In this latest news dig, we examine several vital facts leading up to the Capitol riot and the events taking place after the event. We will also look at what some experts say about the likelihood or unlikelihood that Trump will be impeached successfully by the Senate as requested by the House of Representatives.
Let's first fast forward to the day after the January 6th riot at the Capitol Building when "Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for President Donald Trump's removal. Both Democrats said the president incited an 'insurrection' against the country." (Pramuk, 2012)
Not long after those statements, the House voted to impeach Trump even though he is no longer holding office and is now a private citizen. The House of Representatives vote broke down as follows. 232 votes for impeachment, including 10 Republicans, 197 votes against impeachment, and 4 not voting. (Walsh, 2021)
The Capitol Building events were tragic, and anyone who rioted should face appropriate criminal charges based on their crimes. Still, there are two critical pieces of information leading up to the riot that some media organizations have only loosely touched. Overall, they are seemingly ignored or under-reported by the broader Main Stream Media (MSM), which should concern all Americans.
Approved Protest Permit
Americans need to ask, "Would anyone who was planning an insurrection apply for a permit with the Park Service first?" and answer without bias.
We know from multiple sources that in December 2020, "A pro-Trump nonprofit organization called Women for America First" submitted a protest permit with the Park Service (Lardner, 2021). The permit request was for 5,000 protesters to attend the "'Save America Rally," which took place on January 6th (Constantinol, 2020)
The AP article goes further to state that "AP's review found at least three of the Trump campaign aides named on the permit rushed to obscure their connections to the demonstration. They deactivated or locked down their social media profiles, removed tweets that referenced the rally, and blocked a reporter who asked questions." (Lardner, 2021)
There were other comments in the AP article that people at the riot were recently paid by Trump's campaign and had close ties to the campaign, but "in a statement, the Trump reelection campaign said it 'did not organize, operate or finance the event.' No campaign staff members were involved in the organization or operation of the rally, according to the statement. It said that if any former employees or independent contractors for the campaign took part, 'they did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign." (Lardner, 2021)
The AP's review of the event planners and the Trump campaign statements are at odds. If the AP has proof that the people in question worked for the Trump Campaign at the time of the riot, they should present it. I could not locate any detailed proof in their article, but I did find innuendo.
A Scheduled Walk to the Capitol Building Lawn and Steps
Americans must ask themselves another question and answer themselves without bias once again. "If there was a schedule for the protesters to walk over to the Capitol Building lawn and steps, then how and when did Trump order/incite them to attack the Capitol Building?" Throughout history, has any group or movement ever pre-scheduled a walk to a government building to launch an insurrection and notified their adversaries of their intentions in advance via flyers and invitations? The narrative makes no sense, but the Main Stream Media and the Legislature continue to echo it.
There were flyers, websites, Facebook invitations, bus services, and guides to take the Metro for the event scheduled on January 6th. Most of the sites and Facebook pages have either been taken down by the owner or blocked by Social Media technology companies altogether. Are people blocking the AP reports in some instances or are they themselves being blocked by Big Tech. That is a difficult thing to ascertain given the widespread blocking that is being undertaken.
So how do we know that a walk to the Capitol was pre-scheduled and not instigated by Donald Trump's speech?
The short answer is Internet Archives—specifically, the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine is an initiative of the Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. You can visit the archive yourself and learn more about it at https://web.archive.org.
The #StopTheSteal initiative was hosted by the domain wildprotest.com, which is now completely offline with a page error. However, you can search the Wayback Machine to see a snapshot copy of the website before it was taken off the web server. The good news is that nobody can delete these archive copies because they are held in long-term cold storage. It's about as permanent of a backup as anyone can have.
Here is my search query for the archive. I searched wildprotest.com and selected the second entry on January 6, 2021, to see the website archive copy on the day of the event.
You can run your own checks at web.archive.org to see the page snapshots yourself. It is a handy tool, and it would appear that Main Stream Media is flat out ignoring the Internet Archive altogether. None of them have posted images or quotes from the #StopTheSteal page that I have seen.
