Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election was thwarted at the last minute in part because of the resistance of some of his top legal officials, who threatened to quit during a tense Oval Office meeting, a Congressional committee has heard.

Three of the former president’s most senior lawyers testified on Thursday in front of the bipartisan panel investigating last year’s attack on the US Capitol, laying out their recollections of the final days of the Trump administration.

The hearing focused on Trump’s campaign to put pressure on the Department of Justice to back his false claims of voter fraud, which the three men said only failed because they threatened to quit en masse. The committee also revealed that in the aftermath of the failure of the plot, several Trump allies requested a presidential pardon.