The New Jan. 6 Testimony Against Trump Will Be Devastating at Trial

On Sunday, ABC News reported on new evidence now in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith that signals a turning point for the prosecution against Donald Trump. The statements that ABC reported are new, in part, because witnesses like Scavino and Mark Meadows, the Trump White House chief of staff, didn’t speak with the House Jan. 6 committee. Scavino has now reportedly confirmed something vital to Smith—that it was Trump and Trump alone who posted his infamous 2:24 p.m. Jan. 6 tweet: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” The Wall Street Journal has called that tweet “the critical moment” of the siege because it poured truckloads of kerosene onto an already roaring fire inside the Capitol. Scavino reportedly told Smith’s team that Trump only posted the tweet after Scavino left him by himself in the White House dining room, Scavino having failed “to persuade Trump to release a calming statement.” After the posting, multiple aides returned to tell Trump that the tweet was “not what we need.” Trump reportedly responded, with no concern for the tweet’s inciting effect: “But it’s true.” As Nick Luna, now a former Trump aide, reportedly told investigators, Trump “showed he was ‘capable of allowing harm to come to one of his closest allies’ at the time.” This was Luna’s assessment of Trump’s response to the news that Mike Pence had to be evacuated from the Capitol, which ABC reported was “So what?” ABC also reported that Meadows filled in evidentiary gaps about information we had from public reporting. Meadows having done so also corroborates bombshell testimony that the House Jan. 6 committee received from Cassidy Hutchinson, Meadows’ aide—that during the early moments of violence on Jan. 6, she heard Meadows tell Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, Trump “didn’t want to do anything” to stop it.