Secret Service Was Warned of Danger to Pence on January 5: Report

The Secret Service was warned by one of Mike Pence’s top aides of a threat to the then–vice president the day before the storming of the Capitol, per revelations in a new book on the Trump presidency.

On January 5, 2021, Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff and the former White House director of legislative affairs to then-President Donald Trump, called to speak with Special Agent Tim Giebels, the head of the vice-presidential protective detail. Short reportedly told Giebels that Trump was going to “publicly turn” against Pence, which would create a threat to his life.

In the days leading up to January 6, 2021, Trump had been publicly pressuring Pence to use his role as president of the Senate and presiding officer of the joint session of Congress to stop the certification of Electoral College votes confirming Joe Biden as the next president. Though no notably violent calls had been made against Pence — beyond normal threats made against the vice president — Short had judged that Trump’s supporters, scheduled to gather in Washington the next day, would increase the threat level in a noticeable manner.

The revelations were obtained from part of an upcoming book by the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman. According to Haberman, it was the only time that Short had flagged a security threat to the vice president during both men’s tenures.