(MSNBC) “Five people died in the Jan. 6 attack. Officer Brian Sicknick sustained a fatal stroke a day after rioters sprayed him with a chemical irritant. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot by police when she tried to climb through a window and enter the House chamber. A Georgia woman, Rosanne Boyland, was crushed by fellow rioters as they pushed their way against the police outside a Capitol door. Kevin Greeson, an Alabama man, died of a heart attack in a sea of Trump supporters on the sidewalk west of the building. Benjamin Philips of Pennsylvania died of a stroke during the assault on the Capitol.“
These deaths were not just random events tied together by time and place. They died because our own president created a howling vortex of hatred and violence and then spent over three hours watching our democracy burn.
Send your message to Attorney General Garland here.
(Below is a sample. Use what you want, but try to get your own voice in.)
Dear Attorney General Garland,
It’s important that the deaths of the five people attributed to the insurrection on Jan. 6 be charged as manslaughter against the man responsible, former president Donald Trump.
As president, he had a constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” As commander in chief of the armed forces, once alerted that the situation at the Capitol was “out of control,” he had a duty to call in the National Guard. However, according to Gen. Milley, he didn’t. Nor did he call any other government agency to intervene.
He was also informed that his supporters had weapons and body armor, including firearms, in violation of D.C.’s laws against open-carry and out-of-state concealed carry permits. Instead of ordering them detained, he directed Secret Service officials to let them carry their weaponry to the Capitol.
Even if he was unaware that they would breach the Capitol, it was reasonably foreseeable that a armed mob of thousands of angry people could result in deaths or serious injuries at the barriers. In fact, 140 police officers were injured.
Testimony outlined multiple actions Trump could have taken to stop the violence – an announcement to stand down from the nearby press briefing room or a similar tweet. Instead, he sicced the rioters after Pence and continued watching the televised violence for 3 hours and 7 minutes of shameful inaction.
The danger didn’t stop on Jan. 6. White Supremacists in my own county are pasting images of Ashli Babbitt on lampposts, spreading the myth that a violence-prone and conspiracy-driven woman was a martyr for the white race and must be avenged. If the National Guard had been called in a timely manner, she would never have gotten so close to legislators to be perceived as a threat.
Trump once boasted that he could “stand in the middle Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody.” Instead, his negligence killed people in our nation’s capitol. We await your action.
More…
Under federal law, involuntary manslaughter occurs when a person commits an act on federal property without due care that it might produce death. To establish a criminal case of manslaughter against Trump, prosecutors would need to prove each of the elements of that offense beyond a reasonable doubt: an act, committed without due care, that caused death.
“President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act,” Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, who co-led the Thursday hearing with Democrat Elaine Luria, said.
“In the end, this is not, as it may appear, a story of inaction in a time of crisis, but instead it was the final action of Donald Trump’s own plan to usurp the will of the American people and remain in power,” said Luria, a Virginia congresswoman.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 