Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed the 25th Amendment removal of Trump with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after the January 6 Capitol protest.
The January 6 Committee on Tuesday released transcript of Mnuchin admitting he briefly discussed the 25th Amendment with Pompeo.
Mnuchin said he was not seriously considering using the 25th Amendment, but he googled it out of curiosity.
The Hill reported:
Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he briefly talked about using the 25th Amendment to remove former President Trump from power during a discussion with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot.
But Mnuchin, who served as Treasury secretary from the beginning of the Trump presidency to its end, said he did not seriously consider using the measure to remove Trump from office.
“It came up very briefly in our conversation,” Mnuchin told the Jan. 6 committee in his deposition, released on Tuesday. “We both believed that the best outcome was a normal transition of power, which was working, and neither one of us contemplated in any serious format the 25th Amendment.”
“The only research I did out of curiosity was I googled it,” Munchin said, adding, “I remember my general counsel asking me if we wanted him to do extensive research on it. I said, no, not at this point.”
Earlier this year audio of GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy discussing the 25th Amendment days after the January 6 Capitol protest has leaked to two New York Times reporters.
A secret recording of Kevin McCarthy on a call with Liz Cheney and other House Republicans, the Minority Leader told Cheney that he would counsel Trump to resign back on January 10, 2021 was also leaked to MSNBC.
“I think [impeachment resolutions] will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy said he would tell Trump before further adding, “what he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that and nobody should defend it.”
A new audio of McCarthy discussing the 25th Amendment with House Republicans has been leaked to the media.
“What the president did was atrocious and totally wrong. From the standpoint, we’re 12 days away – I mean the one point I’d make with Biden – if you have an impeachment and you’re stuck sitting in the senate and he needs cabinet members, he’s got Secretary of Defense, he’s got a lot of things he’s got to have moving….” McCarthy said.
McCarthy also said he wanted to reach out to Biden and have him meet with Trump.
“I do think the impeachment divides the nation further and continues the fight even greater. That’s why I want to reach out to Biden. I wanted the President to meet with Biden — that’s not going to happen,” McCarthy said.
“[The 25th Amendment] takes too long. It could go back to the House, right?” McCarthy asked his aide John Leganski.