Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows wrote:

“I conclude … that the record establishes that Mr. Trump, over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power,” Bellows said in her ruling. “I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it.”

This uses words like inflame, encouraged, and incendiary that pussyfoot around calling out Trump for what he did.

I’ve read quotes from others using phrases to describe what Trump did on his Jan. 6th rally as egging his supporters on or inciting them.

These words also pussyfoot around what he really did.

Prior to Jan. 6th he’d ordered his lieutenants to do whatever they could to over turn the election. Then came the crucial day, Jan. 6th.

Trump knew that the crowd he was addressing were his loyal soldiers and he was their commander-in-chief. He knew that many of them were prone to violence. He also had every reason to believe that some of them were armed.

What he did in addressing them was giving them not merely marching orders, which he did, but he ordered them without using the exact word to “attack” the Capitol and do whatever necessary to stop the certification of the election. He knew that any attempted entry into the Capitol was illegal and law enforcement would try to stop it, and thus would be an attack.

Even those who are citing the 14th Ammendment miss a crucial point. It uses the words “engaged in an insurrection” but this doesn’t tell the true story. His supporters “engaged” in an insurrection. Trump led an insurrection.

To try the criminals who attacked the Capitol and imprison them while letting their commander-in-chief and his cohorts walk free is like having put NAZI soldiers in POW camps and not having had the Nuremberg trials.