Impeachment trial: Capitol attack ‘done for Trump, at his instruction’
Democrats have finished evidence, arguing conviction is necessary because Trump incited violence for years and would again.
- ‘This is one of those phone calls’
- Trump ‘encouraged violence for years’
- Trump defence to last one day
- Attack ‘was at Trump’s instruction’
The Democrats have completed their prosecution case against Donald Trump, arguing today that the rioters who attacked the Capitol on January believed they were acting on Donald Trump’s instructions. They pointed to inflammatory speech the former President had used for years, with video clips of Mr Trump joking about his supporters beating up protesters at campaign rallies, praising a Republican politician for body slamming a reporter and saying “there is blame on both sides” for the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
They quoted rioters claiming explicitly they were following Mr Trump’s orders, and they accused the former president of showing no remorse over the destruction of January 6.
Democrat impeachment managers said the trial was essential because Mr Trump was capable of inciting violence again.
“I’m not afraid of Donald Trump running again in four years,” Senator Ted Lieu told the Senate. “I’m afraid he’s going to run again and lose. Because he can do this again.”
Summing up, lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin denied the argument of Mr Trump’s lawyers that his words on January 6 qualified as protected speech under the First Amendment.
“There is no First Amendment defence to impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanours,” he said. “The idea itself is absurd. And the whole First Amendment smokescreen is a completely irrelevant distraction from the standard of high crimes and misdemeanours governing a president who has violated his oath of office.”
Even if Mr Trump had been just a private citizen in the crowd that day, Mr. Raskin said, “it is a bedrock principle that nobody, nobody can incite a riot.”
Mr. Raskin cited the 1969 landmark Supreme Court case, Brandenburg v. Ohio when the high court found that the government could not prohibit free speech and free press “except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”
“Absolutely nobody in America would be protected by the First Amendment if they did the things that Donald Trump did,” Mr. Raskin said.
“President Trump is not even close to the proverbial citizen who falsely shouted fire in a crowded theatre,” he said. “He is like the now-proverbial municipal fire chief who incites a mob to go set the theatre on fire, and not only refuses to put out the fire, but encourages the mob to keep going as the blaze spreads.”
That fire chief would be held accountable, Mr Raskin said.
“We would forbid him from that job ever again,” he said. “And that’s exactly what must happen here … You must disqualify him too, just like the fire chief who sends the mob.”
Despite the dramatic video evidence Democrats showed yesterday, it remains an uphill battle to get the 17 Republicans they need for a conviction. Even today, senators on both sides seemed exhausted by the proceedings, doodling and snoozing throughout the evidence.
Mr Trump’s lawyers now have 16 hours over two days to present his defence, but his lawyers plan to use only one day.
The abbreviated arguments could set up a vote on whether to convict or acquit the former president as early as this weekend.
How today’s impeachment trial unfolded
Anne Barrowclough 8.25am: Trump ‘so sick aides feared he’d have to go on ventilator’
Donald Trump was reportedly so sick with coronavirus last October, aides feared he would have to be put on a ventilator.
Mr Trump had dangerously low blood oxygen levels and a lung problem associated with pneumonia caused by COVID-19, the New York Times reports.
His prognosis was so concerning officials believed he would need to be put on a ventilator, sources told the newspaper.
His blood oxygen level alone was cause for extreme concern as it dipped into the 80s; the disease is considered severe when the blood oxygen level falls to the low 90s.
Mr Trump resisted being taken to Walter Reed hospital, giving in only when he was told he could walk out on his own, or risk waiting until the US Secret Service was forced to carry him out.
Eliza Collins 8.00am: Chatting, doodling, snoozing: Senators lose focus
Democrat mpeachment managers are summing up their prosecution, but some senators appear run down by the long days.
Several senators were hunched over their desks or leaning back. At one point Sen. Bernie Sanders hung his head and appeared to be resting. Sen. John Thune switched between taking notes, playing with his pen and picking his fingernails. Sen. Rick Scott was writing on a blank map of Asia — he had studied what appeared to be a map of Southeast Asia during yesterday’s proceedings as well.
A handful of Republican senators chatted during the presentations. During video of the Michigan protests, Sens. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Tim Scott of South Carolina chatted briefly. Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota had a quick conversation as impeachment manager Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin spoke, with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst turning around to join in. At another point, Sen. Cramer and Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey exchanged a few words and appeared to laugh.
Still, many senators on both sides took notes much of the time. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) the one senator who changed his vote Monday night and sided with all Democrats and five Republicans in saying the trial was constitutional wrote furiously on a notepad. Mr. Cassidy has said his mind is not yet made up on his final vote.
By about 6am (AEDT). there were 15 Republicans missing from the chamber.
Anne Barrowclough 7.50am: Trump lawyers to claim no link with riots
Donald Trump’s lawyers have told reporters their defence will make the case that there was no
“direct” link between the riots and Donald Trump.
