Last Night's Select Committee Hearing - Mens Rea and Actus Reus/General and Specific Intent
The information and evidence released last night on the mental state of the President immediately after the election was presented in a detailed and coherent fashion. One of the first things attorneys learn in criminal law (at almost any law school worth its salt) is that there must be both an intent to commit an unlawful act (mens rea) and that that unlawful act must be committed (the physical element). This is being done both for the benefit of the American people and for Merrick Garland.
Liz Cheney was spot on in her presentation of both of these by providing the video testimony of Bill Barr (the top law enforcement official at the time of the 2020 election). Barr told President Trump that there was no widespread fraud committed in the 2020 election AND that any action taken to pursue claims of widespread fraud were nonsense and possibly illegal. He said this in the presence of Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Trump's inner circle elections lawyer and numbers cruncher in the days immediately following the election.
His actions thereafter show that he ignored what was told to him by the top law enforcement officer of the United States regarding the election and chose to pursue meritless claims in the courts and also goaded his supporters on January 6, 2021, (through tweets prior to and on the day of the attack) to go to the Capitol and try to stop the lawful certification of the election. Coupled with this, during his speech at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, he specifically mentions Mike Pence by name to all of those who were attending as the catalyst for executing his plan to have votes of electors decertified and returned to Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona. His plan to overturn the election 100% hinged on whether Pence would agree to this strategy. Pence didn't, hence his supporters chanting, "Hang Mike Pence!" when they breached the capitol.
His failure to act by contacting the D.C. National Guard and commanding them to secure the capitol after the breach (and moreover, praising those who had breached the capitol and fought with, injured, and even killed capitol police) goes back to his criminal act of inciting a riot, which according to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2102 only requires that one, at minimum, "encourage the participation" in a riot.
... and this isn't all of what he's done. We're just getting started. The nail in his coffin will likely be the evidence generated from the grand jury proceeding in Fulton County.
There's a reason why so many of the folks that were within his orbit are taking the 5th.
Mens Rea/Actus Reus and General/Specific Intent are there.
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