Lawyers for at least seven accused rioters have referenced the former president in filings and statements.
The Senate may have acquitted Donald Trump of inciting an insurrection, but the former president still faces accusations of incitement from another source: Capitol rioters themselves. Attorneys for at least seven have referenced Mr. Trump in efforts to explain their clients’ actions, according to statements and documents reviewed by CBS News. The attorney for Matthew Ryan Miller — who was allegedly photographed discharging a fire extinguisher on the steps of the U.S. Capitol — said during a hearing Tuesday that his client was «there at the behest of then-President Trump.» He wrote in a February 7 filing arguing for his client’s pretrial release, «Mr. Miller concedes he was on the Capitol grounds to protest along with thousands of other protesters and was merely following the directions of then-President Trump, the country’s chief law enforcement officer, and other speakers to march to the Capitol.» Similarly, the defense attorney for Ethan Nordean, an accused Proud Boys member, wrote in a filing that then-President Trump «egged on» his client. A lawyer for accused Proud Boy wrote that his client was «duped,» and was «responding to the entreaties of the then commander in chief.» The strategy is similar to an «advice of counsel» defense, says Randy Zelin, a criminal defense attorney at Wilk Auslander LLP and an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School. The tactic argues that a defendant couldn’t have had criminal intent if they were acting on advice from their attorney. Although Mr. Trump isn’t an attorney, Zelin says there is a notion that if someone who makes the laws tells you what to do, someone could argue they had no intention to break the law.
