I’m not sure, but after reading Robert Reich’s take on the final day of the House special committee on Jan. 6, I’m afraid my Tuesday post might have underplayed the power of the final presentation, calling it “a solid, if-no-longer-very-surprising list of Trump’s possible crimes.”
Reich was much more impressed, and I’m passing along a few of his 20 bullet points with a link at the bottom to his full take.
Reich argued that “Among other things, the committee has established that:
“Before Election Day, Trump planned to give a false election victory speech. On Election Day, even though the networks were starting to call the race for Biden, Trump declared victory and demanded that voting counts stop. ‘This is a fraud on the American public, an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. We did win this election.’
“…Trump knew he lost. He also knew that there was no evidence of fraud or irregularities sufficient to change the outcome. His Attorney General told him there had been no fraud. His advisors repeatedly told him there was no evidence of fraud sufficient to change the outcome. The Supreme Court rejected his case on December 11. Electors voted on December 14. His senior staff advised him to concede…
“…On December 19…Trump sent a tweet urging his followers to come to Washington on January 6, and it ‘will be wild…’
“…Knowing he lost the election, he also pressured the Justice Department to change the results of the election until Justice Department officials threatened mass resignation…
“…He sought to replace real Biden electors with fake Trump electors on January 6. He knew this was illegal.
“He intentionally summoned his supporters to the Capitol, and then, knowing they were armed, intended that they march to the Capitol… The Secret Service had this information at least 10 days before the attack. On January 6, during his speech on the Ellipse, Trump knew the crowd was armed and dangerous.
“He intentionally endangered the safety of Vice President Pence and his family, and members of Congress, on January 6 by tweeting criticism of Pence, which unleashed the mob to go after Pence, chanting ‘hang Mike Pence.’…He refused to take action, although he could easily have done so. He was repeatedly implored — by his own White House counsel, other White House staff, and members of his family — to condemn the violence, ask rioters to stop and leave the Capitol, and go home. But for 187 minutes he did not…
“…When the riot was underway, his first tweet was: ‘Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country.’ In the view of White House staffers, this ‘poured fuel on the fire.’
“…When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy urged Trump to take action, Trump responded: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess they’re just more upset about the election than you are.’
“…Even after the 2020 election was certified, he refused to say the election was over. When he finally agreed to address the nation the next evening, he did not want to say words that had been drafted for him — ‘the election is over.’ He was only willing to say ‘Congress has certified the results.’
“Trump has never accepted any responsibility for the attack and never acknowledged the deaths of law enforcement officers, because he did not want to be faulted or imply any criticism of the rioters.“The big news is not that a committee of Congress has made a criminal referral to the Justice Department urging that the Department prosecute a former president. The big news is that the committee has compiled overwhelming evidence that the former president has committed serious crimes.”
As I mentioned, this is only a partial list of the elements of the case that Reich listed. This link will get you his full piece.
