House impeachment managers “accidentally” added a blue-check verification to a pro-Trump tweet used in the Senate trial of the former president, but aides condemned the charge by defense lawyers that they manipulated video evidence.
Senior House Democratic aides for the managers acknowledged a graphic they displayed during the trial showing a pro-Trump tweet “accidentally had a blue verification check mark” but said the content of the tweet was “entirely accurate.”
“If anything, it is further evidence of President Trump’s attention to and knowledge of what was being openly planned on January 6 by his followers, even those without Twitter verifications,” a senior Democratic aide said.
The tweeter, Jennifer Lynn Lawrence, this week said her Twitter account does not have the blue check mark that the social media giant uses to indicate a “verified” account.
The impeachment managers used two of her tweets in the trial. One of them, retweeted by Trump, declares, “We will bring it to DC on Jan. 6.”
In a subsequent tweet, Lawrence said, “We are bringing the Calvary to DC.”
Impeachment managers put a blue check mark on both tweets.
Lawrence said she used “calvary” as a religious term and did not mean “cavalry,” which impeachment manager Eric Swalwell used during his presentation to imply Lawrence was promising to bring an army.
“I don’t do horses ok (I’m from New York),” Lawrence said in a blog post this week. “I’m not in the army either so the use of the word cavalry would have been pretty stupid. It’s a wonder Congressman Swalwell didn’t pick up on it.”
Trump’s defense team argued the impeachment managers deceptively edited a video to leave out Trump statements that would counter the claim by Democrats that the former president incited the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Democratic aides countered that Trump’s own lawyers used manipulated video of Democrats using the word “fight” and other incendiary language.
“Somewhere in between repeatedly showing video of comments from Democrats cut entirely out of their context, Trump’s attorney leveled a false accusation of selective editing at the House Managers, and in doing so, selectively edited the Managers’ presentation to make his point,” a Democratic aide said.
Democrats said they twice showed a video of Trump calling for protesters to walk to the Capitol to “peacefully and patriotically” cheer on lawmakers certifying the election in the House and Senate that day.
Trump’s defense team referenced a clip in which Democrats edited out “peacefully and patriotically.”
Democratic aides said the impeachment managers stand by their use of “cavalry” instead of “calvary.”
“In self-evident context, it is simply not believable that President Trump recognized the frequently confused ‘calvary’ as anything besides the ‘cavalry is coming,’” a Democratic aide said.
