Just a few thoughts on today’s rather stunning testimony. The crazy drama in the presidential limousine is certainly the wildest and most explosive part. Legally, the most important is what seems to me like very specific evidence that the former President is guilty of seditious conspiracy, among numerous other crimes. That detail about the magnetometers is key. According to this witness, the President knew the crowd was heavily armed and prepared for violence. He continued to exhort them to march on the Capitol. He specifically said that he didn’t want federal authorities to try to disarm the rioters because they weren’t there to hurt him.
You know they’re violent. You know they’re armed. But you want to allow them keep their weapons because they’re on your side. You send them on to the Capitol, knowing they’re armed and violent, to confront your enemies.
Big picture, we know what the President is guilty of. But the criminal law almost always turns on the small pictures, the specific concrete actions. And this testimony had lots of those small pictures. That’s my take.
