Former President Donald Trump has been the subject of a criminal investigation by the Manhattan Regional Prosecutor’s Office, two impeachment investigations by Democratic lawmakers, and a two-year special counsel investigation by the legendary former Federal Bureau of Investigation director. His eponymous real estate company, The Trump Organization, is currently awaiting a trial on suspicion of tax evasion, and many of his former close associates have been in federal prison for what was done during his employment. Spent time.
But after each, the former president appears unharmed and often argues that the lack of results for him means he was exonerated.
His reaction to the face of government oversight is very consistent. Regardless of the subject under investigation, he described it as a “witch hunt,” telling believers that investigators had a prejudice against him, no matter how many cheatings were revealed. , I’m sure the result is illegal.
But more than 18 months after a crowd of his supporters attacked the US Capitol at his prompt, Mr. Trump’s luck was exhausted after a hearing by the Capitol Selection Committee on Tuesday, January 6. It may have been. During the hearing, one of Mr. Trump’s closest White House aides, a 25-year-old former assistant, said he and his closest aide had been saying before the violent riots. About Dropped the bomb after the bomb.
Former White House aide testimony tells millions of people watching the special committee and televised minutes that Mr. Trump and his top aide were before the Trump faction’s close quarters. We have provided the most detailed explanation to date on how we acted during the process.
The amazing revelation from Ms. Hutchinson included: Mr. Trump grabbed the handle of the presidential limousine to go to the Capitol to join her supporters. Mr. Trump’s chief of staff warned on January 6 that things could be “really, really bad.” Mr. Trump threw lunch on the wall when then Attorney General Bill Barr withdrew allegations of mass fraud in the 2020 elections. And Mr. Trump’s inner circle members sought amnesty after the violence.
Mr. Trump and his Republican allies sought to puncture the testimony provided by his former aide, but legal experts said the panel was sufficient to ultimately open the door to legal consequences. Before being, say some of the more explosive moments she told during her appearance.
Perhaps the most serious allegation made in a statement by former Trump’s aide to the panel was Mr. Trump’s against the security cordon placed around the oval, the green space south of the White House, where he spoke on the day of the riot. The reaction was dealt with.
Where the current or former president has made public appearances, secret services usually build perimeters that no one can pass through unless scanned by a magnetometer or airport-style metal detector.
On January 6th, the agency had good reason to carefully select rally participants. The special committee released audio taken from secret services and DC Metropolitan Police Department radio traffic, and found police officers found multiple Trump supporters packed with weapons, including Glock pistols and AR-15-style rifles. I made it clear.
Under normal circumstances, unauthorized persons with weapons will not go near the president. However, Hutchinson told the special committee that Mr. Trump was angry and demanded that rally participants stop screening for weapons.
“When we were in a behind-the-scenes tent … I was near a conversation where I heard the president say: [f**king magnetometers] Put people away, … they aren’t here to hurt me.I take the [f**king] Mug away. Put my people in. From here they can march to the Capitol, “she said.
Former Aide Trump also reported that her supervisor, Meadows, noticed that the Secret Service had people with weapons (melee weapons such as firearms and spears made from flagpoles) near the White House. Said to be indifferent to.
Following the Parliamentary attack, Republicans argued that the crowds that attacked the Capitol were unarmed and emphasized that Mr. Trump did not encourage riots, thus impeaching Mr. Trump from a second impeachment. I protected it. However, Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony is inconsistent with both of these worn-out defenses.
Nick Ackerman, a former US federal prosecutor who worked in the Southern District of New York and spent time as a Watergate Special Counsel, said: Independent Hutchinson’s testimony made Mr. Trump’s responsibility for violence “quite clear,” and said former Trump aide provided clues that could lead to prosecution of multiple federal crimes.
“I got everything from incitement to Congressional obstruction to US fraud,” he said.
Akerman described the revelation of Trump’s reaction to the magnetometer used to keep armed supporters away from him as a smoke-breathing gun that made the day’s speech a very different view.
He said the fact that Mr. Trump knew that his supporters were armed denies the First Amendmental defenses he could mount.
“If he was talking to a group of AARP members … if he was standing on top of their pedestrians, that would be one thing. But instead, he had an AR-15, a glock, and other weapons. I knew I was talking to a group of people who had … and they knew they were heading to the Capitol, and he didn’t shoot them for him I knew I was aiming for someone else, “he said. “And who is it other than the people of Congress?”
“From the prosecutor’s point of view, yes, it reveals the fact that there were multiple crimes,” he added.
Thai Cobb, one of the lawyers who defended Mr. Trump in a two-year investigation led by former FBI director Robert Mueller, said investigating the behavior of the former president would be significantly different from the previous Justice Ministry’s efforts. rice field.
Cobb found that Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia was unnecessary. But in an interview with CNN, he said investigating what the former president did before and during the parliamentary attack would be another matter.
“There are many abominable facts here,” Cobb said. Mr. Cobb also claimed Hutchinson’s testimony about Mr. Trump’s knowledge that the crowd was armed as particularly damaging to his previous clients, and his alleged call for rioters to hang up. Vice President Mike Pence at the time elected approval.
“If it’s not a riot, I don’t know what’s going on,” he added.
Renato Mariotti, a partner of another former federal prosecutor, Thompson Coburn, also said Hutchinson’s testimony made Mr. Trump more likely to be held criminally liable.
Mariotti said on Twitter that the evidence from former Trump’s White House aide “actually worked.”[ing] Ball has made significant strides towards prosecution of the former president’s potential Justice Department.
“what [her] The different testimony included a disgusting testimony that gave us a window to Trump’s state of mind that would be acceptable in court to Trump, “he said.
He is also believed in an attempt to argue that Mr. Trump’s claim to remove the magnetometer is a speech protected by the First Amendment, calling for a march to the Capitol of former president’s supporters. He pointed out that he did not cause much damage.
“The testimony that Trump said he didn’t care about having a weapon … they aren’t here to hurt me,” and the testimony that they would go to the Capitol later. It was necessary to prove that the speaker, which is just a kind of “smoking gun” evidence, intended to instigate imminent violence, “he said. “Hutchinson’s testimony is a game changer. So far I’ve seen potential narrow criminal accusations against bent lawyers, but now it’s possible to prosecute incitement that is unlikely otherwise. Looks like.