"I was just following orders."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Kevin M. Kruse Retweeted

We've now seen multiple attestations like this from 1/6 defendants. Will be interesting to see if the House managers cite them this week.

Link to tweet

[Sanity Claws]

1. Frankly it's even less defensible than just following orders

If you were military and you did not follow orders, you ran the risk of court martial and in the time of war, even worse.
These were civilians and were under no compulsion or threat to do anything. This direction was no more than an invitation.

[Wounded Bear]

2. This certainly should be brought up at trial...nt

[gratuitous]

3. Trump's expected defense is that he didn't do nothin'

But the defense will almost certainly have to address how all these hundreds and thousands of his rabid followers got the exact same message from Trump urging them to march on the Capitol Building and erroneously believing that he was marching with them.

[TwilightZone]

4. It'll be brought up, but it's a ridiculous defense.

Knowingly doing something illegal because someone told you to isn't defensible.

"the country's chief law enforcement officer"

Uh, that's the AG, is it not?

[TheRealNorth]

5. I don't care that Trump did not explicitly say "Storm the Capital"

The insurrectionists don't take Trump literally, they take him seriously. And he told them to "show strength", which to any Republican means be violent.