January 6 House Committee Has the Big Picture on Trump's Attempted Coup

As horrible as it was, it is now clear that the riot at the Capital on January 6 was just a part of the story when it comes to Trump's attempted coup. While we don't know all of the evidence that has been amassed by the January 6 House Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin made it clear that they are looking into the big picture. He outlined the the three rings of the attempted coup.

The three rings include:

1. The mass demonstration that turned into a riot,
2. The organized violent extremist groups (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, etc.) who initiated the violence that then spread to other rioters, and
3. The attempt to pressure VP Pence to reject the electoral votes of several states.

The point of the third (or inner) ring was to reduce the number of Biden's electoral votes below the 270 necessary to win. Under the 12th Amendment, that would send the election to the House, where each state delegation gets one vote. At the time, Republicans held the delegations from 27 states and Democrats 22, with Pennsylvania evenly divided. So Trump would be declared the winner.

That was the plan outlined in a memo from John Eastman, a lawyer who was working with Trump's legal team. During his speech at the rally on January 6, it is likely that Trump was referring to Eastman's proposal.

I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so.

Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All he has to do, all this is, this is from the number one, or certainly one of the top, Constitutional lawyers in our country. He has the absolute right to do it.

At about the same time (noon on January 6), Pence released a letter essentially saying that he would not comply. Two hours later, as rioters breached the Capital and shouted "hang Mike Pence,' the vice president was ushered off the House floor to a secure location. Trump then tweeted "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution." Months later, when Trump was asked about the chants to hang Mike Pence, the former guy said it was just common sense because the rioters were angry.

All of that is what we know about the inner ring of Trump's coup attempt from public statements and documents that have already been released. Of course, that was simply Trump's final coup attempt. He had previously pressured election officials to overturn their state's results and planned to oust his acting attorney general, who refused to wield DOJ's power to force state lawmakers to overturn their election results. Neither of those attempts were successful as public servants refused to cooperate with an attempted coup.

It is clear that the January 6 Committee isn't limiting itself to Trump's responsibility for inciting the insurrection - which was the basis for his second impeachment. They're looking at the bigger picture of a months-long attempted coup.