Trump was determined to stay in power ‘at any cost,’ say prosecutors; Mike Johnson protects the insurrectionists
Federal prosecutors unveiled plans on Tuesday to introduce evidence at Donald Trump’s trial for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election that shows he was determined to “remain in power at any cost.”
Special counsel Jack Smith’s office, in a court filing, said the former US president had a history of “sowing mistrust” in election results and had repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
“The Government will offer proof of this refusal as intrinsic evidence of the defendant’s criminal conspiracies because it shows his plan to remain in power at any cost — even in the face of potential violence,” prosecutors said. [Continue reading…]
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republicans are blurring faces in security footage from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to protect rioters from prosecution.
“We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,” Johnson said at a press conference.
The Department of Justice has long had access to the footage and has used it in some of the roughly 1,200 criminal cases against people linked to the riot, which saw participants fight police and storm the Capitol building.
Johnson’s comment is a remarkable statement of sympathy for supporters of then-President Donald Trump who illegally entered a restricted federal building as part of a violent attack on Congress. [Continue reading…]