Special counsel Jack Smith now has clear and devastating insight into former President Donald Trump's intent and mental state during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, argued former House January 6 Committee investigator Tim Heaphy on MSNBC Monday.
This comes amid new reporting that a key Trump campaign official gave Smith testimony that Trump didn't care if the violence at the Capitol stopped.
"What do you think the significance of Dan Scavino's testimony will be?" said anchor Joy Reid. "This guy has been around Trump since he was like a teenager. He was his social media guy. But Jack Smith has subpoenaed the phone records to decide who was texting what. And it seems that Dan Scavino had his hands on the phone or whatever apparatus Trump was using to tweet when he tweeted the 'don't beat up law enforcement' text. But when Trump tweeted about Mike Pence, he was alone in the room. So what is the significance of who was saying what when Jack Smith finally gets this case back?"
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"Yeah, Joy, really, really significant that Dan Scavino now is cooperating," agreed Heaphy.
To put it in perspective, Heaphy added, "We subpoenaed Dan Scavino, and he refused to come and provide information, claiming executive privilege. The grand jury has the ability, and the special counsel has availed themself of the adjudication of an executive privilege claim. He won and forced Dan Scavino to talk."
He said that Scavino was always next to the president, both before and after the 2020 election, but most importantly, on Jan. 6.
"Everyone told us that Dan Scavino was the guy, essentially, the gateway to the former president's Twitter account. He held the phone and oftentimes would be the one typing out tweets. So he is in the room all afternoon on January 6th," said Heaphy.
The prosecutors must prove that Trump intended to stop the joint session of Congress to stop the certification of the election.
READ MORE: How a bogus commission on voter fraud set the pretext for the Jan. 6 attack
"If he now has a witness who says the president was resistant to issuing a statement to call off the violence, that suggests he wanted the violence or wanted the joint session to be disruptive," continued Heaphy. "It's very strong evidence of the key issue in the case, which is the president's intent, and it comes from his right-hand man. Hard for the former president to argue that somehow Dan Scavino is lying or isn't credible when he's been his close confidante for years."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Tim Heaphy on new Dan Scavino revelationswww.youtube.com
