WASHINGTON (AP) – The words of Donald Trump supporters, accused of participating in the deadly riot at the United States Capitol could end up being used against him in his Senate impeachment trial while he faces the charge of inciting a violent uprising.
At least five supporters facing federal charges suggested they were taking orders from the then president when they marched on Capitol Hill on January 6 to challenge the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. But now those comments, captured in interviews with reporters and federal agents, are likely to take center stage while Democrats expose their case. It is the first time that a former president has faced such charges after leaving office.
“I feel like I was basically following my president. I was following what we were called to do. He asked us to fly there. He asked us to be there, ”said Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate agent who posted a photo on Twitter of herself displaying a peace sign next to a broken Capitol window, at a Dallas-Fort Worth TV station.
Jacob Chansley, the Arizona man photographed on the Senate dais, who was shirtless and wore face paint and a furry horned hat, also pointed a finger at Trump.
Chansley called the FBI the day after the insurrection and told agents he traveled “at the request of the president for all ‘patriots’ to come to DC on January 6, 2021,” the authorities wrote in court documents.
Chanley’s lawyer lobbied unsuccessfully for a pardon for his client before the end of Trump’s term, saying that Chansley “looked like he was responding to our president’s call.” Officials say that while on the dais of the Senate chamber, Chansley wrote a threatening note then Vice President Mike Pence who said, “It’s just a matter of time, justice is coming.”
Trump is the first president to be charged twice and the first to face a trial after leaving office. Load this time it is “inciting violence against the United States government”. His impeachment lawyer, Butch Bowers, did not respond to a request for comment.
Opening arguments at the trial will begin in the week of February 8. House Democrats, who voted to impeach Trump last week for inciting the takeover of the Capitol, say a reckoning is needed before the country – and Congress – can move on.
For weeks, Trump rallied his supporters against the outcome of the election and asked them to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to rage against Biden’s victory. Trump spoke to the crowd near the White House just before they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol.
“We will never give up. We will never give in. It doesn’t, ”said Trump. “You don’t give in when theft is involved. Our country is fed up. We can’t take it anymore. ”
He later said, “If you don’t fight like the devil, you won’t have a country anymore.” He told supporters to walk to the Capitol to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard.
Trump did not take responsibility for his part in fomenting the violence, saying days after the attack: “People thought what I said was entirely appropriate.”
Unlike a criminal trial, where there are strict rules about what is and what is not evidence, the Senate can consider anything you want. And if they can show that Trump’s words had a real impact, so much the better, and scholars expect that at the trial.
“Bringing in these people’s statements is part of the proof that it would be at least reasonable for a rational person to expect that if you said and did the things Trump said and did, then they would be understood precisely in the way that these people understood them,” said Frank Bowman, a constitutional law expert and a professor of law at the University of Missouri.
A retired Pennsylvania firefighter told a friend who traveled to Washington with a group of people and the group heard Trump’s speech and then “followed the president’s instructions” and went to the Capitol, an agent wrote in court documents. This man, Robert Sanford, is accused of shooting a fire extinguisher that hit three Capitol police officers.
Another man, Robert Bauer, from Kentucky, told FBI agents that “he marched to the U.S. Capitol because President Trump said to do so,” officials wrote. His cousin, Edward Hemenway, of Virginia, told the FBI that he and Bauer were heading to the Capitol after Trump said “something about taking Pennsylvania Avenue”.
More than 130 people on Friday faced federal charges; prosecutors have promised that more cases – and more serious charges – are coming.
Most prisoners have so far been charged with crimes such as illegal entry and disorderly conduct, but prosecutors filed charges of conspiracy this week against three self-styled members from a paramilitary group that officials say planned the attack. A special group of prosecutors is examining the possibility of bringing charges of sedition, which could reach 20 years in prison, against any of the protesters.
Two-thirds of the Senate is needed to convict. And while many Republicans – including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky – have condemned Trump’s words, it remains unclear how many would vote to condemn him.
“While the statements of these people somewhat support the case of the House manager, I think President Trump benefited from a Republican Party that did not want to examine the evidence,” said Michael Gerhardt, a professor at the University of South Carolina School North of Law who testified before the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment hearings in 2019.
“They supported him throughout the first impeachment process, thinking that the phone call with the President of Ukraine was perfect and I’m sure they will think it was a perfect speech, too. There is still nothing to suggest that they think otherwise, ”said Gerhardt.
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Richer reported from Boston.