Mr Trump’s lead lawyers David Schoen and Bruce Castor there was no evidence of Mr Trump ordering the violence at the Capitol.
Asked about evidence showing rioters claiming they were carrying out Mr Trump’s orders, Mr Castor said: “Did someone say that they heard directly from President Trump to do that?”
“They haven’t in any way tied it to Donald Trump,” Mr Schoen said when asked about Democrats’ presenting video evidence of rioters citing Mr Trump’s demands as a reason for their actions. “And I think it’s offensive quite frankly, in reference to the healing process, to continue to show the tragedy that happened here that Donald Trump has condemned, and I think it’s with the American people now, frankly.”
Anne Barrowclough 7.30am: ‘The world is watching’
House impeachment manager Joaquin Castro has said the Capitol riots damaged the image of American democracy across the globe and given China and Russia the opportunity to push their own agenda.
The impeachment trial was a chance to “send a message back to the world” about what the United States stands for, Mr Castro said.
Mr Castro cited a joint intelligence bulletin issued on January 13 by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center.
“Since the incident at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, Russian, Iranian and Chinese influence actors have seized the opportunity to amplify narratives in furtherance of their policy interest amid the presidential transition,” the report stated, according to Mr Castro.
“We cannot let them use what happened on January 6th to define us, who we are and what we stand for,” he said. “We get to define ourselves by how we respond to the attack of January 6th.”
He also noted that “even our allies are speaking up,” quoting Canadian and German officials denouncing the attack and calling for accountability.
“America is not only a nation for many; it’s also an idea,” he said. “It’s the light that gives hope to people struggling for democracy in autocratic regimes, the light that inspires people fighting across the world for fundamental human rights, and the light that inspires us to believe in something larger than ourselves. And this trial is an opportunity to respond and to send a message back to the world.”
Anne Barrowclough 7.20am: Trump ‘offended’ at being linked to riots
Donald Trump’s lawyer David Schoen has said the former president is “very upbeat” over the impeachment trial, but “offended” at being linked to the Capitol riots.
“He’s quite offended at trying to be tied into it,” Mr Schoen told Fox News.
Asked about the No. 2 Senate Republican John Thune’s comments yesterday that the House managers did an “effective job” and were “connecting the dots” from Mr Trump’s words to the insurrection, Mr Schoen claimed the security footage videos shown yesterday were taken out of context and were presented as an “entertainment package.”
Mr Schoen said when the defence team lays out Mr Trump’s case they will “give answers.”
“I think you will at least be moved by what you see and get a much better picture of what exactly is going on here and the hypocrisy and some of the positions taken by the House Managers in this case,” he said.
Siobhan Hughes 7.00am: ‘This violence is only the beginning’
Impeachment managers are developing one of their major themes of the day: That Donald Trump’s behaviour has resulted in long-term harm and that conviction is necessary because of the violence that he could stir up in the future.
“If we don’t draw the line here, what’s next?” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) “If we let him get away with it and then it comes to your state capital or it comes back here again, what are we going to say?”
Rep. Ted Lieu (D., Calif.) said that “I’m not afraid of Donald Trump running again in four years. I’m afraid he’s going to run again and lose. Because he can do this again.”
Rep. Diana DeGette (D., Colo.) played a clip of Mr. Trump speaking on Jan. 7 after the attack, when he said “to all of my wonderful supporters, I know you are disappointed. But I also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning.”
“He’s right. Unless we take action, the violence is only just beginning,” she said.
She said extremists were using the attack on the Capitol to recruit new members, and described how National Guard troops mobilised at state capitals around the country on warnings of new attacks on Jan. 20, the day of President Biden’s inauguration.
“Impeachment is not to punish but to prevent,” she said. “We are not here to punish Donald Trump. We are here to prevent the seeds of hatred that he planted from bearing any fruit.”
Anne Barrowclough 6.55am: Trump ‘failed to honour’ dead and injured police
Ted Lieu has said Donald Trump failed to show remorse or take responsibility in the days following the Capitol riot and failed to show his respects to late US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, killed in the attacks.
“For days he did not address the nation after this attack. We needed our commander-in-chief to lead, to unite a grieving country, to comfort us. But what did President Trump do? Nothing. Silence,” MrLieur said.
As Mr Sicknick lay in honour in the Capitol earlier this month, “It took President Trump three days before he lowered the flag of the United States of America. Three days. And President Trump, who was commander-in-chief at the time, did not attend and pay respects to the officer who lay in state in the very building that he died defending.”
David Cicilline described the injuries caused to the Capitol building staff, including cleaners and police officers, during the riot.
At least 81 Capitol Police members and 65 members of the Metropolitan Police suffered injuries.
