Former Federal Prosecutor Glenn Kirschner alleged on Friday that the actions of former President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 appeared to be a “square betrayal” after the first public hearing of the select committee of the House investigating the riots of the U.S. Capitol aired on prime time television.
Hundreds of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol last year in an effort to disrupt the formal certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. The attack came after Trump urged his supporters in a rally to walk to the federal legislative building and “fight like hell” to save his country.
The select committee of the House investigating the violent attack and the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 elections began publicly exposing some of the findings and evidence of the investigation during the first hearing of this week. Kirschner spoke about the presentations in an interview with MSNBC’s The ReidOut, presented by Joy-Ann Reid.
The legal analyst argued that Trump “drew up” the plan for the January 6 events. “Donald Trump was implementing it,” he said, citing a tweet from the former president urging supporters to travel to protest in the country’s capital. He then noted that the word “war” was repeated during the hearing.
Legal expert Glenn Kirschner told MSNBC on Friday that he believes former President Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021 appear to be “a square betrayal.” Above, Trump speaks with his followers on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
“Every time I listened to the war, my mind went back to betrayal, which is a very short and simple statute,” Kirschner said. The lawyer then quoted U.S. Code No. 18 § 2381, which states: “Whoever, out of loyalty to the United States, imposes war on them or joins his enemies, The United States or elsewhere is guilty of treason. “
“What we do know now is that Donald Trump not only set a date for the attack on the Capitol, as we just mentioned, but also refused to call off his angry mob once he deployed them for more than three hours. “Kirschner explained. The lawyer went on to say that Trump also “rejected the deployment of any force to go to the Capitol to defend the attack, to protect the people of the United States Capitol to which he put his angry mob.”
He also noted that he finally “received an order from [then Vice President] Mike Pence, who frankly probably didn’t have the authority at the time, but general [Mark] Milley said he was insistent: “We need to get strength at the Capitol.”
“This is starting to feel not just a betrayal, but a square betrayal,” the former federal prosecutor concluded.
After the hearing, former Pence chief of staff Marc Short spoke with Fox Business to discuss the evidence presented by the select committee of the House.
“The vice president’s first calls were to [GOP House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy, [GOP Senate Minority] Leader [Mitch] McConnell, [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi i [Democratic Senate Majority] Leader [Chuck] Schumer, to make sure they were safe and to make sure their duties were good, “Short said, describing the then vice president’s talks amid the January 6 violent attack.
Pence’s aide continued to explain that the former vice president “contacted the Pentagon to make sure that additional reinforcements were sent.” Senate and House leaders encouraged him to do so, he said.
Short said Pence did not believe talking to Trump would be “constructive” as events unfolded, adding that “his focus was working with the Capitol people to get the job done.”
Many Trump supporters openly sang “hang Mike Pence” as they carried out the attack. During the violence, Trump tweeted: “Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution, giving states the opportunity to certify a set of corrected facts. , not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones. who were previously asked to certify. The US is demanding the truth! “
The former president and his allies had publicly and privately pressured Pence to reject Biden Electoral College votes cast in several key states, while Pence oversaw the formal certification of results. Pence refused to continue with the plot, claiming he did not have the authority to cancel the election.
Trump continues to insist that he did nothing wrong on Jan. 6 and that the House select committee is conducting a “witch hunt.”
“So the Unselect Committee on Political HACKS refuses to interpret any of the many testimonials and positive statements, refuses to talk about election fraud and large-scale irregularities, and decided to use an ABC Fake News documentarian to turn it around. “Only negative images,” the former president wrote in a post on his social media site TruthSocial on Thursday evening.
He added on Friday morning: “The so-called ‘Rush on the Capitol’ was not caused by me, it was caused by rigged and stolen elections!”
Despite Trump’s claims, no evidence has emerged to corroborate the allegations of widespread fraud that led to Biden’s election victory. In contrast, more than 60 legal challenges to the election run by Trump and his allies have failed in state and federal courts. Even the judges appointed by the former president have ruled against the demands.
Former Trump Attorney General William Barr, who was widely regarded as one of his most loyal members in the cabinet, has repeatedly said there is “no evidence” to support allegations of fraud. He wrote in his memoirs that he told Trump directly that the allegations were “shit” and that his legal team after the 2020 election was a “clown show.”
The House select committee on Thursday showed a video of Barr’s testimony to investigators in which he made similar comments. In the video, the former Trump administration official reiterated that allegations of election fraud were “bullish.”
“Frankly, a year and a half later, I haven’t seen anything that makes me change my mind,” Barr said.