Gregory Jacob

Gregory Jacob (born 1975) is an American lawyer who was legal counsel to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during the administration of Donald Trump. He is currently a partner in the Washington office of the law firm, O'Melveny & Myers, specializing in ERISA matters.

Upon learning of attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, Jacob worked to refute a fringe theory pushed in the Eastman memos by Trump attorney John Eastman that the vice president held unilateral authority to reject States' electors.

Education Jacob went to Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1992. Jacob graduated cum laude from Amherst College in 1996 and Law Review from University of Chicago Law School in 1999. He clerked for Judge Jacques Weiner of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Jacob joined the Pence administration eight months before the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In the days leading up to the January 6 Senate session for the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count, Jacob wrote another memo stating that any attempt to delay the count would likely be overturned in court. Jacob's advice informed Pence's decision to resist efforts by Trump advisors, including John Eastman, to throw out legitimate electoral votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Also on January 6, while in the Capitol with Pence "in a safe location," Jacob emailed Eastman that "thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege." Jacob, in a subsequent email, apologized to Eastman for his language, but emphasized that Eastman’s advice “functioned as a serpent in the ear of the President of the United States, the most powerful office in the entire world. And here we are.” Jacob also noted that Eastman acknowledged that in 230 years of precedent, no vice president had sought the power to overturn an election as he had suggested and that he would oppose his own strategy if a Democratic vice president attempted it. Jacob further testified that on January 6 at the Capitol, as the Pence entourage was evacuating to an underground loading dock, he could "hear the din of the rioters in the building," at which point the mob was about 40 feet away. Jacob stated that the Secret Service attempted to evacuate Pence but that Pence refused to leave the Capitol because “he vice president did not want to take any chance that the world would see the vice president of the United States fleeing the United States Capitol.” Jacob was questioned about the roles of Eastman and Rudy Giuliani in the election scheme.

Personal life Jacob is from Millville, New Jersey. He is married and has three children, residing in Northern Virginia.

Selected publications To Vice President Pence: January 6th Process for Elector Vote Count Draft memo to Washington Post criticizing Trump’s informal legal advisors