Rep. Eric Swalwell Sues Trump, Don Jr., Giuliani and Rep. Brooks for 1/6 Attack on the US Capitol
by Glenn Kirschner
Mar 5, 2021
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Congressman Eric Swalwell filed suit today in Federal Court in DC against defendants Donald Trump, Don Jr., Congressman Mo Brooks and Rudy Giuliani for their role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
The suit powerfully, perhaps even irrefutably, lays out why Trump and the others are legally responsible for the attack that victimized Swalwell and all of the others that were in the US Capitol at the time of the attack. Here's a review for the layman of the applicable law - 18 United States Code section 1985 - showing exactly why Donald Trump and the other defendants are likely going to lose this lawsuit and be held accountable for the injuries and destruction they caused on January 6.
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Representative ERIC SWALWELL, 174 Cannon House Office Building, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515,
Plaintiff,
v.
DONALD J. TRUMP (in his personal capacity) The Mar-A-Lago Club, 1100 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach, FL 33480,
DONALD J. TRUMP JR., 425 E. 58th Street, Apt. 12 CD, New York, NY 10022,
Representative MO BROOKS (in his personal capacity), 2185 Rayburn House Office Building, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515,
and
RUDOLPH GIULIANI, Rudolph W. Giuliani, PLLC, 445 Park Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10022,
Defendants.
Case 1:21-cv-00586 Document 1
Filed 03/05/21 Page 1 of 65
JURY TRIAL DEMANDED
COMPLAINT
1. The peaceful transfer of power is a sacrament of American democracy. Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., his advisor Rudy Giuliani, and Congressman Mo Brooks, together with many others, defiled that sacrament through a campaign of lies and incendiary rhetoric which led to the sacking of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
2. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election; he was unwilling to accept defeat. Trump lied to his followers, telling them that the certification of Joe Biden’s election was a “coup” and that their country was being stolen from them. The Defendants filed frivolous lawsuits, all of which failed. The Defendants tried to intimidate state officials, none of whom caved to the pressure. Out of options and out of time, the Defendants called their supporters to Washington, D.C. on the day Congress met to certify Joe Biden’s win, telling them to “Stop the Steal” and “be wild.” Thousands came to the District in response. Some planned violence at the Capitol in advance; some were stirred to violence by the Defendants’ words on that day.
3. Trump implored the crowd to “fight like hell” and “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue . . . to the Capitol.” According to an analysis of cell phone location data, approximately 40% of the rally attendees did just that.1
4. As a direct and foreseeable consequence of the Defendants’ false and incendiary allegations of fraud and theft, and in direct response to the Defendants’ express calls for violence at the rally, a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol. Many participants in the attack have since revealed that they were acting on what they believed to be former President Trump’s orders in service of their country.
5. The mob disrupted the certification of the vote in the Electoral College. Rioters threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence and kill the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and they terrorized and injured scores of others, including the Plaintiff.
6. Many members of Congress, including the Plaintiff, were trapped in the House chamber as plainclothes officers barricaded doors and held off the mob at gunpoint. Fearing for their lives, the Plaintiff and others masked their identities as members of Congress, texted loved ones in case the worst happened, and took shelter throughout the Capitol complex.
7. As the Plaintiff and hundreds of others—including police officers, other elected officials, and rank-and-file workers at the Capitol—were put in mortal danger, and as the seat of American Democracy was desecrated by the insurgent mob, the Defendants watched the events unfold on live television. Those with knowledge claimed that during this moment of national horror, Trump was “delighted” and was “confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was.” Others described Trump as “borderline enthusiastic” about the unfolding violence.
8. The horrific events of January 6 were a direct and foreseeable consequence of the Defendants’ unlawful actions. As such, the Defendants are responsible for the injury and destruction that followed.
I.
PARTIES
Plaintiff Eric Swalwell
9. Plaintiff Eric Swalwell is beginning his fifth term as a member of the United States House of Representatives from California’s 15th Congressional District. He is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he serves as Chair of the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee, as well as a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Before his election to the House in 2012, Congressman Swalwell spent seven years as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office in his home state of California. In 2021, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appointed Congressman Swalwell as one of nine House impeachment managers for Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial.
