Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene testified Friday in a hearing for a court case to toss her off the 2022 ballot that she was a ‘victim’ of the Capitol riot – and thus not an active party in it.
‘I was on the House chamber when it happened. I had to be evacuated to safety,’ she recounted from the stand. We were held for hours, in a secret location, protected by Capitol Police, military members for hours, until they cleared the Capitol.’
‘Yes, I was a victim of the riot that day,’ the Georgia lawmaker added.
A handful of Greene’s constituents have sued to prevent her re-election, alleging her participation in assisting the January 6 Capitol attack, which they say violated the 14th Amendment.
To questions like whether she encouraged former President Donald Trump to impose martial law to stay in power she answered, ‘I do not recall.’
Her attorney, James Bopp Jr., claimed to also represent Trump and tried to make an executive privilege claim when questions about martial law were asked.
Greene testified under oath that she had never heard of any threats of violence in the lead-up to January 6 – instead saying she thought left-leaning activists were responsible.
‘I heard a gunshot, we all heard it. And we were so confused, we thought Antifa was breaking in or [Black Lives Matter], because those were the riots that had gone on and one all of 2020 – day in and day out – just horrible riots all over the country,’ Greene recounted in the Georgia courtroom. ‘That was the only thing that made sense for most of us.’
She denied encouraging violence by telling Trump supporters to descend on D.C. the day Congress was counting the Electoral College votes, to cement now President Joe Biden as the 2020 election winner.
‘I was asking people to come for a peaceful march, which everyone is entitled to do under their First Amendment,’ Greene said, with political ally Rep. Matt Gaetz seated in the audience. ‘But I was not asking them to actively engage in violence or any type of action.’
Time and time again, she said she only believed leftists were capable of violence, defending some of the January 6 participants as ‘patriots’ because they were veterans.
‘The only violence I’d ever seen was Antifa and BLM riots and I’ve been to so many Trump rallies – have never once seen violence out of Trump people. I don’t recall any talk of violence,’ Greene said.
‘We mostly thought it was Antifa dressed up as Trump supporters,’ Greene later testified when asked who she thought was attacking the Capitol when it went into lockdown.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene denied encouraging violence on January 6 as she took the stand Friday in a Georgia courtroom for an administrative hearing for the case to have her thrown off the ballot
Judge Charles Beaudrot speaks to participants in the courtroom at the Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene hearing on Friday in Atlanta
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene sits in an Atlanta courtroom Friday for a hearing about a lawsuit filed by Georgia voters saying she should be disqualified from appearing on the November ballot due to her alleged involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack
Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz appears in the audience at Friday’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene hearing. Gaetz is one of her top allies on Capitol Hill
One of the lawyers for the Georgia voters, Andrew Celli, focused intently on a Facebook video Greene had posted in the run-up to January 6 where she said Trump supporters should not accept a ‘peaceful transfer’ of power, like incoming President Joe Biden wanted.
‘She said the quiet part out loud,’ Celli said during his closing statement.
He had asked Greene about previous statements and social media postings the congresswoman made about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, including that she was guilty of treason and that a ‘a bullet to the head would be quicker’ to remove the California Democrat.
Celli was trying to knock down Greene’s testimony that she would ‘never mean anything for violence.’
‘I don’t support violence of any kind. And I’ve said it over and over again. So I I’m telling you,’ Greene said Friday.
On the stand, Greene denied specifically making those statements.
‘I’m not answering that question – speculation. No I haven’t said that,’ Greene answered when Celli asked her whether she thought, ‘Speaker Pelosi is a traitor to the country, right?’
Greene then revised her answer.
‘Oh no wait. Hold on now, I believe by not upholding – by not securing the border that that violates her oath of office,’ the lawmaker said.
Celli asked Greene, specifically, if she used the words ‘traitor to the country’ about Pelosi. And asked her if ‘it’s a crime punishable by death is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason.’
‘This is what I was telling you – she doesn’t uphold our laws,’ Greene answered.
‘It’s a simple yes or no question – did you say those words?’ the lawyer asked.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene arrives at a court hearing in Atlanta Friday
Supporters of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene applaud the Georgia Republican during Friday’s hearing in Atlanta
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during Friday’s hearing in Atlanta
Greene answered that ‘according to the CNN article I did,’ but throughout the hearing she argued that the news network had ‘lied’ about her record.
‘I don’t recall saying all of this. But I do recall having said this – I totally disagree with the border issues,’ she said.
Celli asked Greene if she ‘advocated the use of physical violence’ against people she disagreed with politically.
‘I don’t think so. I don’t know how to answer that,’ Greene replied.
The lawyer brought up a like from Greene’s Facebook account on a post that said ‘a bullet to the head of Nancy Pelosi would be a quicker way to remove her as speaker of the House than impeachment.’
It was among the expressions of support on social media that got Greene pushed from her committee assignments by Democrats early in her Congressional tenure.
Under oath, Greene responded, ‘testifying, I have no idea who liked that comment.’
