Mike Pence has previously stated that he tried to block Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election out of his allegiance to the U.S. Constitution—but his notes from that time reportedly reveal he’d considered skipping out on the certification vote. According to ABC News, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigators obtained notes written by Pence just days before Jan. 6 in which he said he would skip the certification proceedings because he thought there were “too many questions” about the election and that presiding over it would be “too hurtful to my friend,” seemingly referring to Trump. But Pence eventually decided he had a duty to be at the Capitol for the vote, telling investigators about a visit with his son, Lt. Michael J. Pence, who said, “You took the same oath I took… to support and defend the Constitution.”