Mr Lieu reminded Senators of the impact of the riots on other police officers. One took his life, a female officer turned in her gun because she was afraid what she might do. Others still sustain injuries from the attacks – one is going to losehis eye, one lost the tip of his finger, some had broken ribs while one was stabbed with a metal fence post.
Anne Barrowclough 6.40am: ‘Wow, this is one of those calls you hear about’
Impeachment manager David Cicilline has spoken about how the attack on the Capitol directly harmed congressmen and women.
Mr Cicilline said the assault was one of the “bloodiest intrusions on the Capitol since the British invaded [during] the War of 1812 and burned it to the ground.”
He added that the attack posed “an immediate and serious threat” to the continuity of government as Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and then-President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, the next three in line after the president, were inside the Capitol.
He also played a video clip of rioters outside the Capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”
“The charging documents show that the rioters said they would have killed Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi had they found them,” Mr Cicilline said. “Simply put, this mob was trying to overthrow our government and they came perilously close to reaching the first three people in line to the presidency.”
He also played interviews of other politicians describing what it was like inside the building that day. Democrat Jason Crow compared the events that day to his time in Afghanistan as an army ranger, with Dan Kildee, lying on the floor of the House gallery, said how he and others removed their congressional pins to hide their identities in case they encountered the rioters. .
He said he and other politicians called their family members to say goodbye.
“I called my wife, and you know, it wasn’t until I heard her voice that I thought, wow, this is like one of those calls you hear about,” Kildee said.
Aruna Viswanatha 6.30am: Capitol defendants ‘heeding call of Trump’
Many of the more than 200 defendants who have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot have responded by saying they were motivated to go to the Capitol by former President Donald Trump.
“The Government appears … to be in the unseemly position of having to prosecute folks for taking heed of the call of the former President,” a lawyer for one of the defendants wrote in a filing last week. The filing extensively cited Mr. Trump’s midday speech that day, in which he called for supporters to march to the Capitol, as a motivating factor.
Democratic impeachment managers allege that Mr. Trump incited the insurrection. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have condemned the violence but have laid the blame on the protesters, who they said were acting on their own initiative and not at the direction of Mr. Trump.
In another document filed earlier on Thursday, prosecutors said a woman who faces conspiracy and other charges for allegedly planning the attack in advance, was “awaiting direction from President Trump,” and at one point in the days before Jan. 6, told an associate they planned to go to Washington because “Trump wants all able bodied Patriots to come,” adding that if “Trump activates the Insurrection Act, I’d hate to miss it.”
Anne Barrowclough 6.15am: Trump ‘will cause future harm if allowed’
Ted Lieu has said Mr Trump’s lack of remorse is such an important factor in his impeachment trial, because “he will undoubtedly cause future harm if allowed.”
“President Trump expressed no regrets for last week’s violence insurrection at the US Capitol. This sends exactly the wrong signal to those of us who support the very core of our democratic principles and took a solemn oath to the constitution. It is time to say enough is enough,” Mr Lieu said.
He said a president had every right to contest an election but Mr Trump’s actions were dishonourable and eventually lethal.
“What President Trump did, as his former chief of staff explained, was different. It was dishonourable. It was un-American. And it resulted in fatalities,” he said.
“He spread lies to incite a violent attack on the Capitol, on our law enforcement and on all of us and then he lied again to his base to tell them that this was all okay, that this was all acceptable. And that is why President Trump is so dangerous. Because he would have all of us, all Americans believe that any President who comes after him can do exactly the same thing. That’s why lack of remorse is an important factor in impeachment. Because impeachment, conviction, and disqualification is not just about the past, it’s about the future, it’s making sure that no future official, no future president, does the same exact thing President Trump does.
“President Trump’s lack of remorse shows that he will undoubtedly cause future harm if allowed because he still refuses to account for his previous high grave crime against our government.”
Lindsay Wise 6.00am: Trump ‘encouraged violence for years’
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, made the case to senators that Jan. 6 was not the first time Donald Trump had “inflamed and incited a mob.”
Mr. Raskin used clips of Mr. Trump joking about his supporters beating up protesters at campaign rallies, praising a Republican politician for body slamming a reporter and saying “there is blame on both sides” for the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia., in 2017 as evidence that the former president had a longstanding pattern of praising and mobilising violence by his followers.
“We’ve seen these clips and many, many more like them before,” Mr. Raskin said. “But think about the brutal power and effectiveness of his words with his followers. You heard him tell his supporters to be a little more violent and they responded to his command by literally dragging a protester across the floor at one of his campaign rallies. … He told his supporters to knock the hell out of people who opposed him and promised to pay the legal fees of the assailants time after time. He encouraged violence. His supporters listened and they got the message.”
Mr. Raskin also showed video of Mr. Trump joking at a rally after extremists plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, prompting his followers to chant, “Lock her up!”
