It was not clear precisely when Trump learned of the danger that Congress and his vice president faced – although it was broadcast on live television – but Tuberville’s statement would mark a specific moment that Trump was notified that Pence had to be evacuated to his own security.
Advisers to the former president did not immediately return a request for comment.
The House accused Trump last month of inciting the January 6 uprising and began putting his case to trial on Wednesday, the first of two days to present his evidence. Tuberville’s call was among the examples to show that Trump remained obsessed with preventing Biden’s victory, even when it became clear that a crowd dedicated to him was looting the Capitol. Trump, they said, did nothing to publicly cancel the protesters and instead called Tuberville to continue his effort to prevent the power transition.
The phone call itself appeared in the case of the House’s impeachment administrators against Trump, detailed during the arguments of the Senate trial on Wednesday. Managers noted that while a mob broke into the Senate chamber, Trump was ignoring his allies’ calls for him to publicly cancel them. Instead, Trump accidentally called Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) while trying to contact Tuberville to request that the Alabama senator continue to oppose the election results to buy time. Lee, according to reports in Deseret News and Utah’s CNN, passed his phone to the newly elected legislator for a brief call.
House managers say the call came shortly after 2 pm. Pence was evacuated from the chamber at around 2:15 pm and Trump sent his tweet attacking Pence at 2:24 pm. The entire Senate was cleared around 2:30 pm.
Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.