Let's examine the first image on the #StopTheSteal page. What do we see? Capitol Building at 1 PM because this was part of the scheduled agenda for the protest.
Now let’s look at the description of the event. What do we see?
“We the people must take to the US Capitol lawn and steps and tell Congress” You can read the rest of the website snippet yourself, or you can go look at the copy of the web page at the archive yourselves.
Trump Confirmed a Prescheduled Walk to Capitol Building in his Speech
Americans must ask themselves another question and answer themselves without bias once again. "What did Trump specifically say in his speech that incited an insurrection?"
We examined every instance where Trump mentions the Capitol building in his speech to see if it aligns with the facts we know before January 6th took place.
Approved permit to protest
A walk to the Capitol Building lawn and steps was scheduled
Here are the two instances where Donald Trump mentions the Capitol building, and you be the judge:
"Anyone you want, but I think right here, we're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them." (Trump, 2021)
"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." (Trump, 2021)
Trump's spoken word in his speech aligns with the research I have provided regarding the event permit and the event schedule for the walk to the Capitol precisely. He knew about the walk to the Capitol Building that day, and so did every protestor who was in attendance. He never instructed anyone to do something that was not already part of a pre-scheduled plan for the protest event.
The media and Legislature almost seem to be implying a narrative that this was practically a spontaneous insurrection event incited by Trump from his speech. No. It was overzealous knuckleheads at a planned/permitted event who cannot follow simple instructions. The last time I checked, spontaneous insurrections don't bother with permits, and they do not put out public announcements of their location and plans in advance. Our Legislature and the Main Stream Media are being very disingenuous about the timeline of events These are the facts we have at this point.
Approved permit to protest
A walk to the Capitol Building lawn and steps was scheduled
Trump confirmed a prescheduled walk to Capitol Building in his speech
There is no evidence that I have been able to locate either written, audio, or captured on video where Trump instructs anyone to enter the Capitol Building. I would welcome any Media organization to offer up such evidence if they have it. Trump does mention that people should make their voices heard, but connecting that with inciting an insurrection is hugely disingenuous, inaccurate, and exaggerated.
The Constitutionality of Impeaching a former President is in Question
There is no example of a former President ever being impeached in our nation’s history.
“Now that Donald Trump is a private citizen, the Senate should dismiss the article of impeachment against him for lack of jurisdiction. The Constitution is clear: ‘The president . . . shall be removed from office on impeachment . . . and conviction’—not by the expiration of his term before the impeachment process is complete. It also mandates that ‘judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal and disqualification’—not or disqualification.” (Dershowitz, 2021)
In plain English, the President must be removed from the seat, before being disqualified from future positions. How can the Senate remove someone from a seat that they no longer occupy? They can't and this is why this entire impeachment is in question.
As we did with the Trump speech transcription, we looked at the six instances where the Constitution makes mention of Impeachment to judge for ourselves.
“The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
(CDC, 2021, Article I, Section 2)
“The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.” (CDC, 2021, Article I, Section 3)
“Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.” (CDC, 2021, Article I, Section 3)
“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” (CDC, 2021, Article II, Section 2)
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” (CDC, 2021, Article II, Section 4)
“The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment; shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.” (CDC, 2021, Article III, Section 4)
Alan Dershowitz is sighting Article II, Section 4 in his opinion piece with the Wall Street Journal and he is correct. The President has to be convicted and has to be President at the time so that he may be removed from office. Trump is now a private citizen. There is no office to remove him from. This impeachment appears to be a circus show with no real backing or support from the language in the Constitution.
There is a High Bar for Incitement if the Senate Votes to Go to Trial
“Andrew Koppelman, a constitutional law professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said it would be difficult to prove Trump intended for violence to ensue at the Capitol. ‘It looks to me like Trump was culpably reckless. But it seems to me the Brandenburg standard requires intention,’ Koppleman said.” (Sherman, 2021)
In the case of Brandenburg v. Ohio. Clarence Brandenburg, who was a leader in the K.K.K. (Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group) was arrested and charged with advocating violence and terrorism as a means for achieving reform. They had video evidence of him calling for violence against the government and asking attendees at his rally to follow him to Washington. Brandenburg protecting himself by claiming his first amendment right to free speech and the judges agreed with him. This spurred the creation of the Brandenburg standard.
