Judge Mehta Closely Following 1/6 Committee's Work

[kpete]

IMPORTANT: Judge Mehta forced Trump's lawyers to discuss whether Trump's two hours of silence as the Jan. 6 riot raged amounted to "agreement" with what the rioters were doing. He clearly is closely following the Jan. 6 committee's work and homed in on their central focus.

MEHTA points out that Trump took hours after violence erupted to call off his supporters, noting that if he believed his words at the rally were misconstrued by violent supporters, a reasonable person would've spoken out and told them to stop.

MEHTA then noted that text messages (revealed by the Jan. 6 committee) showed that Donald Trump Jr. did just that, pleading with Mark Meadows to have his father make a more forceful statement.

MEHTA deeply probing whether Trump's two hours of inaction during the riot could be interpreted, legally, as a tacit acceptance of what the rioter — moved to action by his words — were doing.

More at this thread:

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Poiuyt]

1. I don't think I've ever heard Donald Trump Jr described as a "reasonable person."

[CousinIT]

2. Who was it who said he was in the dining room off the Oval and enjoying it? n/t

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. I followed a couple of threads on this hearing

The judge called TFG's attorneys on a number of points

Link to tweet

But that statement was outweighed, Mehta said, by Trump's earlier calls to "fight like hell" against the 2020 election results. Mehta said there was no doubt "threats" and "intimidation" were used on the day of the insurrection. He also said the main question was whether Trump's actions and statements incited the violence.

"Let's stick with the facts," Mehta said, adding that he wasn't "interested" in "whataboutism."

He continued pressing Binnall on whether Trump's call for his supporters to march to the Capitol and his use of words like "fight" and "show strength," which were followed by Trump's supporters storming the Capitol, satisfied the standards required to establish conspiracy.

"No," Binnall said.

"So the president, in your view, is both immune to inciting the riot and failing to stop it?" Mehta asked.