The "Trump-made-me-do-it" defense is already looking like a longshot.
Facing damning evidence in the deadly Capitol siege last month — including social media posts flaunting their actions — rioters are arguing in court they were following then-President
Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
’s instructions on Jan. 6. But the legal strategy has already been shot down by at least one judge and experts believe the argument is not likely to get anyone off the hook for the insurrection where five people died, including a police officer.
"This purported defense, if recognized, would undermine the rule of law because then, just like a king or a dictator, the president could dictate what’s illegal and what isn’t in this country," U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said recently in ordering pretrial detention of William Chrestman, a suspected member of the Kansas City-area chapter of the Proud Boys. "And that is not how we operate here."
How many of them were actually Antifa/BLM Black Bloc agitators, and how many others were undercover government agents provocateur? Especially given that almost no one in the crowd joined in the festivities, even of the several hundred who walked over to see what was going on at the Capitol Building..
Heck, even the QAnon Shaman ... who mostly did his thing to acclaim at Antifa protests, and who was described by prosecutors back home as mentally unbalanced...
is getting in on the act. According to the linked report, Jacob Chansley’s attorney submitted an annotated transcript of the speech Trump gave that day, with highlighted passages purportedly showing how the President "instructed" them to stop the electoral college count.”I heard his voice beamed directly to the new filling in my left bicuspid, yr honormensity,” he added.
