WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump formally responded on Tuesday to the charges brought by House Democrats in his second impeachment, denying that he incited a crowd to violently descend on US Capitol Hill to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe’s victory. Biden.
But court records on more than 175 criminal cases so far filed in connection with the January 6 uprising reveal that this is exactly what at least some of Trump’s supporters thought he was ordering them to do.
“[T]today President Trump told us to ‘fight like hell’ ”, posted Troy Smocks, a Texas man accused of making threats, on Jan. 6 in Parler, citing Trump’s speech to supporters before the insurrection, according to the government court documents. Smocks seemed to admit to having participated in the attack on the Capitol at his posts, although he is not accused of it; he urged his followers to obtain weapons and prepare to “hunt down” Democrats, technology executives and others he considered “enemies of our constitution”, writing: “Now we have the green light.”
“[Trump] He said that Our cause was a matter of national security and that these people behind the massive fraud must be arrested and brought to justice. And that task falls on the shoulders of We The People … the American Patriots, ”wrote Smocks. A judge ordered him to be kept in prison pending trial, citing his posts in Parler.
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Trump’s lawyers are contesting the constitutionality of a former president’s impeachment, as well as contesting that when Trump repeatedly told his supporters to “fight,” he didn’t mean it literally.
“It is denied that the phrase ‘if you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country’ has anything to do with the action on Capitol Hill, as it was clearly about the need to fight for electoral security in general, as evidenced by the recording of speech, ”Trump’s lawyers wrote in their official response papers.
But lawsuits in many cases have shown that Trump supporters came to Washington eager for a fight and that they considered the calls of Trump and his allies to “stop the theft” – a reference to baseless allegations of widespread electoral fraud – as a called for violence. Social media posts, summaries of FBI interviews and publicly available interviews that prosecutors have included in billing documents also show the extent to which Trump supporters were waiting to be ordered by him and understood his words as a direction for action.
Robert Bauer, accused of illegally entering a restricted area (the US Capitol) and of violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol, spoke with two FBI agents on January 8, and “reiterated that he marched to the U.S. Capitol because President Trump said to do this, “according to his billing documents. The FBI statement includes a screenshot of a selfie found on Bauer’s phone that shows him and his cousin (and co-defendant) Edward Hemenway II, both wearing “TRUMP 2020” hats, smiling and posing with their middle fingers inside the Capitol building.
“According to BAUER, after President Trump said to the crowd, ‘We are walking down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol’, the crowd started moving towards the Capitol,” wrote an FBI agent in the statement.
Robert Sanford, a Pennsylvania man accused of throwing a fire extinguisher at Capitol cops, told the FBI when he was interviewed on January 12 that he was part of a group that “had gone to the White House and heard President Donald J’s speech. Trump and then followed the president’s instructions and went to the Capitol. “
In collecting the papers for Kenneth Grayson, from Pennsylvania, the FBI cited a private message he allegedly sent to an unidentified person on December 23 about his plans to go to Washington on January 6 and receive instructions from Trump. Grayson, who allegedly broadcast live video on Facebook going to the Capitol and who prosecutors believe he is a follower of the mass delirium QAnon, is accused of being a restricted area, disorderly and disturbing conduct and obstructing an official process.
“I’m there for the biggest celebration ever after Pence led the Senate’s turn !! OR IM THERE, IF TRUMP TELLS US TO ATTRACT CAPITAL FUKIN, IMA DO IT THEN! We don’t want any problems but they won’t steal this election I guarantee bro !! ”Grayson reportedly wrote.
Samuel Fisher, a New York man accused of illegally entering the Capitol and disorderly conduct, wrote in a long post on his personal website dated January 6, apparently before the attack: “Trump just needs to fire the bat signal … patriotic deputy … and then the pain comes. “
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In most cases, it is too early for people accused of participating in the insurrection to have a chance to offer a defense, but in some legal disputes over whether defendants should be kept in prison or allowed to return home pending trial, his lawyers highlighted the connection between Trump’s words and the violence on the Capitol. In opposing the pre-trial detention of Emanuel Jackson, who is accused of assaulting police officers and also illegally going to the Capitol, his lawyer wrote that “the nature and circumstances of this crime must be viewed through the lens of an event inspired by the President the United States. “A judge ordered Jackson to be kept in custody.
A judge is due to hear arguments on February 3 about the decision to order pre-trial detention of Dominic Pezzola, a New York man and member of the Proud Boys identified in videos breaking a window on the Capitol and the government claimed to have instructions in his home to make weapons and bombs. In a recent interview, Pezzola’s lawyer told Reuters that the “logical thinking” of Trump’s supporters was that the president “invited” them to Washington.
Reuters also noted that during a hearing on January 21, a lawyer for Riley Williams, from Pennsylvania, told the judge that his client “took the president’s bait and entered the Capitol.” Williams is accused of illegally entering the Capitol, as well as of stealing or helping to steal a laptop from Mayor Nancy Pelosi’s office; Williams, through his lawyer, denied any involvement in the theft.
The House voted to impeach Trump for the second historic time on January 13 for inciting the Capitol insurrection and a Senate trial is due to begin next week. The Senate voted last week against a Republican attempt to reject the impeachment effort as unconstitutional, meaning that a trial will take place, but enough Republican members supported the measure that Democrats are unlikely to get a two-thirds majority. necessary to convict Trump for serious crimes and misdemeanors.