Testimonies from Capitol rioters take center stage: ‘Trump said to do so’
One rioter from the Capitol has asked Trump for a pardon for everyone
The rioters who breached the U.S. Capitol are explaining away their actions by claiming that President Donald Trump made them do it.
It has been almost two weeks since the deadly insurrection at the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters determined to overturn the election results and thwart President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral win. The FBI has arrested more than 100 people in connection to the breach.
Video posted to social media shows that many believed they were “invited” by Trump.
“We were invited here. We were invited by the president of the United States,” the rioters chanted.
Court documents obtained by the Washington Post reveal that many of the participants of the Jan. 6 attack in Washington, D.C. are now using the outgoing president to deny any legal responsibility for their part in the Capitol siege.
“President Trump said to do so,” Robert L. Bauer of Kentucky told the FBI. He and his cousin Edward Hemenway took selfies during the melee and chanted “Stop the Steal,” in reference to Trump’s false claims about the election having been rigged against him.
Bauer added that they decided to move towards the Capitol after hearing Trump address supporters at a “Save America March” before the mayhem. They say Trump told them to march down to the Capitol after insinuating that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to overturn the election. The Constitution does not give Pence those powers.
“All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people,” Trump told the crowd.
He then gave the crowd their instructions.
“So we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue — I love Pennsylvania Avenue — and we are going to the Capitol,” Trump continued.
“It’s your house now,” Bauer claimed an officer told him once the Capitol was breached.
Bauer and Hemenway have since been charged with crimes related to the siege in addition to Robert Lee Sanford Jr., a firefighter from Pennsylvania. FBI investigators allege that Sanford threw a fire extinguisher at Capitol police.
Sanford is facing attacking a Capitol police officer and trespassing. In an interview with the Post, his lawyer Enrique A. Latoison shifted the blame to Trump.
“You have a 55-year-old man, retired from firefighting for 26 years. He’s never been arrested. A family man with three kids, law-abiding guy who barbecues and has a nice smoker. He doesn’t just get up and say, ‘I am going to go and get arrested, I’m going to go to the Capitol,’ ” Latoison said.
“Trump and his allies encouraged people to run down to the Capitol building — none of them were out front, leading anybody,” he said. “They told everyone else to go there, and then went home.”
Jenna Ryan is a Dallas-based realtor who traveled to Washington on a private jet to attend the rally, making her intentions clear in a since-deleted Facebook post.
“We’re gonna go down and storm the Capitol. They’re down there right now and that’s why we came and so that’s what we are going to do. So wish me luck,” she said.
Ryan told CBS 11 that she was only being a good American by supporting the president. A complaint against her by the FBI alleged that she was using Twitter to encourage the violence.
“I just want people to know I’m a normal person,” Ryan said. “That I listen to my president who told me to go to the Capitol. That I was displaying my patriotism while I was there and I was just protesting and I wasn’t trying to do anything violent and I didn’t realize there was actually violence.”
She has asked Trump, who only has two days left in office, for a pardon.
“I think we all deserve a pardon. I’m facing a prison sentence. I think I do not deserve that, and from what I understand every person is going to be arrested that was there,” she told CBS 11.
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