In repeated conversations, day after day, Trump asked his vice-president to use his ministerial position as president of the Senate to change the election outcome by not certifying the results, Smith’s report lays out.

Pence refused, and on one occasion, Trump told him “hundreds of thousands” of people would “hate his guts” if he did not relent.

The pressure campaign on his deputy continued in public. In a speech, Trump said he hoped Pence would do it but if he did not, “I won’t like him quite as much”.

Just before he left the White House to give his speech at the Ellipse prior to the attack on the Capitol, Trump phoned Pence a final time, Smith says. When the vice-president told him on the call he did not have the authority to carry out Trump’s wishes, Trump told staff to re-insert into his speech some language that he had drafted earlier targeting Pence.

Moments after the speech, Trump supporters were roaming the corridors of the Capitol chanting “hang Mike Pence”, and hunting the offices for him.