Tipsheet

Hillary Clinton Lies About What Happened on January 6

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  May 30, 2021 5:15 PM

As Spencer reported on Friday, Senate Republicans successfully filibustered a bill which would create a commission to study the events of January 6, in a 54-35 vote. That the left would be unhappy isn't surprising, but it really is unhelpful for leading figures like Hillary Clinton to use her platform to lie about what happened that day.

Clinton is talking about Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who died on January 7, the day after the riot at the Capitol. It wasn't an "angry mob" which "killed" him, but rather two strokes. We know this thanks to a medical examiner's report, which Katie covered when it was made available on April 19. That this was released three and a half months after the fact certainly did not help to control the narrative.

According to The Washington Post report which revealed Sicknick's cause of death:

Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes a day after he confronted rioters at the Jan. 6 insurrection, the District’s chief medical examiner has ruled.

The ruling, released Monday, will make it difficult for prosecutors to pursue homicide charges in the officer’s death. Two men are accused of assaulting Sicknick by spraying a powerful chemical irritant at him during the siege, but prosecutors have not tied that exposure to Sicknick’s death.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Francisco J. Diaz, the medical examiner, said the autopsy found no evidence the 42-year-old officer suffered an allergic reaction to chemical irritants, which Diaz said would have caused Sicknick’s throat to quickly seize. Diaz also said there was no evidence of internal or external injuries.

Diaz said Sicknick suffered two strokes at the base of the brain stem caused by a clot in an artery that supplies blood to that area of the body. Diaz said he could not comment on whether Sicknick had a preexisting medical condition, citing privacy laws. 

...

Democratic House managers arguing for then-President Donald Trump’s impeachment said Sicknick was killed by rioters, citing a New York Times story that said police initially believed Sicknick had been struck with a fire extinguisher. The Times later updated the story saying there was no evidence of blunt-force trauma.

Such is a further reason why the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump--who had already left office by the time of the trial--has little credibility. 

This will also make the prosecution's case more difficult:

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Christopher Macchiaroli, a former federal prosecutor who handled violent crime cases before grand juries in D.C. Superior Court and U.S. District Court, said a ruling of a death by natural causes “does make it more difficult to bring a homicide prosecution.” 

Macchiaroli said additional evidence of some conduct by rioters could emerge independently, which prosecutors could argue contributed to the strokes. But he said that “any defense attorney... would use the medical examiner’s conclusions as clear-cut evidence of reasonable doubt.”

Many who responded to Clinton's tweet cited The Washington Post's report in calling her out, as well as a quiet correction from The New York Times. 

Officer Sicknick's mother, Gladys Sicknick, lobbied senators to vote for the January 6 commission bill. "Not having a January 6 Commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day." Gladys Sicknick said, as Bart Jansen reported for USA Today:

“Putting politics aside, wouldn’t they want to know the truth of what happened on January 6?” Gladys Sicknick said. “If not, they do not deserve to have the jobs they were elected to do.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he would be happy to meet with Gladys Sicknick. But he said the commission needs to provide the answers she deserves.

“I think what we have to do on the commission is make absolutely certain – whether it's the commission or the process that will come absent the commission – that it gives her the answer she deserves and the answers we deserve,” Tillis said.

Such a concern from Sen. Tillis, who ultimately voted against the bill, has been raised by other critics of the commission.