The circumstantial evidence, including Trump’s bellicose words, his reported glee at the invasion of the Capitol, and his failure to immediately speak out against the violence, and his ultimate stunningly weak admonition to the insurrectionists to “go home” should persuade most Senators that he was either intentional or extremely reckless. It would be difficult to convict Trump in a criminal court because of the high level of proof required but the standard for impeachment is different. In criminal law, we would say this video proves the act but perhaps not the mental state – that Trump intended to cause the insurrection or knew it would happen as a result of his words. The rioter’s words “we were invited here” were exactly right, and the refrain “fight for Trump” was directly responsive to Trump’s demand. The video contains strong evidence that Trump did incite the insurrection, regardless of whether that was his intent. Paul Butler ( ), former federal prosecutor with the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Views of Former Senior Justice Department Officials and Federal Prosecutors “Fight For Trump” Just Security – Incitement at US Capitol (click on “CC” to see the captions).
The video segments sourced from Parler include a number of clips made publicly available previously by ProPublica, as well as separate footage that has not been widely referenced in the news media that was made available for download following the much publicized scraping of publicly available information from the Parler site. Ultimately, the greatest relevance of these videos will be how parts of the public understands the events of the day, and how history records it.īelow is the video followed by reactions to it from former senior Justice Department officials and former federal prosecutors. And it may be relevant down the road to other federal prosecutors.
What’s revealed by these videos is not only relevant to the impeachment trial of Trump, where the House has charged that Trump “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged-and foreseeably resulted-in lawless action at the Capitol.” The video evidence may also be relevant to an investigation by the Attorney General of the District of Columbia for potential incitement to riot. The collection of videos, viewed chronologically, also shows the ways in which Trump placed the life of Vice President Mike Pence, among others, in grave danger. The videos, along with other information in the public record, provide strong evidence of a causal link between Trump’s messages to his supporters and their dangerous, illegal conduct. A portion of these videos have not been seen widely before, including video footage largely from the platform Parler showing how the crowd reacted in real time to some of the most potent lines in Trump’s speech at the Ellipse. Capitol? Videos recorded by many individuals over the course of the day provide some answers. How direct is the connection between what President Donald Trump communicated to his supporters and their actions in laying siege to the U.S.