Aide warned Secret Service day before of Pence risk

The day before a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff called Pence's lead Secret Service agent to his West Wing office.

The chief of staff, Marc Short, had a message for the agent, Tim Giebels: The president was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Pence because of it.

The stark warning — the only time Short flagged a security concern during his tenure as Pence's top aide — was uncovered recently during research by this reporter for an upcoming book to be published in October.

Short did not know what form such a security risk might take, according to people familiar with the events. But after days of intensifying pressure from Trump on Pence to take the extraordinary step of intervening in the certification of the Electoral College count to forestall Trump's defeat, Short seemed to have good reason for concern. The vice president's refusal to go along was exploding into an open and bitter breach between the two men at a time when the president was stoking the fury of his supporters who were streaming into Washington.

It is unclear what, if anything, Giebels did with the message. But as Trump attacked his second in command — and democratic norms — in an effort to cling to power, it would prove prophetic.

A day after Short's warning, more than 2,000 people — some chanting “Hang Mike Pence” — stormed the Capitol as the vice president was overseeing the certification of Joe Biden's victory. After Pence was hustled to safety, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, is reported to have told colleagues that Trump said that perhaps Pence should have been hanged.