“See, every time I make even a little bit of a nod, they say the president led them on,” Mr. Trump told his supporters in the clip. “Now, I don’t have to lead you on. Even a little nod, they say!”
From many such experiences, Mr. Raskin said, Trump knew that his most hardcore supporters would be ready to heed his call on Jan. 6.
“He knew they were coming,” Mr. Raskin said. “He brought them here, and he welcomed them with open arms: ‘We hear you and we love you from the Oval Office.’ My dear colleagues, is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way? Would you bet the lives of more police officers on it? Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that?”
Mr. Raskin urged senators to remember that Mr. Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate.
“So if he gets back into office, and it happens again,” he said, “we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.”
Rebecca Ballhaus 5.30am: Trump ‘intended for riots to take place’
Rep. Ted Lieu (D., Calif.) delivered a lengthy criticism of the absence of any remorse in former President Donald Trump’s comments in the wake of the Capitol riot.
Mr. Trump — at the urging of his advisers, who also warned of his potential legal exposure, they have said — ultimately issued a series of tweeted videos condemning the violence at the rally. But at no point did he take any responsibility for the violence his supporters perpetrated at the rally or acknowledge the fact that he had urged them to march to the Capitol. Days after the riot, he told reporters that his Jan. 6 speech urging his supporters to “fight” had been “totally appropriate.”
LIVE: Trump impeachment trial gavels in for Day 3.
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) February 11, 2021
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“If you or I make a mistake, and something very bad happens, we would show remorse. We would accept responsibility,” Mr. Lieu said. “But President Trump didn’t do any of that. Why not? Because he intended for the events of January 6 to happen. How do we know? He told us.”
House impeachment manager Ted Lieu says Trump failed to show remorse in the days following the Capitol riot: "President Trump, who was commander in chief at the time, did not attend and pay respects to the officer who lay in state in the very building that he died defending" pic.twitter.com/GlP2UDGIy2
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 11, 2021
Mr. Trump’s refusal to take responsibility contradicted even some of his staunchest allies’ characterisation of his role. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said on the House floor Jan. 12, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress.” Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) said Mr. Trump bore responsibility “by promoting the unfounded conspiracy theories that have led to this point.” Sen. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.), asked if Mr. Trump bore responsibility, said he was “part of it.”
Mr. Lieu also noted that Mr. Trump has never backed off from his false allegations that the election was stolen from him. While he belatedly acknowledged a day after the riot that Joe Biden would become president, Mr. Trump has never acknowledged that he lost.
“I’m not afraid of Donald Trump running again in four years,” Mr. Lieu said. “I’m afraid he’s going to run again and lose — because he can do this again.”
Anne Barrowclough 5.25am: Trump defence case to last just one day
Donald Trump’s lawyers plan to use only one of their two allotted days to put his case before the Senate rebutting Democrats claims he incited the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
The defence team, like the House impeachment managers, has 16 hours to make its case but an aide told the Wall St Journal they would make their case in half that time.
Democrats will wrap up around midday today (AEDT) with Mr Trump’s team starting their defence on Saturday morning (AEDT).
The abbreviated arguments by Mr. Trump’s team mean the Senate would likely hold a question-and-answer period on Sunday (AEDT) If the House managers don’t seek to call witnesses, the Senate vote on whether to convict or acquit the former president could come as early as this weekend.
Lindsay Wise 5.00am: Capitol attack ‘was done for Trump, at his instructions’
House manager Diana DeGette, a congresswoman from Colorado, opened the second day of arguments at Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial with a presentation focused on the perspectives of the rioters themselves, many of whom have said that they had overrun the Capitol because Mr. Trump told them to do so.
Ms DeGette said managers would focus on the rioters’ own statements before, during and after the assault on the Capitol to show “the attack was done for Donald Trump, at his instructions and to fulfil his wishes.”
“Donald Trump had sent them there,” she said. “They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders, and we know that because they said so.”
She noted the rioters tagged Mr. Trump in Tweets and other social media posts, and repeated his posts. “Folks, this was not a hidden crime,” she said. “The president told them to be there so they actually believed they would face no punishment.”
One man shown on a video stream said: “Our president wants us here. We wait and take orders from our president.”
Ms DeGette played a video clip that showed that when rioters first got in the building, the mob screamed at officers that they were listening to Mr. Trump, so the police should let them in.
“Let’s call Trump. Yes, dude, let’s tell Trump what’s up. … He’ll be happy. … We’re fighting for Trump!” a rioter said in another video played by Ms. Degette.
“Does he not realise President Trump called us to seize the place?” a woman at the Capitol said in a TV interview later that day.
One woman said that she felt no shame for her actions on Jan. 6 because “I was doing what he asked me to do.”
Ms DeGette added that when it became clear that Mr. Trump was not going to save the rioters from prosecution, “some of these supporters even expressed regret and said they felt duped.
With the Wall St Journal
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