Legal experts agree Trump continues to look worse — but 'they're all still rationalizing his behavior'
The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and attempt to overthrow the 2020 election held its seventh public hearing on Tuesday revealing the links that former President Donald Trump had with right-wing extremist groups and white supremacist militias.
Among the things that were included in the day of the video were clips from the interview that former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone from last week. While the committee members made it clear that he confirmed a lot of what was known, he also revealed that he and other White House lawyers destroyed all of the legal claims made by those like Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani that Trump could somehow overthrow the government legally.
The legal experts live-tweeting the hearing cited several different crimes that they claimed were proved in the hearing. Among those was lawyer George Conway, who noted that a key piece of the revelations is that Republicans continue to rationalize Trump's actions even over a year later.
WATCH: Liz Cheney again drops witness intimidation bombshell in her closing statement
Former impeachment lawyer Norm Eisen explained that all of the witnesses, Trump allies, built the case that the former president was told over and over that what he was doing was illegal, he didn't win and he couldn't steal the White House. Still, he had the Dec. 18 planning meeting and then sent out the Dec. 19 tweet calling people to come to Washington for the rally.
Another key piece the legal experts pointed out was that Trump knew that the Capitol was going to be targeted because he was calling for it to be. Tweets between organizers made it clear that they couldn't promote a march to the Capitol officially. Instead, they were planning it behind the scenes and even an effort that would continue onto the Supreme Court. That makes it clear that Trump knew he was inciting a riot.
See the tweets below:
\u201cFor those crediting Pence, Rosen and others for not engaging in seditious conspiracy: you should not get credit for declining to participate in a felony. Especially when you stayed silent for so long (and some still are staying silent).\u201d— Andrew Weissmann (@Andrew Weissmann) 1657653786
\u201cThis WH meeting and Powell "appointment" is important evidence, because it shows: \n\nTrump taking direct action to move a campaign lawyer into a government post for (potentially illegal) government action to overthrow the election.\u201d— Ari Melber (@Ari Melber) 1657648573
\u201cThe first part of today\u2019s hearing was infuriating to me. Again, attys who thought Trump\u2019s plan was \u201cnuts,\u201dthought it was illegal, warned others not to go to the Capitol, then saw what happened on 1/6 & none revealed what they knew at Trump\u2019s impeachment trial on 2/13.\u201d— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sherrilyn Ifill) 1657654411
\u201cTrump;s ad lib changes to the speech are really incendiary, all the worst stuff. including walking down to the Capitol. it's absolutely designed to build the crowd into a murderous frenzy.\u201d— Harry Litman (@Harry Litman) 1657653222
\u201cBut the speechwriters were told to add in the attack on VP Pence (after Donald had a phone call with Pence when he called Pence a wimp)\u201d— Jennifer Taub \ud83c\udf3b \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Jennifer Taub \ud83c\udf3b \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1657651960
\u201cThey are still rationalizing and ignoring Trump\u2019s actions, to this very day.\u201d— George Conway\ud83c\udf3b (@George Conway\ud83c\udf3b) 1657653014
\u201cA Trump lawyer says Mike Pence should get the "medal of freedom" for not trying to stage an illegal coup on January 6th.\n\nCan the bar get any lower?\u201d— Ari Melber (@Ari Melber) 1657652158
\u201cThis is very effective. \n\nKicked off by the cippolone video that we are all so curious to see, each of these Republican Trump ally witnesses is building the post electoral college offramp\u2026\n\nthat Trump failed to take, setting up December 18 meeting & December 19 tweet as criminal\u201d— Norm Eisen (@Norm Eisen) 1657647161
\u201cThe ad-lib supercut of Trump's speech is FANTASTIC... in showing Trump's mens rea for violence.\u201d— Elie Mystal (@Elie Mystal) 1657651507
\u201cStephen Ayres is explaining that he no longer believes the election was stolen, but he doesn't sound too sure. \n\nAnd it took getting off social media.\u201d— emptywheel (@emptywheel) 1657653932
\u201cSocial media on the alt right plays a huge part of this whole story. Witness came down b/c believed election stolen based on chatter on his sites, which most of us have never even heard of.\u201d— Harry Litman (@Harry Litman) 1657653922
\u201cthis may be the one time that "i started doing my own research" was used to intro a story of de-radicalization\u201d— Hayes Brown (@Hayes Brown) 1657653956
\u201c"Red wedding" calls to mass slaughter.\n\nGOT makes an appearance.\u201d— Elizabeth H.C. McLaughlin (she/her) (@Elizabeth H.C. McLaughlin (she/her)) 1657648417
\u201cLike Fascists, Donald Trump provided shelter and validation to all kinds of extremists. Neo-Nazis, militia members, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and unaffiliated extremists with arsenals became his unofficial army on J6. Now they are the paramilitary wing of a radicalized GOP.\u201d— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@Ruth Ben-Ghiat) 1657651223
\u201c"This could have been the spark that started a new Civil War." \u2014 Former Trump Supporter & Oath Keeper inspired by Trump to commit insurrection\n\nThis is the GOP end game. They were complicit in the 2020 insurrection & they will lead in the 2024 insurrection.\n#January6thHearings\u201d— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@Qasim Rashid, Esq.) 1657654433
\u201cDJT turned 1 reference to Pence into 8 references. Also added that he was going to march to the Capitol.Also mentioned Capitol more times than was in the written version\n\n"If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore" was ad libbed.\u201d— Jennifer Taub \ud83c\udf3b \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Jennifer Taub \ud83c\udf3b \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1657652029
\u201cThese texts are going to be very useful for prosecutors when they charge felony attempted murder or the like.\u201d— emptywheel (@emptywheel) 1657653325
\u201cLOT of my impeachment sparring partner Pat Cipollone \n\nNow you see why they pushed so hard to get him. Devastating\n\nWe should never forget how exceptionally successful 1/6 Comm has been in getting 99% of the people they want to testify, the Meadowses are a rare exception\u201d— Norm Eisen (@Norm Eisen) 1657647543
\u201cThe January 6 committee has obtained White House visitor logs showing members of Congress present at December 21 co-conspirators meeting:\n\nBrian Babin\nAndy Biggs\nMatt Gaetz\nLouie Gohmert\nPaul Gosar\nAndy Harris\nJody Hice\nJim Jordan\nScott Perry\n\nRep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene\u201d— Keith Boykin (@Keith Boykin) 1657652451
\u201cIt\nwas\nthis\nobvious. \n\nBrad Parscale private text message to Katrina Pierson, Jan. 6, 2021:\n\n"This is about trump pushing for uncertainty in our country."\n\n"A sitting president asking for civil war."\u201d— Ryan Goodman (@Ryan Goodman) 1657653609
\u201cStephen Miller discussing language added to Donald's speech on January 6 to discuss VP Pence. He said he discussed with Hirschmann who opposed it. So, the speechwriters removed language\u201d— Jennifer Taub \ud83c\udf3b \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Jennifer Taub \ud83c\udf3b \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1657651757
\u201cTrump draft speech with additional line about Mike Pence, calling for him to intervene in the 2020 election. Cmte calls it "part of pressure campaign" against Pence.\n\n#January6thCommitteeHearings\u201d— Lawfare (@Lawfare) 1657649760
\u201cRaskin citing Federalist Paper No. 1 warning about "demagogues" who end up as "tyrants"\n\n"not an abstract thing" here, he says. Because we saw it on Jan. 6.\u201d— KSelk (@KSelk) 1657654996