At today's hearing at a Colorado trial in which lawyers are attempting to prevent former President Trump from getting on the 2024 ballot due to his conduct on January 6, 2021, his own lawyers questioned Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) about his use of the term "fight" in past tweets.
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00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:10 Good afternoon, Representative Swalwell.
00:15 >> Good afternoon, Counsel.
00:16 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:20 >> Am I correct that you weren't injured on January 6th?
00:24 >> I was not, no, not injured.
00:27 >> Yet you are the plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit that you brought
00:32 against Donald Trump in the United States District Court, District of Columbia.
00:36 Is that correct?
00:37 >> Yes.
00:39 >> And you're seeking damages in that lawsuit?
00:41 >> Unstated, but yes, meaning no dollar amount is in the state.
00:48 >> And as a lawyer, you understand that if this proceeding
00:54 against President Trump is successful, that would improve your chances of success in that lawsuit?
00:59 Correct?
01:01 >> Counsel, can you rephrase the question?
01:03 >> Yeah, you're a lawyer, are you not?
01:05 >> Yes.
01:06 >> And you understand that if this case goes against President Trump,
01:11 that likely increases your probability of success in your personal injury lawsuit against him, right?
01:15 >> Objection, Your Honor, with all this.
01:17 >> Goes to bias, Your Honor.
01:20 >> Go for it, Walt.
01:23 >> I'll leave it to the legal experts as to what this means for a separate lawsuit, I don't know.
01:28 >> Is it your view, sir, that President Trump has some or
01:50 had some lesser quantum of First Amendment rights than every other American on January 6th?
01:56 >> No, it's not right.
02:00 >> So he enjoyed the full, as far as you're concerned, he had every right that every other American had to speak with full First Amendment protections on that date.
02:10 >> In accordance with the law, yes.
02:19 >> And you pointed out that during his January 6th speech,
02:24 he used the phrase fight and fight like hell, correct?
02:27 >> Yes.
02:30 >> Okay, and you would acknowledge that that is in fact common or
02:35 not uncommon discourse in political circles during speeches, right?
02:41 >> Sorry, could you clarify?
02:44 >> Yeah, politicians often say fight, fight like hell, or words like that, right, when they give speeches.
02:49 >> Yes, sir.
02:50 >> You've done it yourself, right?
02:52 >> I have. >> Many of your Democratic colleagues do that too, right?
02:55 >> That's right, that's correct.
02:58 >> And when you do it, you're not calling for physical violence, right?
03:03 >> I am not.
03:05 >> And you're not saying that your Democratic colleagues are calling for physical violence, right?
03:09 >> In my experience, that's not how I interpret it, no.
03:13 >> And you judge that by the words that are said, right?
03:18 >> And the surroundings of where they are, yes.
03:21 >> I'd like to show you
03:34 exhibit 1066, which was designated as a cross exhibit.
03:45 >> Well, I'm not asking you to put it up on the screen.
03:52 I'm asking, did you have an objection to that?
03:54 >> No, I don't know.
03:57 >> Could you put up exhibit 1066, please?
04:00 >> Are you asking for it to be admitted?
04:03 >> I will, yes, since it appears to be no objection.
04:06 Can it be admitted, Your Honor?
04:07 >> Yeah, 1066 is admitted.
04:12 >> And sir, I will represent to you that this is a collection of tweets from your Twitter account.
04:19 And,
04:21 >> [INAUDIBLE]
04:29 >> We're having a slight technical snafu, so ask me to bear with us.
04:33 >> [INAUDIBLE]
05:01 >> I'm not going to go through all of these, sir, but why don't we look at page 16 first?
05:07 So if you put page 16 up.
05:09 And I ask you if you recognize that as a tweet from your verified Twitter account, dated May 2nd, 2022?
05:23 >> Yes, sir.
05:24 >> Okay, and you wrote, if you think they'll stop with a woman's right to choose, you haven't been paying attention.
05:30 We have to fight like our lives depend on it, because clearly they do.
05:33 You wrote that, right?
05:35 >> Yes, I did.
05:36 >> And you were not calling for any sort of physical fight, correct?
05:39 >> No, sir, I was not.
05:41 >> You were not advocating violence?
05:42 >> I was not.
05:46 >> And look at the next page, please.
05:49 And this is another tweet from your verified account, is that right?
05:54 >> Yes, sir.
05:56 >> And you wrote, this is just the beginning, they won't stop.
06:01 Fight like your lives depend on it, because they do, right?
06:04 >> It says #voteLewis, yes.
06:10 >> And again, you were not calling for physical violence, that was a metaphorical fight, right?
06:14 >> Right.
06:15 >> And I could go through a bunch more examples, but I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on that.
06:23 There was one other, I did want to bring your attention to ask you about.
06:31 If you would look at page 13, please.
06:36 Is this a tweet from your verified Twitter account, dated February 4th, 2022?
06:46 >> Looks like it, yes.
