THE TIGHTENING NOOSE:

The former Trump lawyer John Eastman - who helped coordinate the scheme from the Trump "war room" at the Willard hotel in Washington - conceded in an email to counsel for then vice-president Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, that the plan was a violation of the Electoral Count Act.

But Eastman then urged Pence to move ahead with the scheme anyway, pressuring the former vice-president's counsel to consider supporting the effort on the basis that it was only a "minor violation" of the statute that governed the certification procedure.

The admission that the scheme was unlawful undercuts arguments by Eastman and the Willard war room team that they believed there was no wrongdoing in seeking to have Pence delay the certification past 6 January - one of the strategies they sought to return Trump to power.

It additionally raises the prospect that the other members of the Willard war room - including Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani and Trump's former strategist Steve Bannon - were also aware that the scheme to delay or stop the certification was unlawful from the start.

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