Former President Donald Trump is facing a growing pile of legal peril as the House Jan. 6 Committee lays out a case that appears increasingly geared at making a criminal prosecution. The latest accusation is that Trump instigated an attack on the Capitol that was premeditated, rather than spontaneous.
The House Select Committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on the Capitol had its seventh public hearing this week.
At the hearing, the panel argued that Trump cannot continue to hide behind a false defense of being “willfully blind” to the riot.
The committee also worked to show an explosive convergence between Trump’s interests, and the interests of fight-right extremist groups.
Trump recently tried to contact a person talking to the committee about potential testimony. This has only raised the prospect of witness tampering by the former president and is only more likely to compound pressure on the Department of Justice to investigate him.
Trump and his supporters have always claimed the Jan. 6 insurrection was a peaceful protest that was not premeditated but spun out of control in the heat of the moment. Nine people died in relation to the attack and its aftermath.
But the hearing this week showed evidence that in reality, Trump planned in advance to send his supporters from his rally to the Capitol. Supporters that Trump knew were armed.
The panel showed a draft tweet that called on supporters to arrive early for a rally and to expect crowds. Draft tweets can be obtained from the National Archives.
“March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!” The draft tweet read.
There were also new details that emerged about the planning for Trump’s rally. Aides scrambled to set up a second stage outside of the Capitol complex, which is across the street from the Supreme Court.
Rally organizer Kylie Kremer texted Trump ally MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Jan. 4: “This stays only between us, we are having a second stage at the Supreme Court again after the Ellipse. [Trump] is going to have us march there/the Capitol.”
Kremer then warned Lindell that if the information got out, other people would work to sabotage the plans, and she would “be in trouble” with the National Park Service and other agencies. She said Trump would call for the march to the second location “unexpectedly.”
The committee said these exchanges show this was no spontaneous call to action, but rather, an extremely deliberate strategy.
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