As part of the next day's post-mortem of former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson's stunning testimony before the House Select Committee's investigation into Donald Trump's part in the January 6th Capitol riot, former prosecutor Elie Honig singled out the most important revelation for CNN's "New Day" host John Berman.
"We played that soundbite, Cassidy Hutchinson saying she heard with her own ears Donald Trump saying that he wanted those people at his rally who he was told they were armed to get in and march to the Capitol," host Berman prompted.
"Yeah, John, to me that was the single most important and incriminating piece of testimony that we heard yesterday," the former federal prosecutor replied. "This is firsthand testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson. It's the cleanest link we have so far between Donald Trump and the violence that ensued. This established that he knew that crowd was not just angry, but armed. He knew they were not there to harm him."
"In fact," he continued. "He felt secure enough that he said you can take down the mags, the metal detectors and he knew they were headed for the Capitol. We have seen that speech that he made moments later on the ellipse, well this puts that speech 'we're going to fight like hell, go to the Capitol or else you won't have a country anymore,' this puts that speech in a whole new context."
"When you're thinking about what potential crimes could be implicated here, seditious conspiracy that means to try to interfere with a lawful function of government, counting the ballots in Congress certainly counts, by force," he added. "Up until now that's been in question. If you credit Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony you have that force element."
"Because he knew they were armed, knew they were trying to get into the mags and they couldn't, right? " host Berman pressed.
"Absolutely," Hoenig replied. "That's what makes this a stronger potential case on seditious conspiracy."
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