Secret photos show Pence in bunker during Capitol riot, reporter reveals

Jonathan Karl of ABC says the vice president was with a photographer as he sheltered from pro-Trump mob calling for him to be hanged

ABC’s Jonathan Karl has revealed the existence of images depicting former Vice President Mike Pence as he huddled with close staff and Secret Service agents during the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January.

Speaking with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Karl explained that a White House photographer was among those sequestered away with Mr Pence as the deadly attack unfolded.

"With his family ... this is the Vice President of the United States, and he's like holed up in a basement,” said Karl, who described the location as “an underground parking garage beneath the Capitol Complex”.

"I got ahold of the photographer, I actually saw all of the photographs," said the ABC political correspondent, describing the scene: “No desk, no chairs, no place to sit”.

Karl went on to describe how Mr Pence’s team stonewalled his attempts to publish the photographs in his book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show. He indicated that he believed the public had a right to see them, and that the congressional committee looking into the 6 January attack would likely seek to obtain them.

"They're your photos. They're everybody's photos here,” he said to the audience.

TONIGHT! @jonkarl talks about the Jan 6th photos former VP Mike Pence doesn't want the public to see. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/TkzrIMkeWc

— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) November 9, 2021

The Independent has reached out to Mr Pence’s team for a response to Karl’s assertions about the photographs.

The House select committee investigating the 6 January attack has already subpoenaed a number of former and current members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle and campaign staff. Lawmakers on the panel have indicated an interest in knowing how close Mr Trump’s operatives came to convincing Mr Pence to interfere with or attempt to overturn the certification of the 2020 election results.

“It’s an important part of the historical record to determine how close Trump actually came to achieving his scheme of getting Pence to declare unilateral power to reject electoral college votes,” Rep Jamie Raskin, a Democrat on the committee, said last month.

Mr Pence has derided Democrats’ attempts to lead an investigation into the Capitol siege and the actions of the Trump team in the weeks leading up to it as a distraction from the Biden administration’s record.

In October, he said that the panel’s probe was part of an effort to “demean the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020” during a Fox News interview.