In a new filing with federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, federal prosecutors knocked former President Donald Trump for his involvement with a group known as the January 6 Choir. As its name suggests, the group is comprised of criminal defendants from the Capitol assault who’ve sung together. Trump spoke glowingly of participants in a rally speech to which the prosecutors pointed, and audio of the former president was on a released song that traced to the group.
And prosecutors say the involvement points to Trump’s continuing support for individual participants in the Capitol attack in 2021, which in turn, they say, is indicative of the ex-president’s intent following the 2020 election. The prosecutors notably also pointed to Trump having repeatedly dangled the prospect of presidential pardons for January 6 participants.
“The Government will also introduce evidence of the defendant’s public support for and association with the “January 6 Choir,” a group of particularly violent January 6 defendants detained at the District of Columbia jail. The defendant’s decision to repeatedly stand behind January 6 rioters and their cause is relevant to the jury’s determination of whether he intended the actions at the Capitol that day,” prosecutors’ recent filing stated.
The government was responding to a motion from Trump for removing certain language related to January 6 from his underlying indictment — language prosecutors say provides necessary context for the underlying allegations of criminal conspiracies targeting the 2020 election results.
The specific charges against Trump allege threats against government operations and the expression by everyday Americans of their right to vote, but the violence of January 6 is a part of the government’s broader case against the former president. And they also say that even geolocation data will be coming at trial that links Trump to the violence through the movement of listeners to his January 6 speech to the Capitol. The government also previewed that testimony and video evidence of Trump’s actions at the White House itself that day was also slated for trial.
