Impeachment
Floor Speech
Mr. President. The former President's conduct during and after the 2020 Presidential election was indefensible and dangerous. By inciting an insurrection against Congress and pressuring government officials across our Nation to overturn the election in his favor, the former President directly ``threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government.''\1\ As long as he is able to hold public office under the United States, he will remain a grave threat to our national security and our Constitution. For these reasons, I again voted to convict the former President on the House of Representatives' Article of Impeachment. Constitutionality of the Trial
As a threshold question in this trial, the former President's legal team and several Republican Senators have argued that the Senate cannot hold an impeachment trial against a President who is no longer in office.\2\ This argument is just another convenient excuse for some of my Republican colleagues to avoid holding the former President accountable. Not only has the theory been roundly rejected by both liberal and conservative constitutional legal scholars,\3\ it would also completely contravene both Senate and historical precedent.\4\ In this case, consistent with the prevailing legal theory and historical precedent, the Senate voted to affirm the constitutionality of this current trial--a decision that I fully supported.\5\ Thus, after addressing the threshold Constitutional issue, the question before every Senator in this trial became twofold--(1) did the former President do what he is charged with in the Article?; and (2) if so, does that action warrant conviction and disqualification from holding future office? The Big Lie Debunked
The public record demonstrates clearly that the former President engaged in the conduct outlined in the Article of Impeachment put forward by the House of Representatives. We watched his actions with our own eyes. We heard his conspiracy theories and baseless accusations with our own ears. For months after the election, all of America witnessed the former President's deliberate repetition of the ``Big Lie;'' he repeatedly claimed--without any evidence--that the 2020 general election was rigged and stolen from him.\6\ In furtherance of this falsehood, the former President has made numerous claims, all easily and consistently rebutted, regarding the votes cast in multiple battleground states. As the Senior Senator from Pennsylvania, a state that the former President relentlessly attacked after the election, I believe it is important to debunk the numerous false statements that the former President asserted regarding the Pennsylvania Presidential election.
Prior to the election, it was widely reported that the public should ``beware'' of early U.S. election tallies because of the unprecedented amount of mail-in voting and the different ways that states were processing ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic.\7\ In Pennsylvania specifically, Democratic voters were outpacing Republican voters by a 3-to- 1 ratio in mail-in voting.\8\ Since the mail-in votes would be the last to be counted in most counties, experts cautioned voters that the former President might appear to be winning in the early returns on election night (a ``Red mirage'') only to lose that lead as election officials counted more mail-in ballots in the days after Election Day (a ``Blue shift'').\9\
Despite these warnings, the former President attempted to sow doubt, even before Election Day, about votes counted after November 3. A week before Election Day, he indicated that ``counting ballots for two weeks'' after Election Day was ``totally inappropriate'' and he did not believe it was consistent with our Nation's election laws.\10\ To be clear, there is nothing improper or illegal about election officials counting legally cast votes after Election Day. Nonetheless, as election officials in Pennsylvania began to process the heavily Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots in the days following Election Day and the former President's ``Red mirage'' predictably turned to a ``Blue shift'' in favor of President Biden, the former President claimed that officials were ``finding Biden votes all over the place.''\11\ In reality, election officials in Pennsylvania were simply counting legally cast votes. As Republican Philadelphia Commissioner Al Schmidt said: ``In the birthplace of our Republic, counting votes is not a bad thing. Counting votes cast on or before Election Day by eligible voters is not corruption. It is not cheating. It is democracy.''\12\
