Why Trump was not charged for inciting J6 even though he 'exploited' it: report

03 August 2023

The indictment filed against former President Donald Trump by United States Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday accuses Trump of committing four federal felonies in his effort to overturn the 2020 election and remain in power. Smith charged Trump with "Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, "Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding," Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct and Official Proceeding," and "Conspiracy Against Rights."

None of those, however, apply to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, for which more than one thousand people have faced legal accountability. On Thursday, correspondent Alan Feuer of The New York Timesexamined why Trump is not among them, despite the House Select Committee that investigated the attack recommending that Trump be charged with his second-impeachment triggering incitement.

Smith's filing "asserted that as violence erupted that day, Mr. Trump 'exploited the disruption,' using it to further his goal of stopping the certification of his loss in the election. But it stopped short of charging him with actually encouraging or inciting the mob that stormed the building, chasing lawmakers from their duties," Feuer wrote. "Still, the charging document, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, made abundantly clear that a group of aides and lawyers surrounding Mr. Trump were highly aware that he was playing with fire by pushing forward with his plan to pressure his vice president, Mike Pence, to throw the election his way during the congressional proceeding."

Feuer recalled that Smith had evidence that could have been used, such as statements by Trump's then-lawyers and Trump himself. Ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, for example, told the House panel that she heard Trump say that "They're not here to hurt me," referring to the mob storming the halls of Congress.

The problem with using Trump's words, Feuer explained, is that "they typically involve behavior like speeches or social media posts that the First Amendment protects, within limits," and that this is part of the defense that Trumpworld is expected to present.

Feuer stressed that Trump's actions during the mayhem and after it ended, when lawmakers returned to certify President Joe Biden's Electoral College triumph, were not indicative of innocence.

Trump, Feuer recalled, "continued to repeat his false claims that a 'sacred landslide victory' had been 'viciously stripped away' from him."

View Feuer's analysis at this link (subscription required).

From Your Site Articles