Published on
Tuesday, February 02, 2021
byCommon Dreams
Could This Be the Smoking Gun of Trump's January 6 Treason?
If some of the available evidence bears out, this goes far beyond
incitement.
byThom Hartmann
Protesters gather inside the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in
Washington, D.C. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Protesters gather inside the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in
Washington, D.C. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Probably the largest question that the Trump impeachment trial must answer
is both simple and straightforward: "Did the President lead or participate
in a conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States and install
himself as a strongman dictator-for-life?"
Proving this first requires connecting Trump to the traitors who actually,
physically tried to seize the Capitol and murder Vice President Mike Pence
and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, killing five other people in the
process.
It'll also require proof that Trump or people in his immediate circle
directed that insurrection with his knowledge; that he himself directed
people to march on the capital and suggested or implied they should act
violently; and that he or his agents took active steps to prevent the
federal government from protecting the Capitol or Pence, Pelosi, and the
constitutional process of counting the votes.
New reporting from the New York Times brings shocking detail to this
investigation, and a recently released document raises troubling questions.
First, it appears that the invasion of the Capitol to "stop the steal"
wasn't spontaneous, but was the result of a conspiracy that promoted it
directly to the people who ultimately carried it out.
"The rally had taken on new branding, the March to Save America, and other
groups were joining in, among them the Republican Attorneys General
Association," the Times reporters noted. "Its [RAGA's] policy wing, the Rule
of Law Defense Fund, promoted the event in a robocall that said, 'We will
march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,'
according to a recording obtained by the progressive investigative group
Documented."
Additionally, there are multiple reports of a shadowy meeting the evening
before, January 5, at the Trump Hotel in Trump's private suite that may be a
key to a possible conspiracy to overthrow the American government the
following day.
An associate of Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, "the then-director of the
Republican Attorneys General Association," noted on Facebook that Tuberville
was among the participants, although the Senator has since denied it. His
denials notwithstanding, multiple photos of him in the Trump Hotel and
purported to have been taken on that night have surfaced.
The rally on the ellipse was put together by a group called Women for
America First, but they had no plans to march to the Capital building and
certainly had no plans to engage in a violent overthrow of the American
government.
But when Trump and his colleagues showed up at the rally, he and others
specifically called for a march to the Capitol building.
Trump even announced that he would march with the crowd, although after he
left his speaking position behind his bulletproof glass, he instead took his
bulletproof limousine back into the White House.
Speaking of the original, peaceful rally organizers, the Times noted: "Mr.
Stockton said he was surprised to learn on the day of the rally that it
would now include a march from the Ellipse to the Capitol."
The Times added, "Before the White House became involved, he said, the plan
had been to stay at the Ellipse until the counting of state electoral slates
was completed."
Trump, of course, specifically directed the crowd to march on the Capitol
when he spoke at the rally.
Which may bring us to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and the
memo he wrote 2 days before the assault on the Capitol. (Trump made Miller
the Acting Secretary of Defense, along with installing several other
pro-Trump people at DOD, a few days after the November election was called
for Joe Biden by the media.)
The memo has been leaked in the last few days and is widely circulating on
the Internet. If authentic, it appears to explicitly block the DC National
Guard from playing any sort of meaningful role in supporting the Capitol
Police to defend the Capitol building, the Vice President or any Members of
Congress.
Jan 4 letter from the Acting Secretary of Defense
If authenticated, it appears to direct the Secretary of the Army that the DC
National Guard may not assist the Capitol Police in any meaningful way
without a specific, direct authorization from Miller himself.
If I'm reading this memo right, the DC National Guard is specifically
forbidden from offering any sort of intelligence or logistical support
including drones or helicopters, using tear gas or other riot control
agents, or helping arrest insurrectionists who may storm the Capitol.
As Mark Ames writes for National Memo: "The full memo shows that the D.C.
Guard did receive a request from D.C. government for guard presence during
the Jan. 6 event. Miller responds promptly to go ahead, so long as the
soldiers are given no weapons, no body armor, and no helmets. They can bring
agents like pepper spray or flashbangs. They can't share any gear with
Capitol Police or Metro D.C. Police. They can't . really do much of
anything."
He adds that this is probably why the National Guard was directing traffic
rather than defending the Capitol on January 6th.
As a result, according to the Capitol Police's Union Chairman Gus
Papathanasiou: "We have one officer who lost his life as a direct result of
the insurrection. Another officer has tragically taken his own life. Between
USCP and our colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Department, we have
almost 140 officers injured. I have officers who were not issued helmets
prior to the attack who have sustained brain injuries. One officer has two
cracked ribs and two smashed spinal disks. One officer is going to lose his
eye, and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake."
Other reporting suggests Miller was simply defining what the Capitol Police
could ask the DC National Guard for, but that the Capitol Police
inexplicably ignored FBI and other warnings of impending violence and a
request for help didn't come until well after the siege was underway.
Vanity Fair's reporting has Acting Secretary of Defense Miller claiming that
Trump threw him "under the bus," rather than that he helped Trump make sure
the Capitol was left defenseless.
Presumably these details will come out at Trump's impeachment trial in the
Senate next week.
If it turns out that Trump and his cronies conspired to co-opt the
peacefully planned Women For America First rally and turn it into an assault
on the Capitol, that they encouraged or explicitly called for the march to
and seizure of the Capitol, and that they took active measures to leave the
Capitol defenseless, America is looking at something far worse than an
impeachment.
If such a conspiracy had been successful and Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi
(among others) today lay dead, the electoral count was flipped, and Trump
had been re-installed as President For Life (as he'd "jokingly" called for
numerous times in the past) , it would have been the end of our republic.
Americans have a right to know if Trump and his associates tried to
overthrow the government of the United States, the literal definition of
treason. And, if it can be proven that they did, we have the right and
obligation to demand justice.
This article was originally posted to Medium.