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And it’s true, of course, that Trump and so many in the MAGA party furthered the false narrative, but falling back on claims of being duped hasn’t really saved his followers—especially those who breached the U.S. Capitol.
Rossman, 38, from Independence, Missouri, pleaded guilty in September to his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and was sentenced to 36 months probation with a condition of intermittent incarceration, per The Kansas City Star. He’s also on the hook for $500 compensation for damages to the Capitol building. Rossman “entered the Speaker’s Office suite and tried to open doors while the Speaker’s terrified staffers sought shelter under their desks.”
The Kansas City Star reports that Holloman-Hughes’ document repeatedly cited examples of Trump’s fake stolen election claims, the former president’s directions to his rally audience to march to the Capitol, and various right-wing media outlets all pushing the bogus election conspiracy.
“Trump’s false claims were bolstered by our very own elected officials — local, state, and national, including Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri, who infamously raised a clinched fist in faux solidarity with persons gathered outside the Capitol before its breach,” the document reads.
“A defendant’s susceptibility to delusional thinking mitigates the severity of the offense and justifies leniency,” she wrote, adding that his beliefs were “cult-like” and “ill-informed” and his only drive was “to preserve the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.”
“From this factually flawed perspective, Mr. Rossman’s willingness to follow Trump’s explicit directive on January 6 to march on the Capitol is comparable to a misguided act of civil disobedience,” the defense attorney wrote.
Rossman is the 14th Missouri resident to be sentenced in connection with the Capitol riot, The Kansas City Star reports. But Rossman isn’t the first or last to blame Trump for encouraging them to participate in an armed insurrection on the country they claim to love.
Dustin Thompson was the first. Thompson, 38, an exterminator from Columbus, Ohio, says he went down “the rabbit hole” of election lies months before the presidential election even took place.
According to The New York Times, Thompson testified that he followed the former president’s calls to “fight like hell” when he joined the swarm of racists and domestic terrorists from Trump’s Stop the Steal rally at the Capitol.
“If the president’s giving you almost an order to do something,” he said, “I felt obligated to do that.”
In the weeks that followed Jan. 6 and insurrections were being identified and charged, many attributed their actions director to Trump and claimed they were just following “the president’s instructions.”
The question remains, however: Will those who actually orchestrated the Jan. 6 insurrection ever be prosecuted?
Why did Democrats do so surprisingly well in the midterms? It turns out they ran really good campaigns, as strategist Josh Wolf tells us on this week's episode of The Downballot. That means they defined their opponents aggressively, spent efficiently, and stayed the course despite endless second-guessing in the press. Wolf gives us an inside picture of how exactly these factors played out in the Arizona governor's race, one of the most important Democratic wins of the year. He also shines a light on an unsexy but crucial aspect of every campaign: how to manage a multi-million budget for an enterprise designed to spend down to zero by Election Day.
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