Rioters swayed by Donald Trump: ‘He asked us to be there’

Democrat prosecutors have wrapped up their impeachment case against Donald Trump by showing how rioters believed they were acting on instructions from the former president when they ­attacked the Capitol.

National Guards inside the Capitol watch as Republican senator Susan Collins walks to the third day of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Picture: AFP

Democrat prosecutors have wrapped up their impeachment case against Donald Trump by showing how rioters believed they were acting on instructions from the former president when they ­attacked the Capitol last month.

The attempt to show a direct link between Mr Trump’s words and the storming of the Capitol came as Democrats warned that the January 6 assault could happen again unless Mr Trump was barred from future office.

The Democrats ended their two-day case against Mr Trump by again relying heavily on graphic video evidence of the siege in a final pitch to persuade Republicans to vote to convict the former president.

This time they played comments by rioters, including one man who told police as he tried to break the line: “We were invited here … we were invited by the president of the United States.”

One woman, Jenna Ryan from Texas, said: ‘‘He asked us to be there, so I was doing what he asked us to do.’’

Democrat house prosecutor Diana DeGette said of the rioters: ‘‘They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders — and we know that because they said so.”

She played videos in which Trump supporters roamed through the Capitol Building chanting ‘‘stop the steal’’, a cry that Mr Trump had encouraged at his rally held just before the riot. One video showed a rioter shouting at police ‘‘we are listening to Trump — your boss’’.

Although some Republicans appeared to be moved by the graphic scenes of the chaos at the Capitol, there was little sign that Democrats would obtain the 17 Republicans votes needed to convict Mr Trump.

Democrat impeachment managers implored Republicans to use ‘‘common sense’’ to judge Mr Trump’s role in inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol, leaving five people dead.

“Senators, America, we need to exercise our common sense about what happened,” said lead Democrat prosecutor Jamie Raskin said. “Let’s not get caught up in a lot of outlandish lawyers theories here. Exercise your common sense about what just took place in our country.”

He said Mr Trump had acted like a “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’’.

“If you don’t find this a high crime and misdemeanour today, you have set a new terrible standard for presidential misconduct in the United States of America,” he said.

Democrats laid out Mr Trump’s previous conduct of encouraging supporters in Michigan to occupy the state Capitol building and his lack of remorse for right-wing violence in Charlottesville in 2017.

Democrat Joe Neguse said: “Senators, the evidence is clear. We showed you statements, ­videos, affidavits that prove President Trump incited an insurrection — an insurrection that he alone had the power to stop. And the fact that he didn’t stop it, the fact that he incited a lawless attack and abdicated his duty to defend us from it … more than requires conviction and disqualification.’’

“We humbly, humbly ask you to convict President Trump for the crime for which he is overwhelmingly guilty of. Because if you don’t, if we pretend this didn’t happen, or worse, if we let it go unanswered, who’s to say it won’t happen again?”

But Trump lawyer David Schoen denied the Democrats had made a strong case linking the ­former president to the riots.

“They haven’t in any way tied it to Donald Trump,” Mr Schoen said. “It’s an antithesis (of) the healing process to continue to show the tragedy that happened here that Donald Trump has condemned, and I think it tears at the American people, quite frankly.”

Republicans have focused on the constitutionality of having an impeachment trial when a president is no longer in office, rather than debate the merits of Mr Trump’s actions. “I believe it sets a very dangerous precedent,” Florida ­Republican senator Marco Rubio said. “If in fact (Trump) did something wrong, as they claim, he is now a private citizen who has (to) answer to the courts of the country.”