Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Judge Shuts Down Trump Lawyer's Claim That He Urged Supporters To Be Peaceful On Jan. 6

Judge Shuts Down Trump Lawyer's Claim That He Urged Supporters To Be Peaceful On Jan. 6
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Things took a tense turn in a federal court hearing on Monday about former Republican President Donald Trump's role in the January 6 insurrection, when federal Judge Amit Mehta appeared to have little patience for Trump's version of the story.

Trump's lawyers attempted to claim that Trump told his supporters to behave "peacefully and patriotically" during the January 6 events. But Judge Mehta was having none of it, citing Trump's hours of silence before and during the storming of the Capitol.


Mehta bluntly shot back at Trump's lawyer, "Let's stick with the facts," before listing off the myriad ways Trump's behavior could have been construed as an endorsement of the deadly coup attempt.

His response left many people on social media cheering.

The hearing was in response to three civil suits brought by Capitol Police and House Democrats Eric Swalwell and Bennie Thompson that allege Trump and his allies, including Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., Republican Representative Mo Brooks and far-right groups The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, directly instigated the attack on the Capitol.

Trump's lawyers are pushing for the suits to be thrown out of court on the basis of presidential immunity. During the hearing, one of Trump's lawyers, Jesse Binnall, argued that Trump had urged his supporters to be peaceful on January 6.

Binnall also ttempted to argue that Trump's rhetoric was no different than that of leftist Senator Bernie Sanders' in the lead-up to the 2017 shooting of GOP Representative Steve Scalise during a congressional baseball game practice.

Judge Mehta shot back that he was not "interested" in "whataboutism," before making it clear he was not about to let Trump's lawyers' version of events stand. He responded:

"Let's stick with the facts..."
"[For a] two-hour period, [Trump did not] take to Twitter or to any other type of communication and say, 'Stop. Get out of the Capitol. What you are doing is not what I wanted you to do.'"
"What would you have me do with the allegation that the president did not act?"

On social media, people applauded Mehta for his no-nonsense approach to the Trump lawyers' claims.










Though Mehta, an Obama appointee, seemed least amenable to the Trump team's claims, he was also skeptical of the plaintiffs' claims that Trump's behavior constituted a conspiracy and seemed unsure about their assertion that it fell outside the parameters of presidential immunity from prosecution.

Judge Mehta's ruling on the hearing is still forthcoming as of this writing.

More from People/donald-trump

Alex Cooper singing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame'
@MBDChicago/Twitter (X)

'Call Her Daddy' Host Alex Cooper Gets Brutally Booed At Wrigley Field After Painfully Off-Key Singing

If there's one thing that all baseball fans can come together about, it's the importance of their traditions—and songs.

In the seventh inning at Wrigley Field during a match between the Cubs and the Cardinals, popular Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper was invited to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and brought two backup dancers with her.

Keep ReadingShow less
Linda Yaccarino
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

X CEO Resigns Day After AI Chatbot Grok Praised Hitler In Alarming Series Of Antisemitic Tweets

Linda Yaccarino—the former NBC Universal executive who later took the reins at X—stepped down as CEO of billionaire Elon Musk's platform after two years on the job just a day after Grok, the platform's AI chatbot, went on antisemitic rants and openly praised Adolf Hitler.

Grok issued deeply antisemitic responses on Tuesday following a reported software update that encouraged the bot to embrace what developers described as the “politically incorrect.” Taking that directive to heart, Grok responded with a series of disturbing posts that included praise for Hitler and even a statement expressing its aspiration to become a “digital version” of the Nazi leader.

Keep ReadingShow less
Black and white photo of a falling spider.
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

People Divulge Their 'Rare' Phobias That People Refuse To Believe

I am a SEVERE claustrophobic.

I have struggled with this issue for decades.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ted Cruz
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

'The Onion' Rips Ted Cruz With Brutal Headline After Yet Another Vacation During Texas Disaster

The satirical news site The Onion had social media users cackling with its brutal headline mocking Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz for once again being out of the country when Texas was hit by another deadly natural disaster.

Cruz faced considerable national backlash after he flew to Cancún while millions of people went without food and water as a result of the February 2021 Texas power disaster. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly; some estimates suggested as many as 702 people were killed as a result of the crisis.

Keep ReadingShow less
Elon Musk and Grimes
Kevin Tachman/Getty Images for Vogue

Elon Musk's Ex Grimes Calls X Platform A 'Poison' And 'Theatre' After Social Media Hiatus

Claire Boucher—who performs and creates under her stage name Grimes, but prefers her birth name or just "C" offstage—recently returned to her musical persona's social media accounts after taking a hiatus for her own well-being.

Once extremely active, she noted on X in April:

Keep ReadingShow less