WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump honored fallen Florida law enforcement officials on the White Home Monday, simply shy of 4 months from the day he launched from jail a whole bunch of home terrorists who assaulted police to additional his coup try after he misplaced the 2020 election.
“I’ll stand by for my invitation,” mentioned Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer who was among the many a whole bunch who had been punched, kicked, hit with boards, stabbed with flag poles and attacked with bear spray on Jan. 6, 2021. “I’m glad law enforcement does get recognition. It is a hard, thankless job that the law enforcement officers do daily. I just wish the thanks didn’t have to come from a 34-time convicted felon.”
Greater than 140 law enforcement officials had been injured by Trump’s mob. One, Brian Sicknick, died hours after being assaulted, and 4 others died by suicide within the weeks and months to comply with. Trump didn’t attend the service for Sicknick within the Capitol. Nor did he attain out to his household, or to these of the others.
“Surprised it’s not a joint invitation with the criminals he pardoned since he views them in the same light,” Dunn mentioned.
AP Photograph/Evan Vucci, File
The Oval Workplace ceremony awarded medals to a few Palm Seashore County sheriff’s deputies who died after being struck by a driver on a street close to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago nation membership final yr. The commemoration got here two days after the top of “police week,” as Trump had proclaimed the week of Might 11-17.
The occasion occurred the identical day Trump’s Division of Justice agreed to pay the household of Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt $5 million. Police shot her to dying as she crawled via a broken-out window into the Speaker’s Foyer, the room behind the Home chamber via which lawmakers had been being evacuated for his or her security. Babbitt had come to the Capitol as a result of she had believed Trump’s lies that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
Trump and his aides have additionally talked about establishing a compensation fund for these convicted for his or her roles within the Jan. 6 assault whom Trump later pardoned.
Whereas there isn’t a home terrorism statute, the actions of these convicted of attacking police on Jan. 6 meet the definition of terrorism: That’s, partaking in violence to impact a political purpose.
Likewise, whereas there isn’t a federal statute towards partaking in a coup per se, Trump’s actions main as much as and on Jan. 6, 2021, meet the definition of an tried self-coup — that’s, utilizing the levers of presidency and violence, or the specter of violence, to attempt to stay in energy illegally.
Trump and his allies and apologists have spent the previous 4 years creating fictionalized variations of Jan. 6 by which the violence was stirred up by “antifa” and different left-wing agitators, adopted by a model of the day by which there was no violence towards police in any respect, and, finally, one the place that violence that did occur had all been instigated by the FBI and different “deep state” actors.
When HuffPost requested Trump in February why he had pardoned these convicted of violent felonies for his or her actions on that day, Trump launched right into a tirade, claiming that the rioters, not the police, had been the victims on this case.
“I pardoned people who were assaulted themselves. They were assaulted by our government. I … pardoned J6 people who were assaulted by our government. That’s who were assaulted, and they were treated unfairly. There’s never been a group of people in this country, outside of maybe one instance I can think of, but I won’t get into it, that were treated more horribly than the people of J6. So no, I didn’t assault. They didn’t. They were assaulted, and what I did was a great thing for humanity,” he mentioned.
Trump was additionally indicted on conspiracy and fraud fees for his efforts to overturn the outcomes of the election he had misplaced. However the U.S. Supreme Courtroom in 2024 delayed a scheduled trial by granting him broad immunity for actions he took whereas president. Then, after Trump gained the workplace again in November, the DOJ dropped the costs underneath its longstanding coverage to not prosecute a sitting president.
