That is what cogno after cogno calls the Jan. 6 indictment. Reading those, I have felt out of step: It seemed to me the MAL docs indictment was, at least potentially, the gravest threat to the country. And that train of thought led me to this train:
How serious was the Jan. 6 attack?
Maybe we shouldn't refer to it as a Jan. 6 anything.
COUNT ONE (Conspiracy to Defraud the United States 18 U.S.C. 371)...From on or about November 14, 2020, through on or about January 20, 2021
COUNT TWO (Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding 18U.S.C. § 1512(k ) )...From on or about November 14, 2020, through on or about January 7, 2021... corruptly obstruct and impede an official proceeding, that is, the certification of the electoral vote...
COUNT THREE (Obstruction of, and Attempt to Obstruct, an Official Proceeding...From on or about November 14, 2020, through on or about January 7, 2021...
COUNT FOUR (Conspiracy Against Rights 18U.S.C. § 241)...From on or about November 14, 2020, through on or about January 20, 2021...
So Counts One and Four go from Nov. 14 through Jan. 20 but Counts Two and Three from Nov. 14 through Jan. 7.
Okay, show of hands: Who thinks Conspiracy to Defraud, Conspiracy to Obstruct, Obstruction and Conspiracy Against Rights are, even in combination, "The Big One," and not Seditious Conspiracy?
Anyway, the night of Jan. 6, 2021 I didn't think it was a serious attack on the government or democracy. I text messaged my family, "I think we came out of this ok."
I still can't get over the images of Capitol Police holding the doors open for departing Trumpists. They were unarmed, the Capitol Police were and the Trumpists, unarmed with firearms I mean. Please, please do not think me a minimizer of what happened that day. I am trying to be proportional and to think through what it was. It was violent, people were injured, people died, but the only person killed by a firearm that day was a Trumpist shot by a police officer.
What was it?
What was this attack by 2,000 people with no firearms? Can you argue to me with a straight face that 2,000 people without guns or explosives was The Big One, a serious effort to overthrow the government of the United States of America with the most powerful military ever known to humankind?! If that is the Big One, what was 9/11? If 1/6/2021 was the big one what would it have been had Al Qaeda flown jets into the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6?
From what I remember it was constitutionally imperative that the electoral votes be counted that night. At least started because they weren't done counting them until after 3 a.m. January 7. I remember thinking that night, "Wait a minute, how could that be a drop dead date, like if they're not counted (or don't start counting) on Jan. 6 Biden can't be sworn in on Jan. 20?" I don't know because thankfully we've never had it come up before but if Al Qaeda had flown a jet into the Capitol on Jan. 6 you mean to tell me Trump would have continued as POTUS? Not knowing I am going to say "No and hell no", that would not have happened. Still, the conspirators on the ground were attempting to do stop the electoral count and they came damn close to doing it! Then why isn't Trumpie charged with seditious conspiracy?
Anyway, the point of that last paragraph is that counting the electoral ballots is the "federal government function" that the conspirators attempted to stop that is named in Jack Smith's indictment.
What was the purpose of Jan. 6?
It is clear to everyone, including me, that the purpose was to prevent the ministerial, but constitutionally imperative, penultimate step in the transfer of power from Trump to Biden, to keep Trump in office in plain words--even though it had no chance of succeeding.
I keep getting stuck there. In the law there is something called something like "the doctrine of impossibility". I remember a hypothetical case in law school. A guy sets out one day to murder me. That is the only thing in his mind, 100% his intent is to murder me. He comes up to me and says, "HARRIS! I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU RIGHT NOW!" and begins pummeling me with projectiles, marshmallows. That's something, simple, the simplest battery, but it's not even "Olympic" attempted murder, degree of difficulty built in.
What was Trump's intent for Jan. 6?
He incited them, he gathered them, he titled the day as "STOP THE STEAL", he refused to call them off when they had started. His intent was the same as his foot soldiers, "to prevent the ministerial, but constitutionally imperative, penultimate step in the transfer of power from Trump to Biden, to keep Trump in office in plain words--even though it had no chance of succeeding."
I just have a hard time with that. "Manner and Means", to use the indictment's language, were ill-suited for such an expansive purpose. A fucking president of the fucking United States of America is able to assemble a more formidable militia than Oat Eaters and Proud Bois. A fucking POTUS would have his soldiers armed with like firearms.Punish?
There is more, ample, evidence that Trumpie's purpose was to impede or stop the "federal government function" of counting electoral ballots, and to repeat for emphasis, they almost succeeded in that purpose. With degree of difficulty built in.
There it is again.
Among the evidence cited in the indictment:
98. As crowds began to gather in Washington and were audible from the Oval Office, the Defendant remarked to advisors that the crowd the following day on January 6 was going to be "angry."
110. Upon receiving news that individuals had breached the Capitol, the Defendant's advisors told him that there was a riot there and that rioters had breached the building. When advisors urged the Defendant to issue a calming message aimed at the rioters, the Defendant refused ,instead repeatedly remarking that the people at the Capitol were angry because the election had been stolen.
116. 4:17 p.m.,the Defendant released a video message on Twitter that he had just
taped in the White House Rose Garden . In it, the Defendant repeated the knowingly false claim
that "[we had an election that was stolen from us" and finally asked individuals to leave the
Capitol, while telling them that they were "very special" and that "we love you".
117. After the 4:17 p.m. Tweet, as the Defendant joined others in the outer Oval Office to watch the attack on the Capitol on television, the Defendant said, "See, this is what happens when they try to steal an election. These people are angry . These people are really angry about it. This is what happen."
118 At 6:01 p.m., the Defendant tweeted, "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"
There is less clear-cut evidence, I agree, but there is evidence that the purpose of Trumpie and his gay ragtag band was to punish those involved in the electoral count even if they couldn't stop it, to get their pound of flesh regardless, to make the point that they were going to make their point and that there would be people hurt making their point. In that they succeeded.
