View: https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1359130696967725058?s=20
According to
CBS News, “federal prosecutors have charged at least 205 people for their alleged roles in the riot and opened over 400 investigations into possible criminals.”
Charges include assault on law enforcement officials, theft of government property, and “violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.” If convicted, many rioters will likely face years in prison.
But what of the elected officials whose months of lies agitated and radicalized the crowd, even before it was incited to insurrection?
Former president Donald Trump will face his second impeachment trial this week for “incitement of insurrection.” But without 17 Senate Republicans joining Democrats to vote for a conviction, he will evade meaningful accountability. (Again.)
Finding 17 Republican senators to convict Trump is a Herculean task, not least because many of them joined him in feeding the lie that brought these people to the Capitol in the first place. In that regard, this trial is unique for having members of the jury who are not just
not impartial, but are both witnesses and
accomplices to the crime.
Remember: Prior to the attack, more than a quarter of Senate Republicans had publicly announced plans to object to certifying the election results. Many of them are now trying to retcon these objections as “just asking questions” and not an attempt to overturn the election itself. But their calls for investigations into voter fraud and irregularities—despite dozens of court losses and then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s assurances that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud—were nothing less than hype-man interjections meant to bolster Trump’s claims that he “won in a landslide” and that the election was being stolen.