Evidence Mounts that Capitol Breach Was Pre-Planned, Eroding Incitement .....

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Protesters storm the Capitol Building in
Washington on Jan. 6, 2020.
(Ahmed Gaber/Reuters)



Evidence Mounts that Capitol Breach Was
Pre-Planned, Eroding Incitement Allegation in
Trump Impeachment Trial



BY TOM OZIMEK
February 8, 2021

Updated: February 8, 2021




As former President Donald Trump’s Tuesday impeachment trial approaches,
there is a growing body of evidence in criminal complaints and affidavits that
the Jan. 6 Capitol breach had been pre-planned, undercutting the allegation
leveled against Trump that he is guilty of “incitement to insurrection.”

A number of FBI affidavits filed in support of various charges—including conspiracy—
against accused participants in the Capitol breach show evidence of pre-planning,
reinforcing an argument made by critics of the impeachment trial against
Trump, namely that participants couldn’t have been incited by the president
to break into the building if they had earlier planned to do so.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said recently that parts of the Capitol incident
had been coordinated well before Trump’s Jan. 6 speech. Trump’s accusers
have described the speech as a call to storm the building.

While Trump said in his speech that “we fight like hell and if you don’t fight
like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” the former president
appeared to be making a general reference to political activism, as he called
on supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard during
the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress.




Then-President Donald Trump greets the crowd at the
“Stop The Steal” rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
(Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)



Graham, in a Feb. 1 interview on Fox News, said, “There’s mounting evidence
that the people who came to Washington preplanned the attack before the
president ever spoke.”

“If you open up that can of worms, we’ll want the FBI to come in and tell us
about how people preplanned this attack and what happened with the security
footprint of the Capitol. You open up Pandora’s box if you call one witness,”
Graham added, in reference to calls for witnesses to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial.

The former president’s son Donald Trump Jr. argued in a tweet last month,
“If these federal law enforcement agencies had prior knowledge that this was a
planned attack then POTUS didn’t incite anything.”




Donald Trump Jr. at the Normandy American Cemetery and
Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, northwestern
France, on June 6, 2019.
(Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)



A review of some of the affidavits in Capitol incursion cases shows evidence
of pre-planning.

An affidavit (pdf) filed in the case against Thomas Caldwell, who is believed to
have a leadership in the Oath Keepers group and who faces charges of conspiracy
and conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, alleges that Caldwell and others
planned parts of the incursion in advance.

“As described more fully herein, CALDWELL planned with DONOVAN CROWL,
JESSICA WATKINS, and others known and unknown, to forcibly storm the
U.S. Capitol,” the affidavit states.

“Evidence uncovered in the course of the investigation demonstrates that
not only did CALDWELL, CROWL, WATKINS, and others conspire to forcibly
storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021—they communicated with one
another in advance of the incursion and planned their attack.”



Protesters at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
(John Minchillo/AP Photo, File)



The document cites communication between Watkins and other suspected
Oath Keepers during the Capitol incursion, noting that an individual whom
the FBI believes to be Watkins said: “We have a good group. We have about
30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan.”

Charging documents (pdf) against Eric Munchel and his mother, Lisa Eisenhart,
both of whom face conspiracy charges, cite a Jan. 10 article in The Times of London,
in which Eisenhart expressed that the two had gone into the Capitol as “observers”
but quotes Munchel’s characterization of the incursion as a “flexing of muscles.”

“We wanted to show that we’re willing to rise up, band together and fight if
necessary. Same as our forefathers, who established this country in 1776,”
Munchel told the outlet. “It was a kind of flexing of muscles.

“The intentions of going in were not to fight the police. The point of getting
inside the building is to show them that we can, and we will.”




Protesters clash with police at the U.S. Capitol in
Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
(Julio Cortez/AP Photo)



Alex Harkrider, who faces charges of conspiracy and unlawful entry with a
dangerous weapon, was alleged in an affidavit (pdf) to have made statements
about planning a “civil war.”

The affidavit indicates that a witness contacted the FBI alleging they had photos
from Harkrider’s social media pages showing that he stated that he and others
were “planning a civil war.”

An affidavit (pdf) in the case against Andrew Bennett, who faces charges of
disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, indicates that “on January 4, 2021 at
approximately 5:02 a.m. EST, Bennett posted the following, along with a
photograph of a caravan of vehicles on a road carrying American flags:
‘You better be ready chaos is coming and I will be in DC on 1/6/2021
fighting for my freedom!'”

Meanwhile, the FBI has said it notified other law enforcement agencies,
including the U.S. Capitol Police, the day before the Capitol incursion
about an online message about a “war” and storming the building.
The FBI stated on Jan. 12 that the warning was issued through the
Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the U.S. Capitol Police have members
on the task force, The Associated Press reported.

The Washington Post reported that an FBI bulletin described that people
had been sharing maps of the Capitol’s tunnels and discussed rallying
points to meet up to travel to Washington. The newspaper also reported
that the document detailed posts calling for violence, including that
“Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood
from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled.”