10. On January 6, 2021, Congressman Swalwell was at the Capitol performing his official duties as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to count the Electoral College votes and certify the winner of the 2020 Presidential election.
11. Congressman Swalwell was in the House chambers when the violent mob entered the Capitol, ransacked offices, and set out to kill members of Congress and other officials. He was on the House floor the moment plainclothes officers barricaded doors and held the rioters at gunpoint to prevent them from entering the chamber.
Defendants
12. Defendants are the former President of the United States and three close associates who conspired with him and others, including the rioters who breached the Capitol on January 6, to prevent Congress from certifying President Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Defendant Donald J. Trump
13. Donald J. Trump was the 45th President of the United States. He ran for reelection in 2020 and lost. He has a lengthy history of normalizing violence through his rhetoric and social media communications. After his electoral defeat, Trump and the other Defendants conspired to undermine the election results by alleging, without evidence, that the election had been rigged and by pressuring elected officials, courts, and ultimately Congress to reject the results.
14. Trump also promoted and spoke at the January 6 rally, the culmination of the Defendants’ coordinated efforts to subvert the certification vote which was funded and organized by his campaign and groups supporting his candidacy. He encouraged his followers to come to Washington, D.C. on January 6, and he encouraged them to go to the Capitol to “fight like hell.” Trump directly incited the violence at the Capitol that followed and then watched approvingly as the building was overrun.
15. Trump did all these things solely in his personal capacity, for his own personal benefit, and to advance his personal interests as a candidate. For example, he tweeted from his personal Twitter account (@realDonaldTrump) and not from the official, White House, twitter account, and he spoke at the January 6 rally in his capacity as a losing candidate for the Presidency on the day Joseph Biden was being certified as the winning candidate and next President of the United States.
Defendant Donald J. Trump Jr.
16. Defendant Donald J. Trump Jr. is the oldest son of former President Trump and the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. Trump Jr. conspired with the other Defendants to undermine the election results by alleging, without evidence, that the election had been rigged and by pressuring elected officials, courts, and ultimately Congress to reject the results.
17. Trump Jr. also promoted and spoke at the January 6 rally. He addressed the crowd at this event and directly incited the violence at the Capitol that followed.
Defendant Rudolph Giuliani
18. Defendant Rudolph Giuliani was a close advisor and personal lawyer for former President Trump. Giuliani conspired with the other Defendants to undermine the election results by alleging, without evidence, that the election had been rigged and by pressuring elected officials, courts, and ultimately Congress to reject the results. As one of Trump’s personal attorneys, Giuliani participated in the frivolous lawsuits filed on Trump’s behalf.
19. Giuliani also promoted and spoke at the January 6 rally. Giuliani addressed the crowd at this event and directly incited the violence at the Capitol that followed.
Defendant Mo Brooks
20. Defendant Mo Brooks is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District. Brooks—acting in his personal capacity—conspired with the other Defendants to undermine the election results by alleging, without evidence, that the election had been rigged and by pressuring elected officials, courts, and ultimately Congress to reject the results.
21. Brooks also promoted and spoke at the January 6 rally. Brooks addressed the crowd at this event and directly incited the violence at the Capitol that followed.
II.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
22. This Court has subject matter jurisdiction over this case because the Plaintiff’s federal conspiracy claims arise under the laws of the United States. It has jurisdiction over the Plaintiff’s state law claims because they are so closely related to the federal claims as to form part of the same case or controversy. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1367; 42 U.S.C. §§ 1985, 1986.
23. Venue is proper in this Court because a substantial part of the conduct giving rise to the claims in the case, including the violent attack on the Capitol the Defendants incited, occurred in the District of Columbia. See 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2).
24. This Court has personal jurisdiction over all the Defendants because they committed these violations in the District of Columbia. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(1)(A); D.C. Code § 13-423.
III.
