Dem
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GOP
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ABC News has a scoop about which canaries are singing to Special Counsel Jack Smith and what their songs are about. Dan Scavino has known Trump for 30-odd years. He knows Trump very well. Scavino refused to speak to the Jan. 6 Committee because he suspected the Committee would just grimace and do nothing. When Smith hit him with a subpoena, he did the canary thing because he understood that he would be in prison in a couple of weeks if he didn't. Smith doesn't mess around. According to ABC, Scavino told Smith that on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump was told over and over that a riot was brewing and he had to do something to stop it, yet he had no interest in doing so. None. When Trump was told that Mike Pence's life was in danger, Trump said: "So what?" Scavino and aide Nick Luna told Smith that Trump was willing to have a long-time loyalist and vice president of the United States be harmed because he refused to violate the Constitution. How's that going to go over with a jury?
When Scavino and others finally got to Trump and he posted a tweet to Twitter saying that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done," his staff was shocked. They wanted him to tell the rioters to go home. White House counsel Pat Cipollone thought Scavino wrote the tweet (he had the power to tweet for Trump and often did it). Cipollone chased down Scavino and accused him of writing the tweet. Scavino said he didn't do it. It was Trump himself this time. After that, Cipollone and others went back to Trump and told him that was "not what we need." Trump said: "But it is true."
Scavino was very worried things would get out of hand. He composed some potential tweets to calm the situation. After half an hour of arguing with him, Trump OKed a tweet saying only "stay peaceful." This was 2:38 p.m. Even after darling daughter Ivanka showed up in the Oval Office to try to get Trump to tell the rioters to go home, he wouldn't budge. Scavino said: "He was just not interested at that moment to put anything out." Mark Meadows told the Jan. 6 Committee the same thing: "He didn't want to do anything." Not even after then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, other members of Congress, other family members, and even Fox News personalities told him he had to do something to prevent it from getting really ugly, Trump still refused to take action. He just continued to watch Fox News on TV.
Finally, Darling Daughter's husband, Jared the soon-to-be real estate investment mogul with $2 billion of Saudi money to play with, convinced him to make a video that he posted to Twitter at 4:15 p.m. In it, he said, "We have to have peace, so go home. We love you. You're very special." Then he went back to watching Fox. When Fox started showing clips of the ongoing riot, Trump told Cipollone's deputy, Pat Philbin: "This is what happens when they try to steal an election." Philbin then told Trump: "It doesn't justify this."
This leaked account is no doubt only a small part of what Smith knows. In any event, it shows that Trump was urged over and over again to do something to stop the riot and he refused over and over. During the trial, Trump's lawyers may try to say: "He wasn't even aware of what was going on," but when Smith puts Scavino, Luna, Cipollone, and Philbin on the stand to tell what they saw firsthand, we think Trump's arguments aren't going to work well. (V)