Well-known University of Michigan Law School professor of law and former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade announced Wednesday that in her opinion a “strong case” can be made that Donald Trump, the former president, “committed 5 counts of manslaughter” on January 6, 2021.
McQuade did not specify who the victims are, but there are at least five deaths associated with the January 6 insurrection. Among them, Ashli Babbitt, and Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, along with three others who died of natural causes or accidental death. At least four law enforcement officers who responded to the January 6 attack later died by suicide.
“I think a strong case can be made that Trump committed 5 counts of manslaughter on Jan 6 by recklessly causing the unintended deaths of others,” McQuade, who is also an NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst said.
“Under DC law, manslaughter occurs when a person recklessly causes an unintentional death. Under the federal Assimilative Crimes Act, state (or DC) law can be charged federally when it occurs on federal property,” she added. “For manslaughter, it’s not necessary to show that the defendant intended the deaths to occur. That’s what makes it different from murder.”
Central to her argument is this key claim:
“As president, Trump has a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. His failure to call up the national guard or even to call off the mob could be described as ‘causing’ the 5 unintentional deaths [at] the Capitol.”
“To prove Trump acted recklessly, prosecutors would need to show he was aware of a risk and chose to ignore it. Here, he knew the crowd was armed and angry. And he could see on TV that they were engaging in violence. Death of an officer or member of the mob was a very real risk,” she continued. “Of course, he himself was the one who set this risk in motion by summoning the mob and then lighting the fuse with his Ellipse speech urging them to march to the Capitol, but that conduct raises some sticky 1st Amendment concerns. His inaction in stopping the violence does not.”
“Manslaughter should not displace the wider charges of attacking our democracy by engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruct an official proceeding or commit sedition, but should supplement those crimes to address the harms he caused with those deaths,” she warned.
Reinforcing her strong remarks, McQuade also quipped, “DOJ, you up yet?”
Several former DOJ officials who started out defending Attorney General Merrick Garland’s handling of the January 6 insurrection – including the fact that the leaders of the insurrection have yet to be charged – have since made clear they believe the Attorney General has not grasped the seriousness of not indicting those at the top, including Donald Trump.