First, express advocacy in violation of law
Second, that such advocacy has the propensity to cause immediate illegal action
Third, there must be an intention to cause this illegality.
The exerts seem to all agree that intent will be difficult if not impossible to prove even if Trump were to go to Trial.
Final Thoughts
A sub-group of the total protesters present on January 6th, 2021, misbehaved, rioted, and entered the Capitol Building. Nobody is disputing that this was wrong, and Trump did not pardon anyone involved or arrested at the Capitol, which is a good thing for America. The rioters damaged property, and they need to be held accountable to the fullest extend of the law based on their offenses. Five people lost their lives, and this is tragic. At least two of those deaths were protesters, one unarmed and shot to death by a Capitol Police officer. We also lost a Police Officer who was struck in the head by a falling/thrown object, which remains under investigation. We hope they catch the person responsible for his death and hold that individual accountable.
It was a miserable series of events and circumstances. Agitators against Trump may have or may not have been involved and integrated with the crowd. There is some evidence that suggests that people who did not support Trump were present and entered the Capitol building, but in the end, it does not matter. They must account for their actions no matter what their affiliation or group may be. The deaths were tragic, but if we remove Trump’s speech from the sequence of events scheduled on January 6th, the protesters were still planning to walk over to the Capitol steps and lawn. They were permitted to do this by the Park Service. The same sub-group may have yet entered the Capitol without Trump ever speaking, and we will never know that because we cannot go back in time and change the events that took place.
The facts presented above are essential, and I have observed that they are being brushed off, in many cases, ignored by the current narrative echoed by the House of Representatives and the Main Stream Media. Americans are entitled to know the full details of what transpired.
Remember these five things
Approved permit to protest
A walk to the Capitol Building lawn and steps was scheduled
Trump confirmed a prescheduled walk to Capitol Building in his speech
The Constitutionality of impeaching a former President is in question
There is a high bar for incitement if the Senate votes to go to trial
References:
Constantinol, A (2020, December 23). Pro-Trump group files permit application for next Freedom Plaza rally. Washington’s Top News (WTOP). https://wtop.com/dc/2020/12/womens-group-files-permit-application-for-first-amendment-gathering-jan-6/
Pramuk, J. (2021, January 7). Pelosi and Schumer call for Trump’s immediate removal from office for ‘insurrection’. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/07/chuck-schumer-calls-for-trumps-removal-from-office.html
Trump, D. (2021, January 13). Transcript of Trump’s speech at rally before US Capitol riot. The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-capitol-siege-media-e79eb5164613d6718e9f4502eb471f2
Walsh, D. (2021, January 13). House Votes To Impeach Trump, But Senate Trial Unlikely Before Biden's Inauguration. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-effort-live-updates/2021/01/13/956000345/the-house-is-expected-to-impeach-trump-a-2nd-time-heres-how-it-will-work
Lardner, R. and Smith, M. (2021, January 17). Records: Trump allies behind rally that ignited Capitol riot. The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/8f23b222a730a123495aad3606e4c5c4
Dershowitz, A. (2021, January 20) No, You Can’t Try an Impeached Former President. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-you-cant-try-an-impeached-former-president-11611167113
National Constitution Center, NDC (2021). The U.S. Constitution - Full Text. National Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/full-text
Sherman, M. and Miller, Z. ( 2021, January 8) Can Trump be charged with inciting a riot? Legal bar is high. The Seattle Times. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/can-trump-be-charged-with-inciting-a-riot-legal-bar-is-high/
Cevallos, D. (2021, Janaury 14) Trump's speech is probably defensible in every court — except, perhaps, the Senate. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-s-speech-probably-defensible-every-court-except-perhaps-senate-n1254258
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