Decoding President Trump’s January 6 tweets

The deeper I get into the mysteries of Jan. 6, 2021, the more mysteries I uncover.

In reading the most recent motion against President Trump by special counsel Jack Smith, I came across the following: “The defendant [Trump] at least has an argument – though he issued the 2:38 p.m. and 3:13 p.m. Tweets only after being harangued by his staff while he adamantly refused to do anything at all – that he was addressing a matter of public safety as President (the riot at the Capitol).”

What struck me as odd was not that Smith buried the exculpatory remarks Trump made in those tweets – hell, he buried Trump’s “peacefully and patriotically” caution during his speech – but that he placed them at 2:38 p.m. and 3:13 p.m.

In my book “Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6,” I placed the tweets at 1:38 p.m. and 2:13 p.m. My best source was an article in FactCheck.org from Feb. 17, 2023, headlined, “Trump’s Dubious Claim About ‘Hidden’ Tweets Exonerating Him for Jan. 6 Capitol Attack.”

“Now that Twitter and Facebook have reinstated Donald Trump’s accounts,” writes Robert Farley, “the former president says two Jan. 6, 2021, tweets that the ‘highly partisan January 6th Committee’ tried to hide have now been ‘fully restored’ and ‘fully exonerate me.'”

Farley takes issue with both the claim that the J6 committee tried to hide the tweets and that they exonerated Trump. Writes Farley, “Rather than exonerating the president, the report states, ‘Almost everyone, including staff in the White House also found the President’s 2:38 p.m. and 3:13 p.m. tweets to be insufficient because they did not instruct the rioters to leave the Capitol.'”

Farley quotes the report accurately. What he does not do is square his own reporting with the actual tweets, which are reproduced on the page.

The first one reads, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful! 1:38 PM · Jan 6, 2021.”

The second one reads, “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you! 2:13 PM · Jan 6, 2021.”

Seeing this I checked the sourcing of the J6 committee report. Although the language of the tweets remains the same, the timing is way off. The link for the first one leads to a tweet at 7:38 p.m.

Looking for a pattern, I checked the second of these two tweets, and that clocked in at 1:43 a.m. on Jan. 7. In sum, there was no pattern. Despite its Talmudic detailing of events, the J6 committee frequently bent the timeline to advance its agenda.

Consider this gem: “A woman who attempted to forcibly enter the Chamber of the House of Representatives through a broken window while the House was in session was shot and killed by police guarding the chamber.”

The unnamed woman, an unarmed 14-year Air Force veteran named Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed without warning at 2:44 p.m. The House was not in session. The report writers knew this. By corrupting the timeline, they attempt to exonerate the shooter.

In fact, Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi “were ushered off the Senate and House floors, respectively” about 2:13 p.m., 10 minutes before Babbitt entered the Capitol, a half hour before she was shot.

Timing matters. Smith’s claim that Trump “adamantly refused to do anything at all” is negated by his own acknowledgment of Trump’s tweets. If FactCheck’s tweets are genuine, Trump’s case gets much stronger.

Trump’s speech on the Ellipse ended about 1:10 p.m. Indifferent to his own safety, Trump strenuously (and famously) insisted on going to the Capitol. The Secret Service overruled him.

Trump arrived at the White House at 1:30 p.m. The Capitol’s outer perimeter had been breached at 12:53 p.m. while Trump was still speaking at the Ellipse, a 45-minute walk away. These people, Ray Epps in the lead, had not heard his speech.

According to the J6 committee report, “It appears that at 1:39 p.m. and 2:03 p.m., after being informed of the riot at the Capitol, President Trump called his lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani. These calls lasted approximately four minutes and eight minutes, respectively.”

If FactCheck is right, the first tweet would have preceded the call to Giuliani by one minute and the second would have followed his second call by two minutes.

The House J6 committee and Smith, among others, have savaged Trump for tweeting “stay peaceful” and “remain peaceful,” but both tweets would seem to have been sent before he knew the Capitol building was breached.

The January 6 House committee’s reporting about the state of the White House on the afternoon of that memorable day is a hopeless mishmash of hearsay, secondhand gossip, and apple-polishing all bent to indict Donald Trump.

History deserves better.

Jack Cashill’s new book, “Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6,” is now available in all formats.