Journalist Describes 'Wild' Unpublished Photos of Mike Pence in Hiding on Jan. 6: 'Holed Up in a Basement'

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Journalist Jonathan Karl says he has seen unpublished photographs of Mike Pence that were taken by a White House photographer while the then-vice president was in hiding during the deadly rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

During the mayhem as Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol — interrupting an electoral vote count with hopes of overturning the 2020 election results — the vice president, Second Lady Karen Pence, their daughter Charlotte Pence Bond and staff members absconded into a hiding place with seconds to spare thanks to the help of Secret Service agents.

While some of the rioters at the Capitol chanted about wanting to "hang" Pence, the vice president and at least some of his entourage were moved to an undisclosed location.

In his book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, out on Tuesday, Karl says he saw images captured by a photographer who stayed with Pence and describes the place where the vice president and others hid for "approximately five hours."

"The photos show Pence in a barren garage. There were no windows and no furniture. This was a loading dock with concrete walls and a concrete floor," Karl writes.

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Samuel Corum/Getty Rioters at the U.S. Capitol

During an appearance this week on The Late Show, Karl elaborated with Stephen Colbert. "I saw all of the photographs and by the way, it is wild to see that he was in a loading dock in an underground parking garage underneath the Capitol complex," Karl said. "No place to sit, no desk, no chairs, nothing. He was in this concrete parking garage with his family. This is the vice president of the United States and he's holed up in a basement."

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According to Karl, Pence was determined to stay within the Capitol complex. (A spokesman for Pence did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Karl's book.)

"The vice presidential motorcade had been taken down there, but for the first couple hours, Pence refused to go inside his vehicle," Karl writes in Betrayal. "He was concerned that if he did, they would drive him away from Capitol Hill. The last thing he wanted the world to see was his motorcade fleeing the Capitol building."

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Karl calls the photos a "remarkable visual account of the vice president's harrowing experience during the riot" but writes in a footnote that his request to publish the images were denied by Pence through spokesperson.

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"These are pictures taken by the official vice presidential photographer. The photographer's salary was paid by U.S. taxpayers. The images are public property," Karl writes in the footnote. "I assume that once the congressional committee investigating January 6 becomes aware of them, the photos will be subpoenaed and ultimately made public, as they should be."

In one of the images, Karl says the vice president is looking at his Chief of Staff Mark Short's phone. "One of the things Short showed him was Trump's tweet saying he had no courage. Pence seems to be grimacing as he looks at Short's phone, but I'm told Pence never really reacted to Trump's taunt — not even privately," Karl writes.

capitol security footage Mike Pence (masked) is evacuated from the Senate after Donald Trump's supporters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify," Trump tweeted on Jan. 6, 11 minutes after Pence was seen on live TV leaving the Senate floor.

Wrapping up the section of Betrayal about Pence's time in hiding on Jan. 6 and the unpublished photos of him in the previously undisclosed location, Karl writes about the vice president's determination to stay at the Capitol.

"The congressional leaders had fled and Pence remained. Trump had incited his supporters to go after Pence. Now there were mobs in the Capitol chanting, 'Hang Mike Pence,'" Karl writes. "If there was ever a day Pence had shown courage, this was the day. But Trump called him a coward."