Relatedly, the former President also claimed that in Pennsylvania, ``tens of thousands of votes were illegally received after 8 P.M. on Tuesday, Election Day, totally and easily changing the results.''\13\ Here again, the former President was lying. In September 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended the mail-in ballot receipt deadline in Pennsylvania by three days because of the unprecedented circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.\14\ The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision did not permit eligible voters to vote after Election Day. Rather, pursuant to the Free and Equal Elections Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the court explained that ballots mailed by Election Day could still be counted if those ballots were received within three days of Election Day.\15\ In addition to lying about whether it was legal to receive ballots after Election Day, the former President drastically overinflated the number of ballots received after Election Day in Pennsylvania. In fact, there were only approximately ten thousand ballots received after Election Day and those ballots were not even included in Pennsylvania's certified election results.\16\ Since President Biden won Pennsylvania by over eighty thousand votes, the ballots received after Election Day would not have made any difference in Pennsylvania's Presidential election outcome.\17\
In another tweet, the former President claimed that Pennsylvania prevented his campaign officials ``from watching much of the Ballot count.''\18\ Again, the former President was lying. In fact, in response to a judge's question during one hearing on whether there were election observers in the canvassing room, a lawyer representing the former President offered the seemingly bizarre concession that there was ``a non-zero number of people in the room.''\19\ Furthermore, multiple courts confirmed that the former President's campaign presented no evidence suggesting that his campaign's observers were treated any differently than the observers for the Biden Campaign.\20\
The former President's lies did not stop there. In late November, the former President tweeted that over a million votes in Pennsylvania were ``created out of thin air.''\21\ This is a lie. Here, the former President was referring to a conspiracy theory offered by Republican State Senator Doug Mastriano, who claimed that the Pennsylvania Department of State was reporting an extra 1.1 million mail-in votes in Pennsylvania.\22\ Senator Mastriano indicated that Pennsylvania had reported mailing out ``1,823,148 ballots, of which 1,462,302 were returned,'' but he indicated that a dashboard on the Department of State's website recorded over 2.5 mail-in ballots in the general election.\23\ While Senator Mastriano did not include sources for his data, it was easy to determine that he was conflating different datasets from the general election and the June primaries. A dataset from the Pennsylvania Department of State clearly detailed that there were 1,823,148 mail-in ballot request for the June 2020 primaries\24\--the exact number that Senator Mastriano cited--while Pennsylvania's official returns for the 2020 general election clearly illustrated that over 2.6 million voters cast a ballot by mail in the Presidential election.\25\
In another tweet on December 28, the former President claimed that there were ``205,000 more votes than there were voters'' in Pennsylvania.\26\ This too is another lie. Again, the former President appeared to be referencing yet another conspiracy theory offered by another state legislator, Representative Frank Ryan.\27\ Representative Ryan claimed that the official election returns included 205,000 more votes than those listed in Pennsylvania's voter registration database.\28\ Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro explained that the voter registration database referenced by Representative Frank ``is updated by each county individually, and this updating process can take several weeks following an election.''\29\ Thus, the Attorney General explained that it appeared that Representative Ryan was comparing ``the official returns with incomplete data from the registration database to justify his baseless claim that there were more votes than voters.''\30\
Unfortunately, the above lies are merely a sampling of the former President's total lies about the election process in Pennsylvania and across the Nation. In addition to these falsehoods, the former President claimed--without evidence-- that there were ``900,000 Fraudulent Votes'' in Pennsylvania,\31\ that Dominion Voting Systems switched 221,000 votes from the former President to Joe Biden in Pennsylvania,\32\ and that ``Fraud and illegality'' were a ``big part'' of his election lawsuits in Pennsylvania.\33\
The Pennsylvania election was administered safely and securely by thousands of Republican and Democratic election officials and selfless volunteers across the Commonwealth. We know this because as the House Managers highlighted in their trial brief, ``[o]ur legal system affords many ways in which a candidate can contest the outcome of an election.''\34\ The former President did not merely contest the election in Pennsylvania, but also in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.\35\ In total, the former President and his allies filed 62 lawsuits in state and federal courts regarding the 2020 election and they lost every case, except for one minor lawsuit in Pennsylvania.\36\
Furthermore, despite the President's public claims of widespread illegalities, his legal team rarely attempted to allege fraud in his lawsuits.\37\ In fact, his own attorney, Rudy Giuliani, explicitly confirmed that the Campaign was not alleging fraud during one high profile case in Pennsylvania by stating ``[t]his is not a fraud case.''\38\ Despite these facts, the former President continued to spread a different narrative--a Big Lie regarding a rigged election--on Twitter.
