Shocking revelations and allegations about the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob along with details about a policeman killed in a mob attack fueled bipartisan efforts to impeach President Trump, who is increasingly suspected of facilitating the riot in order to reverse November election results.
The impeachment on Jan. 13 by the House of Representatives was with ten Republican votes, the largest number in U.S. history from an impeached president's own party.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), right, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) agreed — as they sought safety in the Capitol on Jan. 6 — on the dire need for Trump's immediate removal via impeachment unless he resigned or his cabinet removed him under the 25th Amendment by formally declaring Trump unfit so that Vice President Mike Pence could finish the remainder of Trump's term.
The one article of impeachment focused heavily on Trump's actions regarding the deadly Jan. 6 riot by the pro-Trump mob. Congress had been scheduled to certify in a ceremonial act the nationwide vote totals in its formal proceeding on Jan. 6 that was disrupted by the mob.
This column began as an overview of those events, but has been updated with an appendix providing a wide selection of news reports and commentary covering the mob action, arrests and impeachment covering the period up to Jan. 24, the first Sunday after the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Note: An additional update was published on March 1, with an editor's note below indicating several changes in the original story published on Jan. 10.
Regarding the Jan. 6 Trump-inspired riot, public dismay resulting in impeachment has doubtless been bolstered by such other factors as the slow rollout of vaccine and relief aid during the coronavirus pandemic. The ten living former U.S. secretaries of defense had issued a joint letter urging the Department of Defense not to intervene in the election, a clear signal that they feared a coup.
But a major new factor was increasingly recognition of the brutality and scope of the pro-Trump mob's action. It resulted in the killing of a Capitol Hill policeman, the wounding of an estimated 50 others, plus the deaths of four participants the protest-turned-riot that ostensibly began with a Trump speech to a
crowd assembled on the south side of the White House. The crowd then marched east on Pennsylvania Avenue a little over a mile to reach the historic Capitol building.
Most shocking to many has been new evidence of the brutality of some protesters — including discovery of pipe bombs, explosives and plastic "ties" (as shown by the white ones in the adjoining photo of a Hill intruder) that terrorists would use to take hostages.
There exists also significant but still-evolving evidence that parts of the mob action have long been planned by Trump, top aides and allies scattered through government, quasi-government and private organizations, including Republican office-holders funded by major corporations that are now facing heat for how their political donations were being used.
Some key Trump loyalists remaining in the administration during the current wave of their colleagues' resignations deny or deflect the most serious allegations and evidence that a plot existed beyond what they call the legitimate outrage of Trump supporters that they have heard suspicions of election fraud. Trump has for months claimed fraud.
But none of the more than 60 courts that were hearing cases have found any significant evidence of it, and pressure has been growing to disbar or sue Trump's leading attorneys making such claims. Dominion Voting, one election software provider, filed a $1.3 billion defamation suit against Trump attorney Sydney Powell, and sought also her disbarment.
A few Trump supporters, including several in Congress or on Trump-supporting media like Brit Hume at Fox News, have hinted darkly (without providing evidence) that the biggest outrages in the Capitol riot were committed by leftists pretending to be Trump supporters. But that claim faces the obstacle, as seen below, that many of the rioters were captured on film bragging about their exploits and are familiar faces in right-wing and white nationalist activism.
This column provides an appendix of links to more than two dozen major news stories and commentaries on this topic published by mainstream and alternative
news outlets. This editor, whose office is located within two blocks of the protest march route in the District of Columbia, has reported for years on the topic of election fraud and several of the leading figures suspected of corrupting elections. These tactics include propaganda via blogs, broadcast and social media, plus courtroom efforts necessary to steal elections.
As one of many examples, we helped investigate in 2012 a Republican operative named Ali Akbar, a convicted felon who helped found with the help of Republican patrons the National Bloggers Club. That "club" helped orchestrate a right-wing propaganda army when useful for the patrons' election or other political interests, with the website Crooks and Liars providing an in-depth report excerpted below.
Akbar, now using the name Ali Alexander, was a speaker at last week's pro-Trump rally at the White House.
Via his association with the affiliated Proud Boys gang of white nationalists, Alexander played a significant role in organizing sinister activities in both the Georgia and Washington political events last week, according to an expose published on Jan. 9 by investigative reporter Greg Palast, a pioneering investigator of election fraud, including illegal vote suppression of racial minorities.
The Palast story Why did the Georgia GOP Team up with a riot instigator? is illustrated by the Palast team's graphic above, with Alexander shown in the upper right. This cutting-edge column by the former BBC investigative reporter and author of multiple books on election fraud is one of reports excerpted below with links to the original.
Another is the NBC News investigative report, Republican AGs group sent robocalls urging march to the Capitol by Laura Strickler and Lisa Cavazuti. It is another of the pieces suggesting that the march, mob action and failure of federal authorities to protect Congress with adequate security stemmed from a high-level plot to overthrow the elected government and certified November elections, not just the enthusiasm of ordinary Trump supporters recruited for diversion.
But many in the public have not needed investigative reports, detailed though they must be, to feel outrage at what happened, including the threats on Jan. 6 against elected leaders and staff posed by a mob that overwhelmed security and committed countless acts of mayhem and vandalism.
Thus, excerpted below also is He Dreamed of Being a Police Officer, Then Was Killed by a Pro-Trump Mob, the New York Times profile of Brian Sicknick, left, the heroic the slain police officer, who was reported initially as bludgeoned in the head by a fire extinguisher wielder by a rioter. Authorities later cast doubt on the fire extinguisher element of the report while maintaining that he had been under attack by the mob in some fashion that continues to be investigated.
We have collected also photos and profiles of the four others initially reported as dead, all Trump supporters who died advancing their cause. They include Ashli Babbitt, right,
a woman shot while trying to crawl through a broken door that the mob had smashed to reach members of Congress who had been huddled for safety in the House Chamber moments before.
Highly relevant also are the accounts of how top social media platforms have suspended Trump's use of their platforms.
Trump and his supporters are crying foul or even "censorship," even though the First Amendment does not forbid private companies from setting rules for content.
Big picture? Only a comprehensive look at evidence of a high-level plot using the platforms and military as two necessary tools can illustrate that the media giants' actions need to be assessed as potential national security safeguards, not simply as subjective disagreement with Trump's politics by Twitter, Facebook,
Amazon, Google and other high-tech executives.
The track record suggests that Trump supporters will disagree with that and other interpretations. So, their point of view is reflected also in a sample of the clips below. For this rapidly evolving story, the excerpts will be updated frequently for the next few days.