By Josh Dawsey & Ashley Parker @ WashingtonPost.com, Jan. 11; the real leaks start about halfway through:

[....]The rupture began Dec. 15, when Trump decided erroneously that Pence was his last resort to block his election loss. The president began telling others to pressure his vice president to object to the final counting of electoral college results by Congress, and the topic came up regularly in conversation between the president and the vice president, officials said.

Those putting pressure included lawyers Rudolph W. Giuliani and John Eastman, trade adviser Peter Navarro and conspiracy-minded Trump ally Sidney Powell, officials said, along with other lawyers and outside advisers sent by Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Trump told “almost anyone who called to tell him he could still win to call Pence,” one senior administration official said. Pence at times was in the Oval Office when Trump called people to try to convince the vice president, an official said.

Pence was subjected to repeated phone calls from Trump, including one as late as last Wednesday morning — and to implicit threats from the president that he would attack him if he didn’t object to Biden’s victory, officials said.“Do the courageous thing, Mike,” Trump said in one meeting, according to a person present.“It will be bad for you and for the country if you don’t,” Trump said at another time, according to an official describing the meeting.

Some of the arguments were spurious, officials said. One included the certification of the electoral college votes in 1801, when Vice President Thomas Jefferson ruled electors from Georgia as defective. Another was that Pence could disregard some states because they sent in multiple electoral ballots. When the vice president’s team met with the congressional parliamentarian, they learned that people send fake electoral college votes every year, including one sender who signs them “General Magnifico,” a senior administration official said. The 1800 election isn’t applicable to the current election, officials said [....]