RELEVANT FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Trump’s Deliberate Efforts to Undermine the Election Results
25. Months before a single poll had opened for the 2020 election, Trump and the Trump campaign began accusing Democrats of trying to “steal the election,” calling the lawful state decisions about how to conduct an election in the midst of a world-wide pandemic—supervised, where appropriate, by the courts—“the scandal of our times.” He repeatedly made such statements, right up to the days immediately preceding the election:
26. When election day (November 3) arrived, however, Trump said nothing of election fraud for much of the day, almost surely because he led Biden in the early returns.
27. Democrats more so than Republicans chose to vote by mail, given the starkly partisan views of the Covid-19 pandemic. Where most Republican leaders urged supporters to vote in person, Democratic leaders sought to prioritize safety and social-distancing, encouraging people to vote by mail.2 Mail-in ballots were often counted much later than in-person ballots. Of the battleground states that largely decided the 2020 election—Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona—Pennsylvania and Wisconsin do not begin processing mail-in ballots until election day, and only Arizona and Nevada began counting mail-in ballots earlier than election day.3
28. Toward the end of the day on November 3, however, the returns moved in Biden’s direction, as most pundits and analysts had predicted, and Trump’s lead substantially dwindled. As his outlook soured over this news, and realizing that his reelection campaign was going to be unsuccessful, Trump decided to renew his claims of voter fraud.
29. At 12:49 a.m., on November 4, Trump took to Twitter to accuse unnamed individuals from attempting to steal his victory.
30. A little more than an hour later, Trump accused a “very sad group of people” of “trying to disenfranchise” the millions of people who had voted for him.4
31. Later in the day, Trump doubled down on his claims of fraud, falsely declaring victory in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan, even as hundreds of thousands of votes in those states were still being counted and the polls were showing an increasing advantage for Biden.5
32. The following morning, November 5, less than 48 hours after the polls had closed, Trump tweeted “Stop the Count” and “Stop the Fraud,” slogans frequently repeated throughout the day on January 6 prior to and during the attack on the Capitol. He sent these tweets in an effort to keep his reelection prospects alive, despite the mounting reasons to believe he had been defeated.
33. Trump gave his first prime-time speech since the election the evening of November 5. He opened his remarks to the nation with a stunning false assertion, “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”6 He echoed that sentiment on Twitter a short while later:
34. Trump’s allegations of wrongdoing in those first days after the election sparked confrontations nationwide between his supporters and election officials:
35. Trump soon after began directing his criticisms at individual elected officials. His supporters, in turn, began targeting those officials for harassment and threats. For example, armed supporters of the former President, encouraged by him, surrounded the home of the Michigan Secretary of State, while Trump-supporting militias demanded a “citizen tribunal” at the Georgia Capitol.
36. President Biden went on to win the states of Arizona7 and Georgia.8 Yet, in the first half of December, Trump attacked the Republican governors of these states, accusing them of “fight[ing] harder against us than do the Radical Left Dems.” He lamented their lack of fealty to him, stating if these governors “were with us, we would already have won both Arizona and Georgia”:
37. Trump also attempted to pressure state electors to improperly overturn the election results in their states. He directed particular attention to officials in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. He personally attempted to cajole these officials to overturn the election results and directed his followers to intimidate these perceived adversaries.
38. In November 2020, bipartisan election officials in Wayne County, Michigan unanimously certified the election results for President Biden. Trump then tried to pressure two Republican members of that board to change their minds. In response, these two officials in fact tried—unsuccessfully—to rescind their votes certifying the election results.
39. Trump next contacted Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives Lee Chatfield. Trump likewise pressured them to overturn Michigan’s election results, even meeting them in person to pressure them to undo the results of the election. Those efforts, too, proved unsuccessful.
40. Undeterred, Trump falsely declared on December 5, “You know I won almost every county in Michigan, almost every district. We should have won that state very easily. We have a similar type of governor I think but I’ll let you know that in about a week.”
41. In what should have been an obvious sign of the risk inflammatory language could pose on January 6, some of Trump’s followers heard his claims as a directive to act. And they responded. A large group of armed protestors convened at the home of the Michigan Secretary of State chanting, “Stop the steal!,” “You’re a threat to our democracy!,” and “You’re a threat to a free and honest election!” The protestors made explicit demands that the Secretary overturn the state’s election results.
42. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results in Michigan were unsuccessful.
