Circumstantial Evidence and a Call for Prayer

All experienced lawyers and many non-lawyers understand that circumstantial evidence can be even more powerful and persuasive than eye witness testimony. There is a standard instruction to that effect in every trial judge’s bench book. It can be like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. With each properly placed piece, the picture becomes clearer.

As each new day passes since the 6 January insurrection, we see more evidence that points to a broad ranging conspiracy that involved a number of Members of Congress and Senators.

A New Jersey Congresswoman reported yesterday that she witnessed three of her colleagues escorting what appeared to be a few individuals involved in the insurrection on a tour (recon) of the Capitol just one day before the riots started. Coincidence? All three were vocal objectors to the certification of the election.

A video of a group of Members of Congress gathered in a secure location within the Capitol complex when rioters were roaming the halls and trying to break doors in search of their targets showed several of our representatives refusing repeated offers of masks, and refusing to wear masks. The unmasked members did not seem worried. It was as if they were just having a casual chat, waiting for something of which they had no apparent dread.

In my experience, these are not coincidences, nor innocent actions. I believe part of the plan of the conspirators was to target specific Members of Congress and Senators with violence, and the plan included the way to identify “friendlies.” “Watch for those not wearing masks. That’s the sign, they’re with us.” Most rioters would not recognize most members of Congress, and most are not rocket scientists in the first place, so a simple sign was needed to distinguish friend from foe.

More evidence will continue to unfold with each passing hour. Regardless of our politics, we all need to realize this was not just a bunch of Trump supporters involved in a protest that got out of hand. No, it was a carefully planned coup d’etat. When the plotters failed to gain physical custody of the leaders they targeted, and police started pushing back, the political posturing started...and is still going on. The plotters counted on others in the conspiracy to delay any deployment of additional law enforcement or National Guard troops until after they had full control of the Capitol and physical custody or the dead bodies of Congressional leaders.

I am so very thankful that this plot failed, and is serving as a wake up call to many Americans. It woke up the leaders of the Senate, it woke up the bankers who financed Trump and his enablers, and perhaps it even woke up some who supported the plot as a legitimate response to a “stolen election.”

I pray that our new President and Vice President can be inaugurated peacefully, that the House and Senate will discipline or expel those of its members who were complicit in the failed plot, and that some semblance of harmony and normalcy can emerge from all the chaos. There is so much work that needs to be done, and my prayer is that a new sense of bipartisan cooperation will emerge. We are already seeing signs of that.

We need to heed the warnings of our FBI and Homeland Security that our greatest threat is not a foreign power. No. It is radicalized groups of disgruntled Americans, a good number of whom have served in our armed forces, who either have no hope for a peaceful future in our country under our current Constitution or have simply decided that revolution is essential to preserve the America of their ancestors.

New legislation is desperately needed to neutralize the threat posed by domestic terror groups. Marching to the steps of a state Capitol with assault weapons and threats, or to the home doorsteps of political leaders they oppose, must be criminalized in a way that is fully consistent with the Constitution.

I pray for the physical safety of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and their families, and for all Congressional leaders, members and their staffs. I pray also for the faithful and unheralded government employees at all levels, that they will help steer us all through these troubled waters.

One of my major concerns is that one of the radicals who made an idol out of Trump, and invested his or her whole future in his successful reelection, will be a modern day John Wilkes Booth, the coward and traitor who executed one of our greatest Presidents: a man of true peace who gracefully allowed the Confederate officers to keep their sidearms and paroled all the enemy troops to return to their homes with their horses right after their surrender on the field of battle. Evil can not again be allowed to snuff out a President who is trying to calm the waters and bring America back from the brink of self destruction. Please join me in fervent prayer for our new President and other national leaders.

Lastly, I pray for all, on both sides of the political spectrum, who have lost their sense of lawful purpose in life, or who feel disconnected from family and mainstream America and desire to rob others of their peace and joy. May the God of all comfort meet them at their lowest point, and grant them forgiveness, peace and joy. May the intensity of their passion be shifted away from hate and insurrection toward love and true patriotism. May that transformation happen on such a broad scale that it stimulates a true revival in America and throughout the world. Amen