Messages released by a congressional investigative committee show that a son of then-President Donald Trump and Fox News anchors tried to ask him to do something to stop the Capitol invasion on January 6 of this year.
The dialogues can help prove that the Republican was fully aware of what was going on, but decided to omit.
The messages were sent to Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, and revealed as part of an inquiry into responsibilities for the invasion, which ended in five deaths.
“He [Trump] You have to condemn this shit fast,” wrote Donald Trump Jr., the then president’s son, to Meadows, who replied, “I’m pushing hard. I agree”.
Donald Jr. insisted: “We need an Oval Office speech. He has to take the lead now. This has gone too far and got out of hand.”
It took Trump more than two hours to go public and ask the invaders to leave. They marched into Congress after watching a speech by the president, who used firm words such as “if you don’t fight hard, you won’t have a country anymore.”
The mob was trying to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, which was underway on the floor when the invasion began. The session was suspended, but resumed at night, and confirmed the Democrat’s victory.
The certification ceremony was a formality to add up the votes sent by the states. Trump, however, wanted lawmakers to invalidate the material, in order to open the way for discarding the results of the polls. The former president said that there was fraud in the investigation, but he never presented evidence of this.
The messages were made public on Monday (13) at night and this Tuesday (14) by Liz Cheney, Republican deputy and vice-chairman of the investigation committee. Meadows presented the messages to lawmakers after being prosecuted for refusing to cooperate with the investigations.
The material points out that presenters of the Fox News news channel, which covered generally favorable to Trump, also sent messages to Meadows asking for action.
“Mark, the president needs to tell people on Capitol Hill to go home. This is hurting us all. He’s destroying his legacy,” presenter Laura Ingraham said in a text message.
“please put it on [Trump] on TV. [Estão] destroying everything you’ve achieved,” said another presenter, Brian Kilmeade.
For Cheney, the messages are proof that Trump was fully aware of what was going on, and that he decided to do nothing. Before that, there were records that several representatives who were in Congress, isolated in the middle of the invasion, sent requests for help to Meadows.
The commission seeks to determine whether Trump and other federal authorities committed crimes through their actions or negligence in connection with the invasion. They could be prosecuted for trying to impede or corrupt an official procedure, a crime provided for in the country’s code of federal laws, which can carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that this typification could be used to prosecute those involved in the Jan. 6 invasion. Defendants’ defense attorneys argue that the Congressional session would not enter into the concept of official procedure.
It is not clear, however, whether the former president can in fact be brought to justice for the case. Trump was impeached in January, days after the invasion. He was found guilty by the House but acquitted by the Senate, which had a Republican majority at the time. The former president has sought to prevent the release of new information about the case, claiming the right to presidential secrecy.
Also on Tuesday, the Attorney General of the District of Columbia (where Washington is located), announced a lawsuit against the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups and their leaders, to reimburse the expenses the city had with the destruction caused. The lawsuit cites an 1871 law, created with the aim of fighting the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan, and could help unravel how these groups are financed.
Jonathon Moseley, a lawyer representing two of the indicted leaders, said the lawsuit was a fantasy and that the groups did not engage in acts of violence.
The Proud Boys, which attacked anti-racist protesters on several occasions, was cited by Trump in the October 2020 presidential debate. The public mention was commemorated by the group at the time.
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