Pieced together, they amount to this: The members of the Jan. 6 panel “are laying out an unmistakable map to a potential criminal case against the former president,” as Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu write.
Per the committee, it was Trump who …
— Called for a protest to assemble in Washington on Jan. 6. “Be there, will be wild!” he tweeted on Dec. 19, 2020. Group after group saw the tweet as a directive, according to the committee — including extremist organizations, like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. After Trump’s tweet, prominent right-wing figures told their audiences that Jan. 6 was a day to “take action and show our numbers,” as radio host and conspiracy theorist ALEX JONES put it.
— Ad-libbed key portions of his Jan. 6 speech immediately before a mob descended on the Capitol.
Rep. STEPHANIE MURPHY (D-Fla.) compared the speech Trump delivered on the Ellipse with the one his staff prepared: “A single scripted reference … to MIKE PENCE became eight. A single scripted reference to rally-goers marching to the Capitol became four, with President Trump ad-libbing that he would be joining protesters at the Capitol. Added throughout his speech were references to fighting, and for people to have ‘courage’ and be ‘strong.’”
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