United States District Court Judge Matthew Brann of the Middle District of Pennsylvania highlighted the absurdity of some of the former President's legal arguments in an opinion dismissing one of the Campaign's lawsuits:
``Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters. . . . One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that this Court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens. That has not happened. Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence. In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more.''\39\
In the Campaign's appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Judge Stephanos Bibas, a judge appointed by the former President,\40\ wrote for a unanimous panel affirming Judge Brann's initial decision.\41\ Judge Bibas wrote: ``Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.''\42\ The Presidential election was fair and lawful notwithstanding the many lies told by the former President. The Former President's Pattern of Conduct
Despite losing case after case in federal and state courts, the former President was not deterred in his efforts to spread his Big Lie regarding a stolen election. Instead, he turned his attention to pressuring federal, state and local elections officials to overturn the election. In Georgia, he personally called the Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, and told him to ``find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.''\43\
He also began an aggressive lobbying campaign against Vice President Pence.\44\ Pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the Vice President counts each state's certified Electoral College votes for President in a joint session of Congress.\45\ However, the former President regularly lied about the constitutional duty of the Vice President. In another attempt to turn the election in his favor through illegitimate means, the former President suggested that Vice President Pence should violate his oath of office by refusing to count certain electoral votes for President Biden during the joint session.\46\
After failing to overturn the election through the courts and his pressure campaign on other elected officials, the former President took aim for one more attack on American democracy. He summoned his mob of insurrectionists to Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 for a ``Save America Rally'' to coincide with the joint session of Congress.\47\ He invited them. He incited them over the course of months and on January 6. Finally, he directed this Trump mob to the Capitol to subvert and obstruct Congress from conducting its constitutional obligation to certify the 2020 Presidential election.
On January 6, we heard the former President continue to spread his Big Lie at his rally. As Attorney General Shapiro detailed, the former President ``inflamed the crowd by repeating the same debunked allegations about voter fraud in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. In his remarks, he repeated no fewer than eight false statements about Pennsylvania's elections alone.'' \48\ He further incited the mob to ``stop the steal'' by declaring that ``we fight, we fight like hell,'' because ``if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.'' \49\
The case for incitement is about far more than just the former President's speech on January 6. This was about a pattern of conduct. It was about the former President's autocratic leadership and calls for political violence throughout his Presidency. It was about a President who once bragged: ``I have the tough people [supporting me], but they don't play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.'' \50\
I, as well as public officials in both parties, talk about fighting for public policy goals. We fight for health care. We fight for civil rights. We fight for equity and justice. However, when the former President tells his supporters to fight, it means something different because the former President has regularly condoned and encouraged violence against protestors and members of the press since he became a candidate in 2015. As Lead House Manager Jamie Raskin told us during the trial: ``January 6 was a culmination of the President's actions--not an aberration from them.''\51\ It was the former President's pattern and practice of condoning and encouraging violent action.
