Police officers screaming in pain, terrified elected officials, threatening assailants … Democratic prosecutors broadcast on Wednesday February 10 images sometimes bordering on sustainable to highlight the incredible violence of the January 6 assault on the Capitol, which won Donald Trump to be tried in the Senate for “Incitement to insurgency”. Combining surveillance camera extracts, sometimes unpublished, with videos uploaded by the rioters, they reminded the hundred senators, both judges, jurors and witnesses of this historic impeachment trial, that they themselves had escaped a little ” at worst “.
The elected Democrats of the House of Representatives, responsible for bringing the charge against the former president, also placed the assault in the context of the post-election crusade of Donald Trump, who has always refused to concede his defeat to Joe Biden . “President Trump was not an innocent witness to an accident”, as his lawyers suggest, but he “Gave up his role of commander-in-chief to become the chief instigator of a dangerous insurgency”, launched Jamie Raskin, who oversees this team.
The bloody coup by his supporters, as Congress certified the victory of his rival, did not occur ” in the void “ : “The anger of the crowd has been stoked for months by Donald Trump”, added Joaquin Castro. Based in Florida, the former real estate mogul declined to testify. But his voice has continued to resound in the hemicycle of the upper house of Congress, where his accusers have projected many excerpts from his fiery speeches, reproduced his inflammatory tweets, cited his most controversial words.
“The big lie”
Even if they are unlikely to convince two-thirds of senators to find him guilty – the threshold set by the Constitution – Democrats intend to make their mark during these hearings broadcast live across the United States. “The big lie” : this is how they described the long campaign of disinformation on the presidential election maintained by the 45e American president who repeated for weeks, without proof, that he had been the victim of massive electoral fraud.
After the failure of his legal complaints and his multiple pressures on electoral agents in key states, “President Trump ran out of non-violent options to stay in power”, estimated the elected Ted Lieu. He then turned to “Groups that he cultivated for months”, like the extreme right-wing group Proud Boys, of which several members were among the attackers of the Capitol, added his colleague Stacey Plaskett, recalling that the president had called them, in October, to “To be ready”. And on January 6, he called on his white-hot fans to demonstrate in Washington. “Fight like devils! “, he launched to the crowd, just before the intrusion into the temple of American democracy.
Affirm that the former president could be responsible for the violence of a “Small group of criminals” who have it “Absolutely misunderstood” is “Simply absurd”, had insisted Donald Trump’s lawyers in writing on Monday, stressing that he had them “Urged to remain peaceful”. “We checked the 11,000 words of his speech, the president only used the term” peaceful “once, against more than 20” to fight “”, retorted Wednesday the elected Madeleine Dean.
Worse, according to Mme Plaskett, he vindictively appointed his own vice president, Mike Pence, who had refused to stop the certification of the election result, or House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi.
“Target on the back”
It “Put a target on their back and the crowd broke into the Capitol to drive them away”, she said, showing images of a gallows erected in front of the building, of demonstrators calling for “Hang” Mike Pence, others calling “Nancy, Nancy …” in the halls of Congress, but also videos of the vice president and his family being hastily evacuated to safety.
While a handful of “Grand Old Party” senators have said they are ready to condemn him, and some have blamed him for the attack, it seems unlikely that 17 will join Democrats in convicting him, and in fine make it ineligible.
Even if he is acquitted, as a year ago during his first impeachment trial, his judicial horizon will remain charged: in addition to the investigations into his cases in New York, a Georgia prosecutor announced on Wednesday the opening of ‘an investigation into the pressure he exerted on electoral officials in this key state.
