Mr. Trump used many violent images and insinuations in angering his followers, instructing them to “fight much harder” and dispatching them to march on the Capitol, but he never directed them specifically to commit crimes. And he also declared: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching to the Capitol to peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard.”
Even so, there was consensus across ideological boundaries that Mr. Trump started the uprising.
“No question about it, the president created the mob,” Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney told Fox News. “The president instigated the mob. The president spoke to the mob. He lit the flame. “
Even former Attorney General William P. Barr, who was one of Mr. Trump’s key enablers and allies prior to his resignation last month, has interpreted his behavior as “orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress” and interpreting the actions called “inexcusable” by Mr. Trump. and “a betrayal of his office and his followers.”
Was Trump’s speech an official act?
Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor, pointed out another potential hurdle for prosecutors: The Department of Justice’s legal department – including Mr. Barr when he headed it in 1989 – wrote several legal policy memos stating that laws sometimes do not apply to a shall be deemed to be President involved in official acts unless Congress has made a “clear statement” that it intended to do so.
These legal policies raise difficult questions for Justice Department attorneys – and possibly the courts too – including whether Mr Trump’s speech to supporters on a political issue is considered an official act.
“The truth of the matter is uncertainty,” said Goldsmith.
Could Mr. Trump be expelled from office?
Yes, in theory – if he were to be tried in a Senate trial after he was indicted by the House of Representatives, or if he was to be tried in court for instigating not just a riot but a “riot,” which is a violent riot against the Confederation means government.
The 14th Amendment to the Post-Civil War Constitution prohibits future officials who have “entered” an insurrection or rebellion, even if they have previously sworn an oath, to uphold the Constitution as legislators or federal officials. As such, however, this principle lacks a mechanism to determine what matters or to enforce it.
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