43. There were no election irregularities in Michigan sufficient to change the final Presidential vote count in that state. Joe Biden won the Presidential vote in Michigan.9
Pennsylvania
44. Trump also attempted to interfere with officials in Pennsylvania. Trump contacted Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward and Pennsylvania Speaker of the House of Representatives Brian Cutler. Trump directly and falsely told Senator Ward, “There was fraud in the voting.”
45. On November 25, 2020, Trump participated by phone in a Pennsylvania State Republican Senate policy hearing and attempted to convince the state legislators that there had been massive fraud in the commonwealth’s voting. Trump spoke directly to the lawmakers, telling them, “This election has to be turned around.” He further falsely claimed that he had won Pennsylvania and other swing states “by a lot.”
46. As he had in Michigan, Trump personally met with Republican members of the Pennsylvania legislature to pressure them to overturn the commonwealth’s election results.
47. Trump’s efforts to overturn the results in Pennsylvania were unsuccessful.
48. There were no election irregularities in Pennsylvania sufficient to change the final Presidential vote count in that commonwealth. Joe Biden won the Presidential vote in Pennsylvania.10
Georgia
49. Trump went to especially extraordinary lengths to overturn the election results in Georgia, a reliably Republican stronghold for decades that Trump believed was in jeopardy. After Secretary of State Bradford Raffensperger stated his belief that the state’s election results in favor of President Biden were accurate, Trump lashed out at him. He called Raffensperger an “enemy of the people” and directed at least 17 tweets at him, referring to him as a “disaster,” “obstinate,” and a “so-called ‘Republican[].’”
50. In what should have been another warning to the Defendants about the impact of their words at the January 6 rally, some of Trump’s followers responded to the claims of fraud and Trump’s personal attacks on Raffensperger by targeting Raffensperger and his family with violent threats. His wife was told, “Your husband deserves to face a firing squad.” He himself was told, “You better not botch this recount . . . your life depends on it” and that he and his family “should be put on trial for treason and face execution.”
51. In December of 2020, Trump pressured Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to hold a special session of the legislature to appoint electors who would cast electoral votes for Trump.
52. That same month, Trump called the Chief Investigator for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, which was conducting an audit of signatures on absentee ballots. Trump implored the investigator to “find the fraud” and told him that he would be a “national hero” if he was successful in doing so.
53. On January 2, 2021, just days before Congress was set to certify the Electoral College votes, President Trump initiated a conversation with Raffensperger about the alleged massive voter fraud in Georgia. The next day, Trump made many misrepresentations about that conversation to sway public opinion, including that Raffensperger had “no clue” about a number of alleged voting irregularities in the state. The media, however, obtained and released an audio recording of that call. It showed Trump browbeating Raffensperger to find enough evidence of fraud to change the state’s election result. Trump claimed that Raffensperger was aware of election fraud—telling him “you know what they did and you’re not reporting it.” Trump told Raffensperger that he had won the state of Georgia. Trump made an explicit request to Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”
54. There were no election irregularities in Georgia sufficient to change the final Presidential vote count in that state. Joe Biden won the Presidential vote in Georgia.
55. In addition to Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, Trump took aim at officials in other Republican-led jurisdictions for the same reasons.
56. Trump’s claims of widespread fraud and election-rigging were rebuked by numerous executive agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security.11 Trump lashed out at them as well, berating them for their refusal to address “the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history.” Trump coupled this message with a call to action on January 6:
57. On January 5, the night before the rally, Trump tweeted about the thousands of people flooding D.C. who did not want to see the country “stolen” by “Radical Left Democrats:
58. Then, less than 10 minutes later, he attacked “the weak and ineffective RINO [Republican In Name Only] section of the Republican Party,” threatening that the “thousands of people pouring into D.C. … won’t stand for a landslide election victory to be stolen”:
Defendants Conspire With Trump to Overturn the Election
59. The other Defendants—Mo Brooks, Rudolph Giuliani, and Donald Trump Jr.—all conspired with Trump, each other, and others to subvert the will of the people in the 2020 election. While those efforts culminated with the attack on January 6, they began long before then.
