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This Video was Inspired and Based on the Work of Editorial Cartoonist

Ann Telness from the Washington Post

 

The Full Picture of Trump's Attempted Coup is Only Starting to Emerge

 

It’s been a year since the horrible attack on the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in five deaths, countless injuries, hundreds of people charged or arrested, and millions of dollars in damages. One would think both parties would have united to decry the assault and bring the instigators to justice, but, instead, only the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol to overturn the presidential election results have been brought to justice. As U.S. Capitol Hill Police Officer Harry Dunn testified about the attack to Congress last year, “If a hit man is hired and he kills somebody, the hit man goes to jail. But not only does the hit man go to jail, but the person who hired him does.”

  

Donald Trump 1 

Donald Trump

 

“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” President Donald Trump said at his Jan. 6 “Save America” rally before telling his supporters to march to the Capitol.

 

Hailey Cruz 1 

Republican Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz

 

The senators led the charge to block certification of ballots in Congress.

 

 Rudy Juliani 1

Rudy Giuliani

 

Trump’s lawyer, once the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, had his New York law license suspended for falsehoods he peddled while trying to reverse the election results.

 

 Johen Eastman 1

John Eastman

 

A former Chapman University law professor and dean who outlined a scheme to block or delay certification of Joe Biden as president.

 

 Jeffrey Clark 1

Jeffrey Clark

 

Then the assistant attorney general, Clark sought to topple his boss, acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, by agreeing to do for Trump what Rosen refused to do — bully Georgia election officials

 

 Berbard Kerick 2 1

Bernard Kerik

 

A former New York City police commissioner and convicted felon pardoned by Trump in early 2020, Kerik led efforts to conjure up voting irregularities in key states.

 

 

Ali Alexander and Reps Gosar Biggs and Brooks 1 

Ali Alexander with GOP Representatives Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar

 

Alexander, leader of Stop the Steal, said in a since-deleted video that the three Republican congressmen helped plan how to put “maximum pressure on Congress” during the counting of electoral college votes. Biggs and Brooks have denied meeting with Alexander.

 

 

 Kayleigh McEnany and Stephen Miller 1

Kayleigh McEnany and Stephen Miller

 

The White House advisers amplified the myth of voter fraud — McEnany from the press room podium and Miller as Trump’s speechwriter.

 

 Roger Stone and Infowars 2 1

Roger Stone and Alex Jones

 

Stone, a Trump ally and longtime GOP provocateur, and Jones, the host of Infowars, each promoted Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

 

 Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell 1

Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell

 

Both private citizens, Powell and Lindell were two of the loudest voices arguing the election results were fraudulent. Dominion Voting Systems sued each for defamation. Powell’s response was to argue that no one should have taken her seriously. “Reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact,” she wrote in her motion to dismiss the suit.

 

 Jason Miller 1

Jason Miller

 

A Trump aide who frequently advanced the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, he attended a meeting at the Willard hotel “command center” in D.C. on Jan. 5, along with Giuliani, Steve Bannon, Eastman and Kerik.

 

 

Dan Scavino 1 

Dan Scavino

 

Trump’s social media adviser was reportedly part of a conversation with Trump on Jan. 5 that turned on how to persuade members of Congress not to certify the election.

 

 Michael Flynn 1

Michael Flynn

 

Trump’s former national security adviser urged the president to declare martial law and redo the election. “There are still avenues” for a Trump win, he said at a Dec. 12 rally in D.C. “The courts aren’t going to decide who the next president of the United States is going to be. We the people decide.”

 

 Steve Bannon 1

Steve Bannon

 

“All hell is going to break loose tomorrow,” Bannon, a former Trump White House official, told listeners on his podcast on Jan. 5.

 

 Eric Jr and Kimberly 2 1

Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle

 

During the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse, Eric Trump told the crowd that lawmakers needed to “show some fight” before urging the angry mass to “march on the Capitol today.” Backstage, Donald Trump Jr., in a video he recorded for social media, called the rallygoers “awesome patriots that are sick of the bulls---.” Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, danced and, clenching her right fist, urged people to “fight.”

 

 FOX Hosts 2 1

Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham

 

The Fox News hosts helped feed the populist fires that led to the insurrection and then tried to play down the riot and claim that participants were actually leftists. As the violent insurrection unfolded, Hannity and Ingraham also urged the White House to call off the mob.

 

 

 Mark Meadows 1 1

Mark Meadows

 

During the riot, at least half a dozen people reached out to Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, to urge him to ask Trump to quell the uprising, according to text messages detailed by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6

 

 Tommy Tuberville House Kevin McCarthy Jim Jordan 2

Senator Tommy Tuberville, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Representative  Jim Jordan

 

Each lawmaker spoke with Trump on the phone while the riot was in progress. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) disclosed during the 2021 impeachment proceedings that Trump told McCarthy, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”

 

 Oath Keepers and Proud Boys 1

The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys

 

Federal authorities have arrested associates of these groups for their involvement in the riot at the Capitol, and the groups’ leaders have been subpoenaed to appear before the Jan. 6 committee.  Leader of Oath Keepers and 10 Other Individuals were Indicted in Federal Court for Seditious Conspiracy and Other Offenses Related to U.S. Capitol Breach on January 13, 2022. The seditious conspiracy indictment alleges that, following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, Rhodes conspired with his co-defendants and others to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021. Beginning in late December 2020, via encrypted and private communications applications, Rhodes and various co-conspirators coordinated and planned to travel to Washington, D.C., on or around Jan. 6, 2021, the date of the certification of the electoral college vote, the indictment alleges. Rhodes and several co-conspirators made plans to bring weapons to the area to support the operation. The co-conspirators then traveled across the country to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in early January 2021.  The charge of seditious conspiracy carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.   An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

 

 Mike Pence 1

Mike Pence

 

The vice president stood up to Trump and his mob that day, but subsequent reporting made it clear that he seriously considered Eastman’s scheme to declare Trump the winner before concluding that he lacked the authority to do so.

 

 

 Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell 1

Senator Lindsey Graham and Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

 

Each senator criticized Trump for the attacks — but hedged his criticism in the days following. Six days after Graham denounced Trump on the Senate floor, he accepted a ride with the president on Air Force One.  McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for provoking the riot but voted against conviction in Trump’s subsequent impeachment trial.

 

 

President Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy began in the spring of 2020, when he issued a flurry of preemptive attacks on the integrity of the country’s voting systems. The doubts he cultivated ultimately led to a rampage inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob came within seconds of encountering Vice President Mike Pence, trapped lawmakers and vandalized the home of Congress in the worst desecration of the complex since British forces burned it in 1814. Five people died in the Jan. 6 attack or in the immediate aftermath, and 140 police officers were assaulted. The consequences of that day are still coming into focus, but what is already clear is that the insurrection was not a spontaneous act nor an isolated event. It was a battle in a broader war over the truth and over the future of American democracy.

 

RELATED:  The American Abyss - A Historical Perspective by Professor of History Tim Snyder

 

In the one year since Jan. 6, more than 725 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 225 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.  

 

This article is based and inspired by:  "The Insurrectionists’ Roll Call" By Ann Telnaes Editorial cartoonist of the Washington Post

 

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