop that NBC News reported that Short sat down with Jan. 6 investigators.
Marc Short, who was chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, recently testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed Monday. One of the sources said the deposition took place Wednesday, confirming a CNN report.
NBC News’ report added that Short is now “one of the highest-ranking Trump administration officials to meet with” the House select committee investigating last year’s assault on the Capitol.
The reason this is so notable is that the former vice presidential chief of staff is a firsthand witness to several key events.
For example, during the attack on the Capitol, as pro-Trump rioters literally chanted, “Hang Mike Pence,” it was Short who was with Pence as they were rushed to safety by Secret Service agents.
But just as notable, if not more so, is what Short saw behind the scenes.
According to recent reporting from ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, it was December 2020 when Jenna Ellis, one of the Trump campaign’s lawyers, drafted a memo that outlined a multi-step strategy to overturn the then-president’s defeat. As we’ve discussed, the strategy was bonkers, but on New Year’s Eve 2020, then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was nevertheless interested enough in the gambit that he sent a copy of Ellis’ scheme to Pence’s office — or more specifically, to Marc Short. A day later, Trump aide John McEntee reportedly sent another document to Short, titled, “[Thomas] Jefferson used his position as VP to win.” (This was historically wrong.) It was around the same time Rudy Giuliani and his associates reportedly forwarded materials to Short as part of an effort to convince Pence to recognize fake Trump electors on Jan. 6. What’s more, as CNN reported yesterday, two days before the Capitol assault, Short was “also at Pence’s side in the Oval Office for a pivotal January 4 meeting when Trump and attorney John Eastman tried to convince the then-vice president he could overturn the presidential election results in Congress on January 6.” In other words, Team Trump launched an aggressive lobbying campaign to convince Pence to overturn the election results; Short saw all of it; and now he’s cooperating with a congressional investigation. For those eager to keep these events secret, the existence of his testimony is not good news.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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