Trump's 1/6 Domestic Terrorism Anniversary Proves He is Unfit
Today is the 5th anniversary of the 1/6 act of domestic terrorism against our democracy that harmed 140 police officers. Jack Smith says he had the evidence to convict Donald Trump for inciting it.
The views and opinions of this column are those of Sarah Jones for The Daily.
Jack Smith testified before Congress that the Republican president was the "most culpable and most responsible person" in the conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election, which included what Director Christopher Wray called a domestic terror attack at the US Capitol on 1/6.
On the fifth anniversary of the Trump-incited attack on the US Capitol, our democracy, our rights to self governance as voters, and brutal attack on the police, we are also grappling with Donald Trump’s clear failure as president.
There will be an unofficial House hearing held at 10 AM ET to mark the anniversary of the 1/6 attack.
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Given this fact, Trump is unfit to rule over a free people.
Republicans dumped special counsel Jack Smith’s Dec. 17 closed-door, 255-page deposition transcript on New Year’s Eve in an attempt to bury it, because it laid out so clearly that Donald Trump was guilty of attacks against the United States in a criminal scheme.
They knew his testimony would be damaging. The Department of Justice even reminded Smith’s team via email that he can’t share anything that isn’t public, a nod to the ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, who notably blocked the release of Smith’s final report in the classified documents case in early 2025. The Florida judge insists that Smith’s report must stay under seal.
Unlike other officials who have found classified documents in their possession, Smith says he had powerful evidence that Trump did so willfully and that Trump left these documents in a bathroom to which the public had access.
A president who leaves our highly classified documents in an area where anyone can read and copy them is not a president who is loyal to the United States.
Smith testified that Trump also repeatedly tried to obstruct justice in an effort to hide the fact that he stole and kept classified documents that were found during an FBI search of his private club and home, Mar-a-Lago.
Trump obstructed justice in an effort “to conceal his continued retention of those documents.”
Jack Smith told Congress he could prove that Trump engaged in a “criminal scheme” to overturn the 2020 election. Again (emphasis mine), “President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power."
"The evidence here made clear that President Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, does not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit," NPR reported.
In fact, Smith said, per ABC News, he "had proof beyond reasonable doubt in both cases" that Trump was guilty of the charges in the 2020 election interference and classified documents cases. Donald Trump has denied any culpability in either case.
When Republicans tried to insist that Smith was prosecuting Trump over his free speech as others have also claimed an election was stolen from them, Smith corrected them by pointing out that there was no “analog” to Trump’s behavior.
Smith’s big point here was others have historically not made accusations of a stolen election as part of a scheme to overturn an election or impact a government process.
"There is no historical analog for what President Trump did in this case. As we said in the indictment, he was free to say that he thought he won the election. He was even free to say falsely that he won the election. But what he was not free to do was violate Federal law and use knowing -- knowingly false statements about election fraud to target a lawful government function. That he was not allowed to do. And that differentiates this case from any past history."
Perhaps most damning, when Smith was asked if Trump was responsible for the violence on 1/6, he responded that Trump caused it, exploited it, and it was foreseeable to him.
"Our view of the evidence was that he caused it and that he exploited it and that it was foreseeable to him."
Smith says Trump compounded that by exploiting the violence.
“Exploiting that violence (on January 6), President Trump and his associates tried to call Members of Congress in furtherance of their criminal scheme, urging them to further delay certification of the 2020 election.”
For those who claim Smith’s cases against Trump were “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, which we explained months ago is really a term that applies to Trump supporters rather than detractors given the facts, Smith built his case using Trump supporting Republicans who put their country ahead of Donald Trump.
He also confirmed repeatedly that he never communicated with former President Joe Biden or his White House staff before or during his investigation.
“The president was preying on the party allegiance of people who supported him,” Smith said. “The evidence that I felt was most powerful was the evidence that came from people in his own party who … put country before party and were willing to tell the truth to him, even though it could mean trouble for them.”
Smith said Trump’s January 6th, 2021, tweet attacking then VP Mike Pence while he was at the Capitol “without question” exacerbated the danger to Pence’s life.
And finally, Smith testified that he had the evidence needed to sustain a conviction at trial, "but for Mr. Trump's election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."
In other words, convicted felon Donald Trump would have most likely been convicted by Jack Smith.
Just how many criminal charges does one need to be worshipped by the Republican Party and the US media?
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