Two years ago today, a group of insurrectionists, whipped into a frenzy by former President Trump’s false rhetoric about a stolen election, waged an attack on the U.S. Capitol, seeking to subvert American democracy. During the course of that tumultuous day, Trump made several calls to legal counsel—including to Mark Martin, a former North Carolina Supreme Court justice, who was then dean of Regent University School of Law and an informal Trump adviser.
Martin won’t tell Inside Higher Ed what he told Trump that day, citing confidentiality.
But according to details in the final report from the bipartisan House of Representatives committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack, “Martin advised President Trump that Vice President Pence possessed the constitutional authority to impede the electoral count” in a phone call that lasted seven minutes. That advice has since been debunked by numerous lawyers and independent fact checkers.
Now, two years after advising Trump during that deadly insurrection, Martin is slated to serve as the founding dean of the High Point University School of Law in North Carolina, which is set to open in 2024.