‘I am telling you I do not know,’ Greene added, when Celli floated, ‘it could have been you, right?’
Celli then pointed out that Pelosi was one of the lawmakers targeted by the MAGA mob during the January 6 attack.
During his closing statement, he charged that Greene ‘advocated violence against the Speaker of the House, the highest ranking member of the House, Mrs. Pelosi, the very house that was attacked on January 6, 2021.’
‘She admitted it. She kind of wiggled there for a second, but she admitted it. And you saw that with your eyes,’ Celli said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene looks at a print-out handed to her of a video she filmed several years ago about protesting in Washington, D.C. during a court hearing in Atlanta on Friday
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attorney James Bopp sits during the Friday court hearing in Atlanta
Greene’s political ally, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, is captured walking into the Atlanta courtroom Friday
The legal complaint charges that Greene ‘voluntarily aided and engaged in an insurrection to obstruct the peaceful transfer of presidential power, disqualifying her from serving as a Member of Congress.’
The legal filing points to section three of the 14th Amendment that says no Member of Congress, who has taken the oath of office, ‘shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion’ against the United States.
During his opening statement, Greene’s attorney Bopp laid out a number of defenses, including that Greene sent out tweets during the attack asking the MAGA mob not to get violent and that she was ‘scared and confused.’
‘And that is not how someone who planned the attack would react,’ Bopp said.
Greene said she was ‘shocked’ once the Capitol went into lockdown.
Bopp also pushed that the determination of whether she take office can’t occur before the election – and thus the voters can’t legally push her off the ballot before the state’s May 24 Republican primary.
‘She cannot be disqualified today because it cannot be determined that she is ineligible for office on January 3, 2022. That should end this,’ Bopp said.
The Constitution’s definition of engagement is broad in that an individual merely has to voluntarily ‘assist’ the insurrection.
Celli showed a number of Greene’s tweets to the courtroom that encouraged Trump supporters to come to Washington on January 6.
She pointed out that she ‘had no knowledge of any attempt’ to interfere with the process of counting Electoral College votes.
Greene answered ‘no, that’s not accurate’ when asked if she wished that Congress not certify now President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election – but affirmed that she still believed in the so-called big lie, that former President Donald Trump lost the election to widespread voter fraud.
‘Well, yes, we saw a tremendous amount of voter fraud,’ the Georgia lawmaker said.
She added that her husband went to his polling place and was told that he had already voted absentee, which she said he hadn’t.
Throughout the Friday hearing, Bopp objected to Celli’s line of questioning, while Judge Charles Beaudrot grumbled over the voters’ attorneys calling of a law professor to give a history lesson.
The original legal filing linked Greene’s participation in January 6 to comments she made during a Newsmax television appearance on January 5 when she said, ‘This is our 1776 moment.’
On Friday, Greene was questioned extensively about her understanding of the Revolutionary War, 1776, the violent overthrow of British rule and whether her statements on January 5 amounted to the same call to action.
The hearing dipped into the absurd when Celli suggested that a quote Greene said to supporters in advance of January 6: ‘we will not go quietly into the night,’ was borrowed from Bill Pullman’s presidential character from the 1996 blockbuster, Independence Day.
‘Now that phrase … that’s not something you came up on your own, is it?’
Greene said she didn’t know.
‘That’s something you borrowed from a movie script,’ Celli said. ‘You borrowed that line from the movie Independence Day.’
‘No,’ the congresswoman said.
Celli then played the scene in question in which Pullman rallies pilots to take on the aliens on the July 4th holiday.
‘I think it’s probably a great movie. I don’t watch movies in a long time, from what I remember it’s a great movie,’ Greene commented, saying she had previously seen the film.
‘You are getting us quite the entertainment today,’ she told the lawyer, adding, ‘can we watch the whole movie?’
Laughs broke out in the courtroom as the clip concluded.
Greene didn’t buy the lawyer’s take: ‘I don’t recall getting any inspiration from this Hollywood movie like you’re suggesting.’
‘So you were not communicating in referencing that film that January 6 was going to be a new kind of Independence Day?’ the lawyer asked. ‘By the way Independence Day is July 4 … it’s July 4th of 1776?’
Greene said ‘that’s right,’ but also offered, ‘All I was talking about was objecting and standing up for people’s votes in our elections.’
During his closing statement, Celli pushed, ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene knew perfectly well what 1776 meant that it meant violence against the government, overthrowing a tyrannical government.’
‘And that was Plan B of January 6, 2021,’ Celli said.
Wrapping up, Celli argued Greene’s statements helped provide the ‘spark’ that lit the Capitol attack.
‘She was one of several leaders who gathered the kindling, who created the conditions that made it possible for there to be an explosion of violence at the Capitol on January 6,’ he said.
On Thursday, Trump came to Greene’s defense.
‘The Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, and Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, perhaps in collusion with the Radical Left Democrats, have allowed a horrible thing to happen to a very popular Republican, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene,’ the ex-president said, misplacing the blame on two political enemies – Kemp and Raffensperger – who have nothing to do with the case.