Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig will testify Thursday at the third Jan 6 hearing. The House select committee is investigating attack on the Capitol.

Luttig is expected to be speaking about his role as an informal adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence.

On Thursday, the committee will focus on Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to pressure Pence to reject the will of the voters on Jan. 6.

Also Read | January 6 hearings: Mike Pence’s positions on Capitol riots in spotlight

Luttig is in the witness list for Thursday alongside Greg Jacob, Pence’s chief legal counsel.

So, who is J. Michael Luttig?

The Texas-born is a former judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who was appointed by former President George H. W. Bush. In a letter, Pence cited his legal reasoning in a letter detailing why he would not reverse the outcome of the election.

“More recently, as the former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig observed, ‘[t]he only responsibility and power of the vice president under the Constitution is to faithfully count the Electoral College votes as they have been cast,’ adding ‘the Constitution does not empower the vice president to alter in any way the votes that have been cast, either by rejecting certain votes or otherwise,’” Pence wrote in the letter. Since the letter, Luttig got prominently linked to the January 6 investigation.

Luttig has had a long career as a conservative lawyer.

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He worked in the Reagan administration in the Office of White House Counsel for about a year. Luttig later clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as well as for then-Chief Justice Warren Burger.

In the George H.W. Bush administration, Luttig served as assistant attorney general overseeing the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.

He was later nominated by Bush as a federal appeals judge in April 1991, and George W. Bush reportedly considered nominating Luttig to the Supreme Court.

Also Read | Who is Greg Jacob?

Luttig spent time in the private sector, serving as general counsel and senior vice president for Boeing for 13 years before resigning in May 2019. He was replaced by Brett Gerry.