“Incitement” Isn’t Limited To Speeches That Day

Texas Democratic U.S. Reps. Veronica Escobar (El Paso) and Lizzie Fletcher (Houston) signed this letter. https://t.co/H6PNR3KhOV

— Abby Livingston (@TexasTribAbby) January 13, 2021

 Why is this important?

this is really disturbing. House tours canceled even by members because of covid, so she was shocked to see groups of people walking around with Republican members and staff on Jan. 5, day before capitol attack. so shocked her chief of staff called sergeant at arms jan.5 https://t.co/uyUliyP9C2

— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) January 14, 2021

The arm chair prosecutors (including law professors who should know better, but like seeing their names in print) huff and puff about how Trump's speech (what bits of it they've heard excerpted on TV or the intertoobs) was not sufficient to create a charge of incitement.  But there is a "totality of the evidence" question, reaching back to Trump's tweets ("It's going to be wild!") and his claims of fraudulent behavior in the elections and demands it be stopped in Congress. This evidence alone indicates there was planning, and planning indicates there was a conspiracy:

In here is nugget on SDNY prosecutors who worked w/ Giuliani sending him letter saying “trial by combat" remarks "added fuel to the fire and contributed" to siege "that resulted in the loss of life and incalculable damage to our democracy." w/@maggieNYT https://t.co/oRlLwHracs

— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) January 14, 2021

Besides, the insurrectionists got the message:

Very telling video of rioters outside the Capitol shouting at police: "We were invited here. We were invited by the president of the United States" pic.twitter.com/Ctt5M1ijoA

— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) January 13, 2021

There are very serious questions to investigate, which the U.S. Attorney in D.C. will undoubtedly do. An investigation for a Senate impeachment trial is also warranted:

A long pause between impeachment and a Senate trial might not be a bad idea, given how much there is to learn about the Capitol insurrection. Questions to answer include: Did Trump plan to use the military? Did GOP Congressmen collaborate? What about Capitol police?

— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) January 14, 2021

And don't consider the Senate trial a foregone conclusion, either:

Per @MSNBC, Republican Senate staffers are telling their bosses that if they don’t vote to convict Trump, they will resign en masse because they were also the ones barricaded in offices, hiding under desks, fearing for their lives for hours on end#ImpeachmentDay

— Eimear (@eimzcaomhanach) January 13, 2021