Ex-Trump Aide Testifies that It Was ‘Hysterical’ to See Nancy Pelosi’s Lectern Stolen on January 6
Shay Horse/NurPhoto via AP
Ex-Trump aide Katrina Pierson testified that that it was “hysterical” to see former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) lectern stolen during the January 6 Capitol riot at a court hearing in Colorado on Wednesday.
Denver District Judge Sarah Wallace is hearing one of several challenges to former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to reprise his role in the White House under the Constitution in the Centennial State, where Pierson was called as a witness.
Pierson served as the national spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign in 2016 and as a senior advisor on his re-election campaign. She spoke at the rally held just prior to the storming of the Capitol Building on January 6, declaring that “Americans will stand up for themselves and protect their rights, and they will demand that the politicians that we elect will uphold those rights, or we will go after them.”
The New York Times has reported that Pierson was also the “liaison” between the White House and those responsible for planning the rally.
At the hearing on Wednesday, Pierson was confronted over a text she sent on January 7, in which she sent a photograph of a rioter running away with the lectern to Trump aide Max Miller, telling him, “You have to admit that seeing Nancy Pelosi’s lectern being carried away by Trump supporter is pretty damn funny.” She stood by that evaluation on Wednesday, affirming that “Yes, it was hysterical.”
Pierson also testified that Trump said he wanted 10,000 members of the National Guard present in Washington, D.C. on the day of the riot so as to avoid “any problems” at a January 4 meeting, as well as that Trump had stopped several of the most “incendiary” speakers from taking the podium at the rally.
Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that Pelosi rejected hi request to deploy 10,000 troops in D.C. on January 6. There is no evidence to suggest that Trump ever formally made such a request or that Pelosi rejected it.
Trump’s eligibility is being challenged under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states that no one can hold federal office if they, after “having previously taken an oath” to the Constitution, “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” it.