06:48 >> Okay, and you write there, Cheney and
06:53 Kinzinger may not be in my party, but in this fight, we're all on the same side.
06:57 You see that?
06:59 >> Yes, I do.
07:01 >> And what fight were you referring to here?
07:03 >> I have to see the tweet above it to have context, but
07:07 I'm assuming based on the date that it
07:14 refers to the January 6th investigation, but I have no confidence.
07:19 >> But when you say the January 6th investigation, you mean the January 6th select committee?
07:24 >> Yes.
07:25 >> Okay, and that was because Representative Cheney and
07:29 Kinzinger were the two Republican members who Speaker Pelosi had appointed to that committee,
07:34 is that right?
07:36 And you considered them to be on your side of that fight, correct?
07:43 >> I think I said we, but all of our side, yes, which I was on, yes.
07:48 >> Okay, all right, we'll put that exhibit aside.
07:51 Now, earlier today,
08:00 counsel showed you some tweets by President Trump.
08:07 You remember that?
08:08 >> I do.
08:09 >> Did counsel pick which tweets they were going to show you, or
08:12 did you discuss with them which tweets you wanted to testify about?
08:15 >> Chosen by counsel.
08:17 >> Did you have an objection?
08:19 >> I'll let him go.
08:23 >> I'm sorry, so now I missed the, can you repeat the question and answer it?
08:29 >> I think he said that they were chosen by counsel.
08:31 >> Okay.
08:31 >> So one that counsel focused on,
08:40 if you would put up the 224 PM, so
08:45 this is exhibit 148, page 83 in that first one.
08:49 Do you remember discussing this one at 224 PM?
08:52 >> Yes, I did.
08:58 >> And then if you go to the next page, the second tweet on that page.
09:07 Can you remember discussing the second tweet from 601 PM?
09:11 >> Yes, I did.
09:12 >> Okay, now let's look at the two that counsel decided to skip that were right in between those two.
09:16 Okay, let's look first at the tweet from 15 minutes after the first one you discussed at 224 PM.
09:24 Page 83, second tweet on the page.
09:29 >> I see it.
09:35 >> Okay, and at 238 PM, 15 minutes or so after the tweet that
09:41 you discussed about Vice President Pence, you see that President Trump wrote,
09:49 please support our Capitol Police and law enforcement.
09:52 They are truly on the side of our country.
09:54 Stay peaceful.
09:55 Do you see that?
09:57 >> Yes, I do.
09:57 >> Do you remember reading that on January 6th?
10:00 >> I do.
10:01 >> What did you understand that tweet to mean?
10:06 >> That he needed a ten-X before he said it, before the mob had come.
10:15 But he, I imagine, had seen the violence committed against the officers.
10:20 And believed that he had the power,
10:26 because he sent them there, to stop them from abusing the officers.
10:30 >> So that's what, strike that.
10:37 So whether he had the power or not, certainly he's telling people
10:43 to support our Capitol Police and law enforcement and stay peaceful, right?
10:50 >> And ask for your pass.
10:52 >> Yeah, and he told them that in his speech, right?
10:55 He told them to proceed peaceably and patriotically to the Capitol, right?
11:00 >> You have to play that for me.
11:04 >> Okay, well, the judges heard it, so I'm not gonna take the time to replay it now.
11:09 Let's look at the next tweet that he sent at 3.13 PM, if you could put that up, please.
11:13 You see that tweet?
11:15 He says, I'm asking for everyone at the US Capitol to remain peaceful.
11:20 No violence, exclamation mark.
11:22 Remember, we are the party of law and order.
11:25 Respect the law and our great men and women in blue.
11:27 Thank you, exclamation mark.
11:30 See that?
11:30 >> I do, sir.
11:32 >> Okay, do you remember reading that on January 6th?
11:35 >> I do, yes.
11:37 >> Okay, what did you understand that to mean on January 6th, sir?
11:42 >> That a lot of violence had taken place.
11:46 At that time, I was, as I said, probably just arriving with a gas mask in my hand
11:51 to the evacuation room, and the President is asking
11:56 the violent rioters to stop attacking the police.
12:03 >> So that's a couple of posts between the two posts that you have previously discussed,
12:10 where the President is asking people to stop attacking and be peaceful, right?
12:16 >> In these tweets, yes.
12:19 >> In those tweets.
12:20 And we looked at a short video, about one minute,
12:27 where he asked people to do exactly the same thing, right?
12:30 To be peaceful.
12:31 >> Essentially, yes.
12:32 >> Yeah, and that came somewhere in the 3 o'clock hour, so
12:36 presumably around or slightly after that 3.13 PM tweet, right?
12:40 >> That's about right.
12:42 >> Yeah.
12:44 >> I'm done with that now, but thank you.
12:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]
12:56 I'm done with that now, but thank you.
12:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]
13:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]
13:17 I don't have any further questions for you, sir.
13:36 >> Thank you very much.
13:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]