WASHINGTON — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump and his associates argued Monday that incendiary statements by Trump and others last Jan. 6 prior to the Capitol riot were protected speech and in line with their official duties. Trump’s lawyers claimed he was acting within his official rights and had no intention to spark violence when he called on thousands of supporters to “march to the Capitol” and “fight like hell.”
The five-hour hearing in Washington before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta concerned Trump’s attempts to have the civil suits dismissed. Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California brought one of the suits against Trump and a host of others, including Donald Trump Jr., Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks and right-wing group the Oath Keepers, charging responsibility for the violent breach of the Capitol building by Trump supporters.
Giuliani lawyer Joseph Sibley at one point stated, “There’s simply no way you can construe the statements that were made by any of the speakers to be an invitation to join a conspiracy to go to the Capitol and commit crimes.”
Mehta immediately asked, “Why not? The judge then refenced Trump’s own Jan. 6 speech in detail.
“His last words were ‘go to the Capitol’ and before that it was ‘show strength’ and ‘fight.’ Why isn’t that a plausible invitation to do exactly what the rioters ended up doing?” Mehta asked. ”Those words are hard to walk back.”
Mehta at one point focused on the hours-long silence from Trump as his supporters battled Capitol Police and D.C. police officers and rampaged through the building. He questioned Binnall at length about whether that failure or refusal to condemn the assault as it was happening could be interpreted as approval.
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