Rudolph Giuliani
60. Rudolph Giuliani spearheaded another arm of Trump’s efforts to subvert the election: the numerous challenges in the courts. He led a legal team that eventually filed 62 lawsuits seeking to undo the election results, all in key battleground states.
61. Virtually all those lawsuits were rejected outright. Judges appointed by Republicans and Democrats—including those appointed by Trump himself—determined the claims brought by Giuliani and the others were baseless. Judges derided the allegations in these suits as “without merit” and “flat-out wrong.” One judge opined that what would “undermine the public’s trust in the election” was not the alleged massive fraud Trump alleged, but the Court overturning the results of a landslide election based on no evidence of systemic wrongdoing at all:
62. In December 2020, Giuliani, who was not a government official, tried to convince acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli to have the Department of Homeland Security illegally seize voting machines. The Deputy Secretary refused to do so.
63. While he was baselessly seeking to undo the election in the courts, Giuliani was also repeatedly spreading Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud through traditional and social media.
64. Focusing on the Defendants’ final means of subverting the election—blocking certification of President Biden’s victory—Giuliani advanced the argument that Vice President Pence could unilaterally block certification of the Electoral College vote, a position almost universally rejected by legal scholars, and by Vice President Pence himself.
65. At 6:34 p.m. on January 5, Giuliani tweeted a link to a YouTube video from his show “Common Sense” entitled, “Watch this Before January 6th.” The video purported to explain why it was permissible for Vice President Pence to block certification of the Electoral College vote the next day. Giuliani tweeted a retweet of that post later that night and again the following morning, shortly before Trump spoke at the rally.
66. A little over an hour later, on January 5 at 7:44 p.m., Giuliani made clear that he would be at the rally. He also volunteered that President Trump would “be joining us” there.
67. As recounted below, Giuliani would tell the crowd at the rally the next day that it was perfectly legal for Vice President Pence to block certification of the vote—even though most experts disagreed—and he suggested that Pence’s failure to do so would be an act of cowardice, if not outright treason. He then told the rally-goers, shortly before many of them stormed the Capitol, that it was time for “trial by combat.”
Donald Trump Jr.
68. In the weeks before the January 6 rally, Donald Trump Jr. repeatedly spread his father’s baseless claims of massive, widespread voter fraud.
69. For example, on November 6, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted:
70. As early as November 18, an analysis commissioned by ABC News confirmed that “[f]alse and misleading election-related claims, already running rampant on social media in the wake of this year’s race, were given an exponential boost in exposure after they were shared by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.”12 Trump Jr. understood this to be the case and intentionally spread the misleading claims with the intent of raising their public profile.
71. Trump Jr. did these things in an effort to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results and to aid the other Defendants’ efforts to do the same.
72. Upon information and belief, Trump Jr. continued to spread such claims through January 6. He has since deleted numerous social media posts related to the events of January 6, including all his Twitter posts prior to January 28, 2021.
73. Trump Jr. also repeatedly criticized “weak Republicans” and “radical left Democrats” as making the cover-up of this alleged massive voter fraud possible.13
74. On January 5, Donald Trump Jr. shared a video on Instagram with a call to “Be Brave. Do Something.”:
75. Trump Jr. did these things in an effort to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results and to aid the other Defendants’ efforts to do the same.
76. The day before the rally, Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, spoke with “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander who relayed “The president’s mood is he’s in fighter mode and today will determine which Republicans are going to suffer his wrath going forward.”14
77. As recounted below, when Trump Jr. spoke at the rally the next day, he would again attack “radical Left Democrats” and “weak Republicans,” and again claim that the election had been stolen from his father and the American people.
