Donald Trump and the January 6 Capitol Attack
ICAP’s Legal Director Mary McCord illustrates in The Atlantic why a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s actions leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol is justified:
The call-and-response relationship the president has had with his supporters over the past year offers evidence that he must have known the impact of his words on his followers. Last spring, for example, the president tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” in response to the Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order, just after armed protesters — some of whom later were arrested for their plot to kidnap the governor — stormed the statehouse in Lansing as the legislature was considering whether to extend the state of emergency, attempting to intimidate lawmakers to bend to their will. Last summer, when the president threatened to designate “antifa” a terrorist organization while repeatedly blaming leftist “anarchists” for destruction of property during largely peaceful racial-justice demonstrations, far-right vigilante militias took it upon themselves to “protect” property, resulting in shootings and deaths in several American cities. And that same violent street gang that wreaked havoc in D.C. during “Stop the Steal” rallies in November and December did so after the president called on the organization by name during the first presidential debate to “stand by.”
Read the full piece here
