Will Trump Ever Suffer Consequences for January 6 Insurrection?
Will Trump Ever Suffer Consequences for January 6 Insurrection?
“Our hearing next week will be a profound moment of reckoning for America” –Rep Marcus Raskin
The seventh public hearing of the House Select Committee on January 6 added more evidence of the former-presidents culpability in the attempt to overturn the past general election.
But there was a revelation at the end of the hearing by Rep. Liz Cheney about a recent attempt by Donald Trump to speak by phone with an as yet unnamed witness that proved to be the bombshell. “We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” said Cheney, She said the committee had notified the Justice Department. The person Trump tried to contact declined to answer or respond to his call, Cheney said. Instead the person alerted their lawyer who contacted the committee.
While it certainly sounds like an attempt at witness tampering, it’s entirely possible that the call was about something innocuous, like a missing horsehead.
And then there’s the audio leaked to Mother Jones of Steve Bannon–days before the election– explaining a plan for Trump to declare victory on election night—even if he was losing. While the White House assertions of voter fraud also preceded the election:
The new recording stands out for the striking candor and detail with which Bannon described a scheme to use lies to subvert democracy. Bannon also predicted that Trump’s false declaration of victory would lead to widespread political violence, along with “crazy” efforts by Trump to stay in office. Bannon and his associates laughed about those scenarios at various points in the recording.
The committee showed clips at the hearing illustrating how Trump was told by everyone from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to Attorney General William P. Barr to Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia — a lawyer and son of a deceased conservative Supreme Court justice — that there was no longer a legal path for him to remain in office, and it was time to concede.
White House visitor logs indicate that a December 2020 discussion about whether former Vice President Mike Pence could reject former President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection loss: Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Brian Babin and Louie Gohmert of Texas, Andy Harris of Maryland, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona, Jody Hice of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also attended.
Things came to a head at a December 18 White House meeting in which the president’s allies tried to persuade him to sign an executive order to seize voting machines and appoint a special counsel to investigate fraud allegations. Testimony at the hearing described a loud and contentious argument that came just short of fisticuffs.
The president’s lawyers pushed back against claims being made by the motley crew, which included wack-a-doodle lawyers Sydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, former national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn, along with the guy who paid for voter fraud investigations, Patrick M. Byrne, former CEO of Overstock.com. (He left his corporate position in the wake of revelations about his affair with Russian spy Maria Butina).
Having exhausted his legal options to stay in office, Trump summoned supporters to Washington to pressure Congress to overturn the 2020 election results.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Far-right extremists saw his tweet on December 19 as a cue to attack the Capitol.
The committee showed video of far-right social media personalities talking about occupying Washington and storming the Capitol, and social media posts calling for violence.
A Twitter employee granted anonymity by the committee testified about Trump’s tweets calling for people to attend his Jan. 6 rally. “The former president was for seemingly the first time speaking directly to extremist groups.”
Extremist groups started aligning immediately after Trump’s tweet, Representative Jamie Raskin said, referencing evidence such as an encrypted chat that included leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers along with GOP trickster Roger Stone,
The committee also showed how Trump planned in advance to march from the Ellipse to the Capitol that day and quietly signaled this to rally organizers but declined to notify the public of this plan.
The point being made by the committee on Tuesday was to bolster arguments that the former-president’s actions went beyond what some legal scholars say was First Amendment protected speech.
Social media has been lit up with demands that Attorney General Merrick Garland either move quickly to prosecute the ring leaders and inciters of January 6 or resign. Most of these comments are nothing more than hot air coming from people who think Twitter is an actual organizing tool.
I really, really, really want to see the former president face criminal charges for his actions. Our ordinary political processes seem to be unable to deal with Trump, who has escaped the infamy he deserves and inspires a cult-like following.
I get it that the decision to prosecute the former chief executive is complex; even if charges are brought, past history indicates he’ll find a way to weasel out of any consequences. Those of us eager to see the man face a jury should also recognize the danger of making him into a martyr, a situation capable of inspiring even more violence.
His followers are still angry and dangerous, as the protection being extended to past and potential witnesses before the house committee proves. But somewhere, somebody has to draw a line, consequences be damned. Letting Trump off the hook poses a greater threat to American democracy than does prosecuting him.
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The Jan. 6 committee is currently expected to do the final hearing of this “series” of hearings — how Trump did nothing during the 187 minutes of the Capitol attack — next week on Thursday in prime time.
Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com
Lead image via Southern Poverty Law Center