For example, during remarks in October 2015, the former President--then a candidate--indicated that he would be a ``little more violent'' next time protestors interrupted one of his rallies.\52\ Video later showed the former President's supporters forcibly dragging protestors out of the campaign event.\53\ In a February 2016 rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we saw the former President tell his supporters to ``knock the hell'' out of protestors and then promised to pay their legal fees resulting from any altercation.\54\
In March 2016, a supporter of the former President sucker punched a Black man being escorted out of a campaign rally.\55\ The former President's supporter was later recorded as saying ``[t]he next time we see him, we might have to kill him.'' \56\ Just days later, the former President defended those at his rallies assaulting protestors by calling their actions ``very, very appropriate.'' \57\ In another 2016 rally in Las Vegas, the former President commented that he would like to ``punch [a protestor] in the face'' before reminiscing about the fictional ``old days'' when violent behavior was allegedly more acceptable.\58\ ``You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this?'' he asked the crowd. ``They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks.''\59\
This abhorrent behavior did not change when the former President entered office. In August 2017, after a rally of white supremacists resulted in three deaths and more than 33 other injuries in Charlottesville, Virginia, the former President offered perhaps the most disturbing comments of his Presidency when he suggested that there was ``blame on both sides'' and that there were ``very fine people on both sides.''\60\ In October 2018, we saw the former President praise and glorify the actions of current Governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, after then-candidate Gianforte had body slammed and hospitalized a journalist in May 2017.\61\ Mr. Gianforte had already pled guilty to the assault.\62\
In 2020, the former President further glorified violence by indicating that ``when the looting starts, the shooting starts'' in relation to the civil rights protests occurring after George Floyd's murder at the hands of law enforcement in Minneapolis, Minnesota.\63\ Later, we saw the former President direct federal agents to forcibly move hundreds of peaceful protestors outside of the White House so he could pose for a photo op in front of St. John's Church in Washington, D.C.\64\
In April 2020, in what turned out to be a dress rehearsal for the January 6 insurrection, we saw the former President tweet ``LIBERATE MICHIGAN!'' after the Governor of Michigan implemented several mitigation measures to address the COVID- 19 public health crisis.\65\ Nearly two weeks later, on April 30, armed protestors dressed in tactical gear sieged the Michigan State Capitol, waving the Confederate flag and wearing MAGA hats.\66\ Rather than condemn those who had seized the state capitol waving Confederate flags, the former President encouraged the Governor of Michigan to negotiate with them: ``The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.''\67\ Just a few months following the capitol siege in Michigan, the FBI arrested thirteen men for ``plotting to storm the Michigan State capitol building, launch a civil war, kidnap Governor Whitmer, transport her to Wisconsin, and then try and execute her.'' \68\
The former President's pattern of conduct is indisputable. A reasonable person cannot dispute that the former President knew exactly what he was doing by perpetuating the ``Big Lie,'' summoning his crowd of insurrectionists on January 6 and telling them: ``[I]f you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.'' \69\ The former President led his supporters to a breaking point and as he had predicted in the past--it was ``very bad, very bad.'' \70\ There is simply no way to excuse the former President's actions in this case. An Attack on Our Democracy
By encouraging his mob of insurrectionists to march on the Capitol and obstruct the Congressional certification of the 2020 election, the former President attacked the foundational principles of our democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. He did not merely endanger another branch of government and the Presidential line of succession. His actions led to at least five deaths, injuries to nearly 140 members of law enforcement and untold collateral damage resulting from the carnage of that day.\71\ He endangered the lives of countless Congressional staffers and employees, members of the press and members of Congress. He put a target on the back of his own Vice President and his Vice President's family. His actions jeopardized our Nation's national security by tarnishing the United States' reputation abroad and emboldening violent extremists at home.
Furthermore, he has shown absolutely no remorse for any of it, even going as far to glorify the insurrection in the immediate aftermath of the attack. After the Capitol had been secured in the early evening of January 6 and Congress was making plans to resume its joint session, the former President turned to Twitter to release a statement. He did not denounce the violent insurrection, but rather he chose to continue to spread his Big Lie that the election was stolen from him and to call the insurrectionists ``great patriots:''
``These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever.'' \72\
Ultimately, after carefully reviewing all of the evidence put forward in this case, I found that the House Managers more than exceeded their burden of proof. The former President's conduct violated his oath of office, endangered our democracy and jeopardized the United States' national security. Through this conduct, the former President committed a high crime against our Constitution. I voted to convict him in the most bipartisan Presidential impeachment proceedings in our Nation's history.\73\ endnotes
1. H.R. Res. 24, 117th Cong. art. I (2020).
2. Proceedings of the United States Senate in the Impeachment Trial of Donald John Trump, S. Doc. No. 117-2, at 122--46 (2021) [hereinafter ``Impeachment Proceedings II''] (Trial Memorandum of Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America). See also Nicholas Fandos, Republicans Rally Against Impeachment Trial, Signaling Likely Acquittal for Trump, N.Y. Times (Jan. 26, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/us/politics/ republicans-impeachment-trump.html (``By a vote of 55-to- 45, the Senate narrowly killed a Republican effort to dismiss the proceeding as unconstitutional because Mr. Trump is no longer in office.'').
