Brockton Enterprise
By Cody Shephard
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch said Wednesday that sedition charges should be considered against President Donald Trump in the wake of a pro-Trump riot at the United States Capitol Building that left four people dead.
“What we just witnessed was an attempt by people to negate an entire branch of government,” said Lynch, safe at his studio apartment near the Capitol hours after the riot. “These protesters were trying to put the legislature out of business.”
Lynch, a Boston Democrat, represents Massachusetts’ 8th congressional district, which covers Abington, Braintree, Brockton, Hingham, Quincy, Scituate, Stoughton, Weymouth, parts of Boston and about a dozen other communities.
He was not inside the House Chamber during the count and affirmation of the electoral votes for President-elect Joseph Biden at the time the mob breached the Capitol because only 26 members of the U.S. House of Representatives are allowed in at one time with COVID-19 safety protocols. He was awaiting his rotation at the Russell Senate Office Building when the rioters stormed the Capitol.
“I was rather surprised at the ease at which these groups were able to enter the Capitol because we had a fairly heavy Capitol Police presence,” Lynch said. “But the crowd just rolled right over the barriers and went right past the Capitol Police and they did not attempt to dissuade them. They basically stood down as the protesters went up the stairs and occupied the balcony and took possession of the Capitol. That was surprising.”
Lynch said he believes the police’s response was “a matter of leadership of instruction.”
“I don’t know enough about their frame of mind or the posture of the police at that time,” he said. “All I know is they were rolled over and the protesters went right past them and there was no resistance offered by the police.”
Lynch, who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on National Security, guaranteed an investigation into the U.S. Capitol Police’s response.
“That will be investigated,” he said. “My colleagues have said they were shocked, surprised, stunned and, while in the House Chamber, they were taken off the floor, guided out, with guns drawn and furniture was used to barricade the door to prevent the mob from entering.”
Some members of Congress are calling for Trump, who has fewer than two weeks left in office, to be impeached by the House of Representatives and removed from office by the Senate.
Lynch on Wednesday evening initially said he didn’t believe impeachment was the proper response to the riots, but changed his position in a Thursday morning statement, meaning the entire Massachusetts congressional delegation now supports removing Trump from office.
“I do support beginning the procedures of invoking the 25th amendment or drawing up articles of impeachment to limit his ability to cause any further damage to the country,” Lynch said. “We would need a significant number of cabinet members to come forward and say the President is mentally unfit and join with the House and Senate in drafting a petition of disability. While it is extremely unlikely that this process could succeed within 13 days, it would still send a clear message to other government agencies to resist any questionable or momentous instructions President Trump may give that would put the lives of Americans in peril or threaten our National Security.”
After that, Lynch said he believes it’s appropriate to consider whether Trump’s actions warrant sedition charges.
Sedition is defined by Merriam-Webster as the “incitement of, resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.” In the U.S., it is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
“I think we have to consider sedition charges on and after the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris,” he said. “I think there are elements of a sedition charge that are present here, but I think we should let cooler heads look closely at the conduct, some of which we are not clearly aware of yet. I think sedition would be the more tangible offense rather than trying to remove the president from office by force. I think that would be more disruptive. I think we can handle it better than that given the fact that he’s only got 14 days left in office.”
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