Ex-President Donald Trump put his Vice-President Mike Pence in danger during the Capitol riot as he illegally pressured him to quash the 2020 election, says a congressional panel.

Lawmakers have heard from Pence aides who described White House efforts to reject President Joe Biden’s victory.

US democracy “withstood Trump’s scheme” because Mr Pence refused to bow to Mr Trump, said chairman Bennie Thompson.

The committee has accused Mr Trump of an attempted coup to remain in power.

Supporters of then-President Trump, a Republican, stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 in a bid to thwart certification of Joe Biden’s White House election victory.

Mr Trump has slammed the panel as a “kangaroo court” conceived to distract Americans from the “disaster” of Democratic governance ahead of November’s mid-term elections.

Trump had publicly made the claim – deemed bogus by legal scholars and Mr Pence’s aides – that vice-presidents have the power to halt the congressional certification of the election.

Greg Jacob, then-counsel to Mr Pence, testified to the committee that “our review of text, history and frankly just common sense” confirmed that his boss did not have the authority to overturn the election results.

He added that there was no way America’s Founding Fathers back in the 18th Century “would ever have put one person – particularly not a person who had a direct interest in the outcome – in a role to have a decisive impact on the outcome of the election”.