They broke through barricades, shattered windows and seized control of the U.S. Capitol, some making death threats against members of Congress hiding inside, others brutalizing the police officers who stood in their way.
As the cases against nearly 200 of the Capitol rioters begin to wind through federal court, many of the defendants blame the commander in chief they followed for the violence that left five dead during the insurrection Jan. 6.
In court documents, media interviews and through official attorney statements, staunch supporters of former President Donald Trump who carried out the attempted coup argue they were merely doing what they thought the nation’s leader had asked, some citing a cult-like loyalty.
Though experts said it’s unlikely the Senate would call the alleged rioters as witnesses, a handful volunteered to testify against Trump in his impeachment proceedings. Short of that, legal scholars said, Congress could enter their statements about Trump’s influence into the record during the House trial.
The notion that accused insurrectionists were following the call of the president will not likely be enough to prove innocence in their own individual cases, legal experts said, but Trump’s purported influence over their thinking could lead to reduced punishments and mitigated sentences as part of plea deals, especially for those with no prior criminal histories.
“Trump didn’t get in the car and drive him to D.C., but it’s important to understand the context,” said attorney Clint Broden, who represents Garret Miller in Texas. The Department of Justice used Miller’s own social media posts to charge him with entering the Capitol and threatening U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., whom he said should be assassinated.
“You have to understand the cult mentality,” Broden said. “They prey on vulnerable victims and give them a sense of purpose. In this case, Trump convinced his cult followers that they were working to preserve democracy.”
In an 80-page brief outlining arguments to support the impeachment charge, House managers focused on Trump’s statements in the months leading up to Jan. 6. Before Congress set out to confirm the Electoral College results that day, Trump spoke to thousands of supporters at the Ellipse, roughly 1.5 miles from the Capitol.
He told them, “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
The House brief says Trump aimed his supporters “like a loaded cannon.”
One of the Proud Boys arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol told a court Wednesday that he was duped by President Donald Trump’s “deception” and “acted out of the delusional belief” that he was responding patriotically to the commander in chief.
Dominic Pezzola, who was indicted last month and charged with conspiracy, urged a federal court to grant his release pending trial, emphasizing that his involvement in the Proud Boys was recent and minimal and that he has no other criminal history. But the most notable part of Pezzola’s 15-page motion for leniency was his thorough repudiation of Trump.
“[D]efendant acted out of the delusional belief that he was a ‘patriot’ protecting his country … He was responding to the entreaties of the-then commander in chief, President Trump,” Pezzola’s lawyer argued in the filing. “The President maintained that the election had been stolen and it was the duty of loyal citizens to ‘stop the steal.’ Admittedly there was no rational basis for the claim, but it is apparent defendant was one of millions of Americans who were misled by the President’s deception.”
Pezzola is not the first charged in the Capitol insurrection to cite Trump’s calls as the motivation for marching on and breaching the Capitol. But he’s among those facing the most serious charges, along with several other members of the Proud Boys, in connection with Jan. 6.
His filing also takes sharper aim at Trump than many of the other rioters who mentioned Trump.
“Many of those who heeded his call will be spending substantial portions if not the remainder of their lives in prison as a consequence,” Pezzola’s attorney wrote. “Meanwhile Donald Trump resumes his life of luxury and privilege.”
Yes he has. He’s sitting down in Mar-a-lago watching the events on TV as usual and letting his rabid followers take the heat while he gobbles down his “delicious chocolate cake” and washes it down with Diet Coke.
And yet the Republican Senators can’t bring themselves to issue the mild slap on the wrist of conviction in the impeachment trial and barring him from holding office.