The last of the House Jan. 6 committee’s summer hearings was billed as focusing on the former Commander-in-Chief’s missing actions during 187 minutes between the start of the insurrection early in the afternoon and when he urged the violent mob of insurrectionists to leave the Capitol and to go home in “peace” as the sun was setting late in the afternoon.
During those 187 minutes, we learn about the phone calls that the former president made to lawmakers trying to convince them to assist him to remain in power as they were being evacuated from the Capitol.
Similarly, we learn of Donald Trump’s tweets condemning Vice President Mike Pence while he was being escorted by the Secret Service and fleeing from Trump’s mob while they were chanting, “hang Mike Pence.”
Meanwhile, while family, friends, and advisers were doing their best to get Trump to call off his dogs or those doing his vicious bidding, the former president was joyfully watching the rioters and the violence unfold on television.
This was Trump’s revenge for losing the election: his defiant inaction for securing the peaceful transference of executive power.
Most importantly, we learn that Trump wanted to announce pardons for the rioters in a speech that he gave to the American people on Jan. 7, but that he did not include lines about pardons at the urging of White House lawyer Pat Cipollone and others.
Finally, after more than two hours had passed since the insurrection began, and when some 1,100 D.C. National Guard soldiers were standing by and about to receive final approval as to how they would be used, Trump was continuing his big lie about the stolen election, and reluctantly tweeting at 3:13 p.m.:
I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No Violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law and Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you.
Then at 4:17 p.m., Trump released a video to his supporters on Twitter repeating his false claims that Biden’s election was fraudulently won as he tried to identify with them by saying, “I know your pain. I know you’re hurt,” and he continued:
We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt… So go home. We love you, you’re very special. You’ve seen what happens; you see the way others are treated that are so bad and evil. I know how you feel, but go home and go home in peace.
The Thursday evening prime-time hearing was also laser-focused on the actions that other elected political leaders from the House and Senate, all the way up to Vice President Pence, as well as critical persons in charge of homeland security and policing, were engaged in during the same 187 minutes in which Trump was totally disengaged.
Juxtaposed, these two parallel yet contradictory stories are telling of not only the utter disconnect between Trump’s lack of actions and the actions that everyone else was taking to try to end the violent assault, but also between Trump’s counteractions to keep himself in power by any means necessary.
Thursday’s primetime hearings revealed Trump’s sins of omission as well as his sins of commission, his dereliction of duty and his failure to execute and defend the laws of the United States.
The hearings also demonstrated Trump’s recklessness and criminal intent to use mob violence against members of Congress and his vice president as a means of overturning the 2020 election and illegally staying in power.
While a minority of legal pundits might still argue that there may not be enough evidence to prosecute Trump for seditious conspiracy, there can no longer be any doubt about Trump’s culpability for the criminal felonies of obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud, and witness tampering.
Ultimately, after Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department completes its investigation, they should minimally prosecute Trump and his allies, if not for seditious conspiracy, then for election racketeering schemes as in a classic “hub and spoke” multi-prong conspiracy.
The Ellipse speech by Trump and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol were just one “spoke” of a grander scheme, and not dependent on whether his speech incited the rioters at that moment.
Gregg Barak, Ph.D., is an emeritus Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Eastern Michigan University, the co-founding editor of the Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime, and the author of the recently published Criminology on Trump
1 Comment
Carefull, Gregg. Claiming that the former president was “joyfully” watching the events unfold could be libelous, especially if you don’t have firsthand knowledge of his state of mind at the time. And please get your facts straight. The former president had the D.C. National Guard on standby in case of such a predicament yet, when D.C. police requested National Guard assistance it was denied by Nancy Pelosi. Why would she do that? It should, at least, make you suspicious.
Editor’s note: Politifact (The poynter institute) says it has found no evidence to support this assertion, which was circulated by Sean Hannity of Fox News. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jun/13/sean-hannity/no-evidence-pelosi-rejected-trumps-authorization-2/