A note that former president Donald Trump angrily ripped up in the days before the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection is likely to be the key piece of evidence that will prove Trump’s guilt in the plot to illegally overturn the 2020 election, according to former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.
The torn-up note features prominently in a new book from ABC News journalist Jonathan Karl, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party, and it confirms previous testimony presented to the House Select Committee that investigated Jan. 6.
Karl’s book was discussed on “Deadline: White House” Monday, and the issue of the note, in which top Army leaders said the military could not get involved in election issues, led Weissmann to note, “That note gets ripped up into pieces so no one could find it.”
Weissmann also explained why the note is so important in proving Trump’s role in the Capitol insurrection.
“As much of you think of it as a military organization with a hierarchy, they are also trained they do not violate the Constitution. And when there’s an invalid order, they cannot follow it because the Constitution comes first.
“So, to me, this is right to the heart of Donald Trump brushing up against one guardrail.”
Additionally, Weissmann said other evidence also points to how Trump and his top aides were planning to subvert the will of the voters in 2020.
“I have always been fascinated by the fact you had had the Defense Department and [Gen. Mark] Milley, with a lot going on behind the scenes, pushing back because you can’t engage in a coup without military backing. And the fact that Kash Patel was there, a figure with no military expertise whatsoever, and was installed there, to me, is always this unwritten story about what was happening.”
Should a man who wanted to turn the United States into a dictatorship be allowed near the White House again? No. And that’s why his prosecution and eventual conviction for that crime is so important if this country and our representative democracy are to survive.
