The report describes a president “shockingly derelict” in immediately intervening to stop the “most serious invasion” of the Capitol by domestic terrorists in the nation’s history, Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon.
Scavino informed Smith's investigators that as the violence intensified on Jan. 6, Trump showed little interest in taking further action to curb it, sources told ABC News.
“Trump was ‘very angry’ that day – not angry at what his supporters were doing to a pillar of American democracy, but steaming that the election was allegedly stolen from him and his supporters, who were ‘angry on his behalf,’” ABC News reported. “Scavino described it all as ‘very unsettling,’” sources told the outlet.
The ex-president would occasionally sit silently at the head of the table, arms folded, and gaze fixed on the TV, Scavino said, according to sources.
While speaking with Smith's team, Scavino recalled telling Trump in a phone call the night of Jan. 6: "This is all your legacy here, and there's smoke coming out of the Capitol," sources told ABC News. Scavino said he hoped Trump would ultimately help lead a peaceful transfer of power.
Former Trump aide Nick Luna also shared that when the ex-president was told about Vice President Mike Pence’s need to be moved to a secure location, Trump responded by saying "So what?" Luna perceived this as an “unexpected willingness” on Trump's part to expose a longtime loyalist to potential harm.
“Indeed, Trump’s angry response to Scavino’s comment to him that there’s smoke coming out of the Capitol in effect was, ‘Let it Burn,’” Gershman said. “And his nonchalant indifference to Vice President Pence’s safety and welfare offers chilling proof that Trump’s conscious purpose, namely, his intent, was first to incite an insurrection and then by his inaction to demonstrate his intent that the insurrection effectively stop Congress from doing its constitutional duty to certify the election results.”