Former Florida congressional candidate Pam Keith argued on Friday that Donald Trump should be indicted and arrested immediately.
Keith noted on Twitter that the forthcoming Senate trial is not a criminal proceeding, which means even if he is acquitted — as seems likely, according to The Washington Post — he could still be indicted and convicted for unlawful actions in court.
“That court can sentence him to prison for YEARS. Indeed, Trump SHOULD be indicted by a grand jury, arrested RIGHT NOW (because he’s a flight risk) & forced to watch the Senate hearings from a pre-trial detention facility.”
Keith, who describes herself as a “litigator & expert on workplace law,” believes that every Republican involved in the storming of the U.S. Capitol should be arrested for sedition.
Read this portion of the federal code THREE TIMES, and then ask yourself if there is sufficient evidence in the public sphere (I’m not even talking about what the FBI found in texts and emails), to charge EVERY MEMBER OF THE GOP who participated in the #SeditionFest pic.twitter.com/WtJWgSCZwL
— Pam Keith, Esq. (@PamKeithFL) January 29, 2021
According to Reuters , some legal experts believe that Trump will not likely face criminal charges for his role in the storming of the historic American building. Although the District of Columbia’s legal code deems that anyone who “willfully incites or urges other persons to engage in a riot” can be fined or jailed for up to 180 days, Trump reportedly can claim that his speech is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Reuters spoke to legal experts who said Trump could argue that he did not use the word “fight” in the context of attacking the Capitol and claim that his “rhetoric was sufficiently ambiguous.” Elsewhere, the publication noted that Trump also called for peaceful protests amid his pre-riot speech nearby the building.
“At one point in the speech, Trump told the crowd they should ‘peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,’” the outlet reported.
Still, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine previously claimed that his office is investigating Trump and all other speakers at the pre-riot rally for possible charges of “inciting violence.” As The Inquisitr reported, Racine noted that the district makes it illegal to encourage, cajole, and motivate people to commit violent acts. However, he said that his office would be balancing this law with First Amendment rights.
According to Racine, his team is going to examine the dynamics and energy of the crowd and the surrounding environment on the day of the riot. Notably, he said that people who repeatedly spoke of fighting might have crossed the line into criminal territory.
As reported by The Daily Dot , Ali Alexander, who spoke at a rally on the night before the storming of the Capitol and subsequent riots, controversially shouted “victory or death” to the crowd.
