Trump’s Own Lawyer Just Called Jan. 6 Riot ‘Shameful, Criminal, Violent’
Shay Horse/NurPhoto via AP
Since the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, there’s been a concerted effort by former President Donald Trump and his defenders to rewrite history. Trump now calls the rioters being prosecuted “hostages.” Tucker Carlson dedicated hours of his erstwhile Fox News show to pretending the riot was actually a peaceful sightseeing visit by mild-mannered tourists. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) still thinks the riot was carried out by Antifa.
The vast trove of footage from the riot — and subsequent prosecutions of its participants — has rendered what happened that day unmistakable. A horde of Trump supporters, hopped up on his false claims of a stolen election (among other drugs), ransacked the U.S. Capitol, violently beating police with pipes, baseball bats, bear spray, metal barriers, and other weapons. They came very close to carrying out their stated desire to hang the vice president. More than 140 Capitol Police officers were injured. Five people died. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide in the months after.
The facts of Jan. 6 are plain and immalleable. One notable figure who described the day clearly is Trump’s own lawyer in his ballot eligibility challenges.
The cases concern Trump’s eligibility for the ballot after Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled he “engaged in insurrection” on Jan. 6. The Supreme Court heard arguments from lawyers who brought the initial suit against Trump in Colorado, and Trump attorney Jonathan Mitchell, a conservative lawyer and onetime clerk for former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In one exchange with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Mitchell denied that the riot qualified as an insurrection under the law, but provided an honest accounting of what happened that day — one drastically at odds with the narrative spun by Trump and his boosters.
“This was a riot. It was not an insurrection,” Mitchell said. “The events were shameful, criminal, violent, all of those things.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