Mo Brooks
78. On November 5—long before any evidence of alleged widespread fraud could possibly have been obtained, but the same day that Trump addressed the nation about the alleged massive election fraud that did not exist—Brooks tweeted that he “lack[ed] faith that this was an honest election.” He said that, as a House member, he would be “very hesitant to certify the results of this election if Joe Biden wins”:
79. Brooks separately tweeted that day, “Count Every LEGAL Vote!,” the same phrase Trump would use in his national address later that day:
80. On November 18, Brooks previewed the Defendants’ endgame should their other efforts fail, retweeting a journalist who quoted him as saying that Congress can reject the electoral college votes “of any state”:
81. On November 19—the same day that that Trump personally pressured Michigan elected officials—Brooks reiterated that “Congress controls who becomes president.”15
82. One week later, on November 27, Brooks proclaimed that “Joe Biden DID NOT win lawful vote majority in Georgia” and that Congress should reject its electoral votes:
83. Brooks did these things in an effort to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results and to aid the other Defendants’ efforts to do the same.
84. Brooks posted on Twitter that Trump personally had invited Brooks to speak on January 6 about how “Socialist Democrats” had managed to “steal this election” (Brooks identified Trump by tagging Trump’s personal Twitter account): As recounted below, Brooks told the attendees at the rally that their country was literally being taken from them, that the scale of wrongdoing was of historical proportions, that it was time to start “kicking ass,” and that the individuals who were there that day had to be ready to perhaps sacrifice even their lives for their country.
85. Brooks said all these things solely in his personal capacity for his own benefit and/or personal partisan aims.
Trump’s Call to “Be There, will be wild!” Is Understood As a Call to Violence
86. On December 19, 2020, after the Electoral College had voted to elect Joe Biden President, then-losing-candidate Trump promoted a “[b]ig protest on January 6.” He told his followers to “Be there, will be wild!”:
87. Particularly considering Trump’s prior directive to a white supremacist group—the Proud Boys—to “stand by,” Trump’s tweet claiming that it was “statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election” was accurately understood by his followers to be a signal that the country had fallen, and a call to violence in response.
88. For example, within minutes of Trump’s “be wild” tweet, it was shared on TheDonald.win with the title: “Trump Tweet. Daddy Says Be in DC on Jan 6.” One user “EvilGuy,” said, in response to Trump’s call to action, “I will be open carrying and so will my friends. We have been waiting for Trump to say the word. There is [sic] not enough cops in DC to stop what is coming.”
89. Other responses were in a similar vein. MrMcGreenGenes wrote “Well, shit. We’ve got marching orders bois.” (“Bois” is a likely reference to the “Bugaloo Bois” a right-wing extremist group.) Buttfart88 similarly understood Trump’s tweet as “marching orders.” NamelessKing understood Trump’s tweet as a call to bring weapons to D.C. on the same day Congress was to certify the Electoral College vote: PepeVsCommies took this as signal to use “any means necessary”: Perhaps most tellingly, SWORDofLIBERTY and justinkayz understood Trump’s tweet as a call to do exactly what the rioters did—“burst into [the Capitol] by the thousands.” Others discussed shooting police officers and bringing weapons.
90. Trump intended his supporters to interpret his “will be wild” tweet as a call to violence, and he knew they had done just that.
91. Some of Trump’s supporters engaged with him on Twitter about their plans to be a part of his “Cavalry.”
92. Similarly, on Facebook, many planned violence on January 6 in response to Trump’s tweet. For example, one California group built on “Trust, Dedication, and Survival” promoted “Operation Occupy the Capitol” on January 6 tagging the post #wearethestorm and #1776Rebels.16
93. One conspiracy theorist, and Trump supporter, tweeted that he was ready to die for Trump. The Arizona Republican Party retweeted his message, asking its followers “He is [ready to die for Trump]. Are you?”17
94. In response to Trump’s tweets calling people to Washington, D.C. on January 6, militia groups also began to strategize an assault on the Capitol by sharing maps of the Capitol and coordinating supplies and outfits to wear.
95. The Three Percenters were one of these militia groups, and indeed many of its members were among those who stormed the Capitol on January 6.
96. Trump Jr. previously has showed support for the Three Percenters. In May 2019, he posted a picture on Instagram showing himself in a t-shirt with the Three Percenters logo18 prominently displayed.
Defendants Incite Violence at the Rally
97. The rally on January 6 was organized and funded by Trump’s campaign organization, Donald J. Trump for President (“the Campaign”). The Campaign paid an entity called Event Strategies to obtain the permit for the rally. The permit for the rally listed the Campaign’s director of finance operations as the “VIP Lead” for the rally.
