Rep. Murphy helps lay out Jan. 6 panel’s case against Trump

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy capped off her congressional career by voting with her fellow Jan. 6 Committee members to recommend the prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

“Trump turned to his supporters, those who believed his lies about a stolen election‚” Murphy, D-Winter Park, said Monday during the committee’s final hearing. “He summoned a crowd to the nation’s Capitol on January 6, hoping that they would pressure Congress to do what he could not do on his own.”

Murphy’s comments involved the fourth and final of the committee’s findings of potential criminal charges, that Trump violated a federal statute against inciting, assisting, or engaging in insurrection or giving aid or comfort to an insurrection.

“Despite having knowledge of the threats of violence presented by the crowd gathered on Jan. 6, President Trump gave an incendiary speech, declaring without basis that the election had been stolen and encouraging his supporters to ‘fight like hell’,” she said.

Murphy laid out the committee’s findings on the issue of Trump’s incitement, including a tweet from Dec. 19, 2020 in which he urged his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6. “Be there, will be wild!” Trump wrote.

“The President’s December 19 tweet galvanized domestic violent extremists, including members of the Oathkeepers, the Proud Boys and organized militia groups,” Murphy said. “These individuals began organizing to come to the Capitol in large numbers with the specific intent to use violence to disrupt the certification of the election during the joint session.”

She cited warnings to the FBI, Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies that violence could be expected, including one that read, “Their plan is to literally kill people. Please, please take this tip seriously and investigate further.”

The committee also recommended charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, and conspiracy to make a false statement.

Murphy’s fellow Central Florida Democrats, U.S. Reps. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, and Val Demings, D-Orlando, praised the committee’s work.

“I was trapped in the House Chamber during the attack on our Capitol,” Soto said in a statement. “...Today, [Trump] may finally be held accountable for inciting a violent insurrection on January 6, 2021, to overthrow our government and stop the peaceful transfer of power.”

Demings, a former House impeachment manager during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, said in a statement, “Everyone counts and everyone is accountable, up to and including the President of the United States. The January 6th attacks were provoked by the former President. There is no doubt about this.”

Murphy did not seek reelection this year to a fourth term. Her redrawn seat was won by Republican U.S. Rep.-elect Cory Mills, whose spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

The offices of Florida’s Republican U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Taryn Fenske, a spokeswoman for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis, a potential GOP presidential primary rival of Trump’s in 2024, called the one-year commemoration of the Jan. 6 attack attended by President Biden a “smear” on Trump supporters and said coverage would be “nauseating.”

Since then, however, he has come under fire from Trump, who blasted him as “Ron DeSanctimonious” and an “average Republican governor” who begged Trump for an endorsement in 2018.