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Source: TheJournal.ie/YouTube
PROSECUTORS REVEALED NEW security video at Donald Trump’s impeachment yesterday, showing crowds of rioters storming the Capitol and threateningly searching for Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
The footage showed rioters smashing windows and doors as overwhelmed police pleaded on their radios for help in the insurrection, in which five people were killed.
In the unreleased recordings, House prosecutors showed scenes of how close the rioters were to the country’s leaders, wandering the halls chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”
Some were equipped with combat gear and members of extremist groups were among the first to enter. Outside, the mob had installed a makeshift gallows.
In one dramatic moment, the video shows police firing into the crowd through a broken window, killing a San Diego woman, Ashli Babbitt. In another, a police officer is seen being crushed by the mob.
In this image from the video, a video of Donald Trump is combined with images from the police bay camera, as shown to senators.
The vice president, who had been presiding over a session to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump, thus earning criticism from Trump, is shown to be taken to safety, where he took refuge in an office with his family just 100 feet from the troublemakers.
Pelosi was evacuated from the compound before the mob roamed her office suite, her staff quietly hiding behind closed doors.
Police overwhelmed by the mob frantically announce “we lost the line” and urge officers to safety. One later died.
Although most of the Senate jurors have already made a decision on acquittal or conviction, they were fascinated and sat quietly.
The rioters had rummaged through their desks in the same chamber where the impeachment is now taking place. Screams from audio and video filled the chamber. A Republican, James Lankford of Oklahoma, bowed his head, a fellow Republican put a hand on his arm to make himself comfortable.
“They did it because Donald Trump sent them on this mission,” said House Attorney Stacey Plaskett, a Democratic delegate representing the Virgin Islands.
“President Trump put a target on their back and his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down.”
In this image from the video, senators are shown a tweet from Donald Trump on the day of the riots.
Source: PA Images
Videos of the siege have been circulating since the day of the riots, but the graphic compilation amounted to a more comprehensive narrative, a moment-by-moment recount of one of the nation’s most alarming days.
He offered new details about the attackers, scenes of police heroism, and desperate whispers from staff.
Some senators acknowledged it was the first time they realized how dangerously close the country was to serious danger.
“When you see that all the pieces come together, the total awareness of that, the enormity of this, a threat, not only to us as people, as legislators, but the threat to the institution and what Congress represents, is disturbing.” said Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “Very disturbing.”
The impressive presentation opened the first full day of arguments at the trial when prosecutors argued that Trump was not an “innocent bystander” but the “chief instigator” of the deadly riots on Capitol Hill.
They argue that the then president spent months spreading electoral lies and assembling a crowd of supporters prepared for his call to stop Biden’s victory.
House Democrats showed heaps of evidence from the former president himself: Hundreds of tweets and comments from Trump that culminated in his January 6 shout to go to Capitol Hill and “fight like hell” to reverse his defeat.
Trump then did nothing to stop the violence and watched with “glee,” they said, as the mob looted the iconic building.
“To us it may have felt like chaos and madness, but there was a method to madness that day,” said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the chief prosecutor, who singled out Trump as the instigator.
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And when his mob invaded and occupied the Senate and attacked the House and attacked law enforcement, he saw it on television as a reality show. He reveled in it. “
In one scene, a Capitol police officer redirects Republican Senator Mitt Romney down a hallway to avoid the crowd. It was the same officer, Eugene Goodman, who has been praised as a hero for driving rioters away from the Senate doors.
“It tears your heart out and makes you cry,” Romney said after watching the video. He said that he hadn’t realized how close he had come to danger.
The day’s proceedings followed an emotional start Tuesday that left the former president furious when his lawyers delivered a meandering defense and failed to stop the trial on constitutional grounds. Some allies called for a new reorganization of their legal team.
Trump is the first president to face impeachment after leaving office and the first to be indicted twice. He is accused of “inciting insurrection” with strong words that, according to his defense attorneys, are protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution and are fair forms of expression.
Prosecutors argue that Trump’s words were part of “the big lie”: his tireless efforts to cast doubt on the election results. Those began long before the votes were tabulated, prompting his supporters to “stop the theft,” although there was no evidence of substantial fraud.
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