98. At 10:00 p.m. on January 5, Trump put down his final marker as a losing candidate, declaring that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to overturn the election results and hand him a victory:
99. Trump’s tweet was intended to convince the tens of thousands of supporters who had traveled to D.C. for the rally that Vice President Pence was uniquely situated to save Trump’s presidency.
100. By the morning of January 6, thousands of Trump supporters had flooded Washington, D.C. Many were prepared for violence and had plans to attack the Capitol. Many more were there for a political rally. The extremists who had been plotting the attack breached the Capitol as planned. The Defendants, and others, incited many of the other attendees to violence, whipping them into a frenzy and turning them into a violent mob that participated in the attack.
101. The rally opened at 7:00 a.m. on January 6. From that time until shortly after 1:00 p.m., a series of speakers took the stage to lash out against the election results and to demand action by lawmakers from both political parties.
102. The Defendants and others spoke at the rally.
103. Amy Kremer, the head of the group Women For America First—one of the rally’s principal organizers—told the crowd that Trump “asked us to show up today, and I don’t think he’s going to be disappointed.” She repeated the lie that President Biden “did not win this election!” “We know that there was voter fraud, we absolutely know it,” she went on, “and that’s why we’re here, to stop the steal.” She spoke of the crowd’s role in apocalyptic terms: “This isn’t about stealing an election from Donald Trump, this is about stealing an election from We the People, and we are here to save the republic.” “You guys,” she implored them, “we cannot back down.” The crowd cheered in response.
104. Trump and Trump Jr., standing backstage, heard Ms. Kremer say all those things to the crowd, including that they literally were there to “save the republic” and not to back down, and heard the crowd cheer in response.
105. Mo Brooks also addressed the crowd at the rally, after Kremer had spoken. The theme of Brooks’ speech was that patriots are sometimes required to make extraordinary sacrifices for their country, and that day, January 6, was one such occasion.
106. Brooks told the crowd, just one minute into his speech, “We are great because our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes, and sometimes their lives.” He continued that the country faced a crisis of historical magnitude, its greatest crisis since World War II, and perhaps even the Civil War: We are here today because America is at risk unlike it has been in decades, and perhaps centuries.
107. He told the crowd that “Socialist Democrats” were attacking their freedoms and had literally stolen an election from them, and now had to be stopped: We are not gonna let the socialists rip the heart out of our country. We are not gonna let them continue to corrupt our elections and steal from us our God-given right to control our nation’s destiny.
108. And he told the crowd, before repeating his theme, that it was time to start “kicking ass”: Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass! [Crowd cheers.] Now, our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes, and sometimes their lives, to give us, their descendants, an America that is the greatest nation in world history. So I have a question for you: Are you willing to do the same? My answer is yes. Louder! Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder!! Will you fight for America?!
109. Brooks said all those things solely in his personal capacity for his benefit and/or his personal partisan aims.
110. Trump and Trump Jr., standing backstage, heard Brooks say all those things to the crowd, and heard the crowd cheer in response.
111. Giuliani also spoke at the rally, after Brooks and Kremer had spoken. He told the crowd, falsely, that it was “perfectly legal” for Vice President Pence unilaterally to block certification of the Electoral College votes, suggesting to the lay crowd that any failure by Vice President Pence to do so could have no legitimate constitutional basis, but instead would amount to cowardice and even treason.
112. To further foment the crowd, Giuliani confirmed the magnitude of what it would mean for certification to occur: This has been a year in which they have invaded our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, our freedom to move, our freedom to live. I’ll be darned if they’re going to take away our free and fair vote. And we’re going to fight to the very end to make sure that doesn’t happen.
113. Giuliani also falsely claimed, “This was the worst election in American history.” “This election was stolen,” he said, and “it has to be vindicated to save our country.”
114. Giuliani, who had led Trump’s string of unsuccessful efforts to block certification in courts of law, declared instead, “Let’s have trial by combat.” The crowd cheered.
115. Trump and Trump Jr., standing backstage, heard Giuliani say those things, and heard the crowd cheer, particularly in response to his statement advocating “trial by combat” as the way forward.