'This is treason squared': Legal expert aghast Trump tried to keep security forces away from the Capitol
On Friday's edition of MSNBC's "The ReidOut," former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner broke down the significance of new reporting from the January 6 Committee's first day of hearings.
Specifically, Kirschner focused on details of how former President Donald Trump refused to summon a security response to the attack on the Capitol.
"This was a plan, a scheme," said Kirschner. "This was not a riot or a crowd that got overenthusiastic and sort of spun out of control, and I can't wait to see more information in the coming public hearings about the meeting in the Oval Office between Trump, Flynn, Giuliani and Powell. I'm quite sure the J6 committee has some information about that. They are going to present. Last night we sort of got the impression that there were no adults in the room at the time, no lovers of democracy in there to try to keep that — that conspiracy, you know, contained, and we heard, that you know, some people did rush in and when we heard these folks were meeting in the Oval of course, but about an hour after that meeting we got the tweet. The plan had been hatched, and Donald Trump was implementing it. Come to D.C. on January 6th. It will be wild."
"The other word ... that you heard yesterday was war," said Kirschner. "Why does that become important? Well, where is that word prominently featured in the big ugly blue book of federal laws, the United States Code, the crime of treason, and every time I heard war, my mind went back to treason which is a very short and simple statute. Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, like the president, levies war against the United States, is guilty of treason."
The real indication of a crime, Kirschner argued, is Trump's lack of response to what was going on.
"I think what we learned a little bit more about last night was not only did he refuse to call off the attack, he refused to authorize the deployment of any forces to go to the Capitol to fend off the attack, to protect the people in the U.S. Capitol that he set his angry mob on," said Kirschner. "It took an order from Mike Pence, who frankly probably didn't have the authority at that moment, but General Milley said he was insistent. We have to get forces to the Capitol. Mike Pence is no hero. He was protecting his own skin because he was in the Capitol. But you know what, this begins to feel not — not just like treason but like treason squared."
Watch below or at this link.
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