3. See Ilya Somin, Legal Scholars' Letter on Impeachment of Former Officials Makes Appearance in Trump's Senate Trial, Volokh Conspiracy (Feb. 9, 2021, 3:10 PM), https:// reason.com/volokh/2021/02/09/legal-scholars-letter-on- impeachment-of-former-officials-makes-appearance-in/ (highlighting one letter signed by ``constitutional law scholars across the political spectrum,'' including the co- founder of the Federalist Society).
4. Impeachment Proceedings II, supra note 2, at 48-97 (Trial Memorandum of the United States House of Representatives).
5. 167 Cong. Rec. S609 (daily ed. Feb. 9, 2021).
6. See Larry Buchanan et al., Lie After Lie: Listen to How Trump Built His Alternate Reality, N.Y. Times (Feb. 9, 2021) (``In hundreds of public statements from Nov. 4, 2020, to Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump repeatedly used phrases like `we won the election' and `won it by a landslide,' and he said that the election was `rigged' and `stolen' by the Democrats. Such assertions have been proven false by the courts and elections officials across the country.'').
7. Chris Kahn & Jason Lange, Explainer: Red Mirage, Blue Mirage--Beware of Early U.S. Election Wins, Reuters (Nov. 1, 2020, 6:12 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- election-mirage-explainer-idUSKBN27H1A6; David Wasserman, Beware the ``Blue Mirage'' and the ``Red Mirage'' on Election Night, NBC News (Nov. 3, 2020, 8:27 AM), https:// www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/beware-blue-mirage- red-mirage-election-night-n1245925.
8. Pennsylvania Could See a ``Red Mirage'' on Election Night. Here's Why, 6abc (Oct. 29, 2020), https://6abc.com/ pennsylvania-vote-count-in-red-mirage-mail-in-voting/ 7455361/. See also Holly Otterbein, Democrats Return Nearly Three Times as Many Mail-In Ballots as Republicans in Pennsylvania, Politico (Nov. 3, 2020, 1:31 PM), https:// www.politico.com/news/2020/11/03/democrats-more-mail-in- ballots-pennsylvania-433951 (explaining that on Election Day, more than 1.6 million of returned mail-in ballots were from registered Democrats and 586,000 were from Republicans).
9. Brittany De Lea, ``Red Mirage'' Possible in Pennsylvania as Officials Urge Voters to be Patient, Fox News (Nov. 1, 2020), https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pennsylvania-red- mirage-officials-voter-patience; Jonathan Lai, How Does a Republican Lead on Election Night and Still Lose Pennsylvania? It's Called the ``Blue Shift,'' Phila. Inquirer (Jan. 27, 2020), https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/ pennsylvania-2020-election-blue-shift-20200127.html.
10. Jeff Mason & Ernest Scheyder, Trump Questions Counting Late Ballots as Biden Preaches Unity in Georgia, Reuters (Oct. 27, 2020, 10:46 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/ usa-election-idUSKBN27C25G.
11. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Nov. 4, 2020, 11:55 AM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1324032541544927233. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, https://www.thetrumparchive.com/ (last visited March 1, 2021) (archiving all of the former President's tweets).
12. Bill Whitaker, ``It is Not Cheating, It is Democracy'': A First-Hand Look at Ballot Counting in Pennsylvania, CBS News: 60 Minutes (Nov. 9, 2020), https://www.cbsnews.com/ news/pennsylvania-ballot-counting-2020-election-60-minutes/.
13. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Nov. 7, 2020, 8:20 AM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1325065540390559745. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
14. Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar, 238 A.3d 345, 369-72 (Pa. 2020)..
15 Id.
16. Memorandum from Pa. Att'y Gen. Josh Shapiro 7 (Feb. 10, 2021), https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/wp-content/uploads/ 2021/02/Jan-6-Memo.pdf [hereinafter ``Att'y Gen. Shapiro Memo''].
17 Id.
18. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Nov. 9, 2020, 3:17 PM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1325895380983275524. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
19. Katelyn Polantz et al., Trump and GOP Lawsuits Challenging Election Flail in Court, CNN (Nov. 6, 2020, 3:01 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/06/politics/trump-and-gop- lawsuits-to-challenge-election-flail-in-court/index.html.
20. E.g., Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. v. Boockvar, No. 4:20-CV-02078, 2020 WL 6821992, at *13 (M.D. Pa. Nov. 21, 2020), aff'd, 830 F. App'x 377 (3d Cir. 2020); 830 F. App'x 377 at 388.
21. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Nov. 28, 2020, 12:09 AM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1332552283553476608. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
22. Senator Doug Mastriano (@SenMastriano), Twitter (Nov. 27, 2020, 1:59 PM), https://twitter.com/senmastriano/status/ 1332398733401591808. See also Fact Check: Post Mixes Pennsylvania Primary and General Election Data to Suggest Vote-By-Mail Irregularities, Reuters (Dec. 1, 2020, 11:38 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-fact-check-pa-mail- votes-primary-gene-idUSKBN28B5NW [hereinafter ``Reuters Fact Check''] (debunking State Senator Mastriano's claims).
23. Id.
24. 2020 Primary Mail Ballot Counts by County, OpenDataPA, https://data.pa.gov/Government-Efficiency-Citizen-Engagement/ 2020-Primary-Mail-Ballot-Counts-by-County/43wz-2ph2 (last updated Aug. 3, 2020). See also Reuters Fact Check, supra note 22 (debunking State Senator Mastriano's claims).
25. 2020 Presidential Election Official Return, Pa. Dep't of State, https://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/ (last visited Mar. 1, 2021). See also Reuters Fact Check, supra note 22 (debunking State Senator Mastriano's claims).
26. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Dec. 28, 2020, 4:00 PM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1343663159085834248. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
27. Press Release, Pa. State Rep. Frank Ryan et al., PA Lawmakers: Numbers Don't Add Up, Certification of Presidential Results Premature and In Error (Dec. 28, 2020), http://www.repfrankryan.com/News/18754/Latest-News/PA- Lawmakers-Numbers-Don't-Add-Up,-Certification-of- Presidential-Results-Premature-and-In-Error. See also Ali Swenson, There Were Not More Votes Than Voters in Pennsylvania, Associated Press (Dec. 29, 2020), https:// apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9887147615 (debunking State Representative Ryan's election claims).
28. Id.
29. Att'y Gen. Shapiro Memo, supra note 16, at 6.
30. Id. at 6-7
31. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Nov. 21, 2020, 11:54 PM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1330374020613758977. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
32. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Nov. 12, 2020, 11:34 AM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1326926226888544256. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
33. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Nov. 28, 2020, 3:49 PM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1332788716818010114. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
34. Impeachment Proceedings II, supra note 2, at 29 (Trial Memorandum of the United States House of Representatives).
35. Id.
36. Id.
37. Tessa Berenson, Donald Trump And His Lawyers Are Making Sweeping Allegations of Voter Fraud In Public. In Court, They Say No Such Thing, Time (Nov. 20, 2020, 3:13 PM), https:// time.com/5914377/donald-trump-no-evidence-fraud/.
38. Id.
39. Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. v. Boockvar, No. 4:20-CV-02078, 2020 WL 6821992, at *1 (M.D. Pa. Nov. 21, 2020), aff'd, 830 F. App'x 377 (3d Cir. 2020).
