A short impeachment trial: shocking images from the Capitol riots



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At the impeachment trial of former Chief of State Donald Trump in the United States Senate on Wednesday, prosecutors showed hitherto unseen shocking footage of high-ranking politicians fleeing the Capitol to rescue after an angry crowd stormed the compound. last month. According to prosecutors, the riots were deliberately caused by the former president.

Using graphic images, prosecutors briefed senators on the hour-long footage. Part of this material, which was shown for the first time, consisted of video surveillance camera recordings and cameras attached to police uniforms. Many senators viewed these records with obvious surprise.

Prosecutors tried to remind senators and Americans watching the impeachment court how tense the situation was on January 6, when crowds stormed the Capitol, and Trump said during a rally near the White House that it had not been re-elected because the elections had been equipped.

Images displayed in the Senate Hall showed then-Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived at the Capitol to preside over a meeting of both houses of Congress to confirm Joe Biden’s victory over D. Trump, was led to the stairs and transported by agents. of security. together with family members to a safe place.

The record shows that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer was barely able to escape an angry crowd of Trump supporters.

The following excerpt shows the crowd storming into the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has also often been the target of Trump’s sharp rhetoric.

“Nancy, where are you?” The protesters shouted as they walked through the office. They did not know that eight Democratic office workers had been barricaded in front of the door in the same hall.

Pelosi himself had already been evacuated at that time.

“We know from the rioters themselves that if they had found President Pelosi, they would have killed her,” said Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat from the US Virgin Islands.

Trump’s defense team, which will present its arguments later this week, says the former president cannot be personally responsible for the riots. According to them, the entire impeachment process is unconstitutional because D. Trump has already left the presidency.

But within hours, the prosecution leaders made their case that there was a clear link between Trump, his lies about electoral fraud, violence and the then president’s inaction in the wake of the riots.

Chief prosecutor Jamie Raskin, for his part, said Trump had “completely resigned” from his duties.

“Donald Trump has resigned from his post as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and has become the main instigator of a dangerous uprising,” he said.

Five people were killed in the chaos that followed, including a woman who was shot to death when he invaded the Capitol and a crowd beaten up by a police officer.



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