40. Press Release, White House, Eleven Nominations Sent to the Senate Today (June 19, 2017), https:// trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/eleven- nominations-sent-senate-today-3/.
41. Trump for President, 830 F. App'x at 391.
42. Id. at 381.
43. Impeachment Proceedings II, supra note 2, at 32 (Trial Memorandum of the United States House of Representatives).
44. Id. at 40-42.
45. U.S. Const. amend XII.
46. Impeachment Proceedings II, supra note 2, at 40-41 (Trial Memorandum of the United States House of Representatives).
47. See, e.g., Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Dec. 19, 2020, 1:42 AM), https://twitter.com/ realdonaldtrump/status/1340185773220515840 (``Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!''); Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Jan. 1, 2021, 2:53 PM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1345095714687377418 (``The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. . . . StopTheSteal!''). See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
48. Att'y Gen. Shapiro Memo, supra note 16, at 1.
49. Impeachment Proceedings II, supra note 2, at 43 (Trial Memorandum of the United States House of Representatives).
50. Alexander Mallin, Trump Warns ``Tough'' Supporters Could Turn Things ``Very Bad'' If Provoked, ABC News (Mar. 15, 2019, 11:05 AM), https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump- warns-tough-supporters-turn-things-bad-provoked/ story?id=61709959.
51. 167 Cong. Rec. S647 (daily ed. Feb. 11, 2021).
52. Fabiola Cineas, Donald Trump is the Accelerant, VOX (Jan. 9, 2021, 11:04 AM), https://www.vox.com/21506029/trump- violence-tweets-racist-hate-speech.
53. Id.
54. Id.
55. Id.
56. Id.
57. Eric Levitz, Trump on His Supporters Attacking Protesters: ``That's What We Need More Of,'' N.Y. Mag. (Mar. 11, 2016), https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/03/trump- punching-protesters-is-very-appropriate.html.
58. Cineas, supra note 52.
59. Id.
60. 167 Cong. Rec. S648 (daily ed. Feb. 11, 2021).
61. Cineas, supra note 52.
62. Merrit Kennedy, Montana's Gianforte Pleads Guilty, Won't Serve Jail Time in Assault on Journalist, NPR (June 12, 2017, 2:35 PM), https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/ 06/12/532613316/montanas-gianforte-pleads-guilty-wont-serve- jail-time-in-assault-on-journalist.
63. Cineas, supra note 52.
64. Id.
65. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Apr. 17, 2020, 11:22 AM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1251169217531056130. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
66. 167 Cong. Rec. S648 (daily ed. Feb. 11, 2021).
67. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (May 1, 2020, 8:42 AM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1256202305680158720. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
68. 167 Cong. Rec. S648 (daily ed. Feb. 11, 2021).
69. Impeachment Proceedings II, supra note 2, at 43 (Trial Memorandum of the United States House of Representatives).
70. See supra note 50 and accompanying text.
71. See Caitlin Emma & Sarah Ferris, Second Police Officer Died by Suicide Following Capitol Attack, Politico (Jan. 27, 2021, 12:45 PM), https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/27/ second-officer-suicide-following-capitol-riot-463123 (``Five people died as a result of the riots, and two officers later died by suicide--a death toll that has horrified lawmakers of both parties and led them to demand answers from Capitol security officials.''); Michael S. Schmidt & Luke Broadwater, Officers' Injuries, Including Concussions, Show Scope of Violence at Capitol Riot, N.Y. Times (Feb. 11, 2021), https:/ /www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police- officer-injuries.html (``At least 138 officers--73 from the Capitol Police and 65 from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington--were injured. . . .'').
72. Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump), Twitter (Jan. 6, 2021, 6:01 PM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/ 1346954970910707712. See also Trump Twitter Archive V2, supra note 11.
73. Maggie Astor, Impeachment Briefing: The Senate Acquits Trump, N.Y. Times (Feb. 13, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/ 2021/02/13/us/politics/impeachment-briefing-the-senate- acquits-trump.html.
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