Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s statement on Trump indictment says ‘clear evidence’ shows he helped instigate Capitol riot

After Donald Trump was indicted on four criminal charges Tuesday, Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the former president “played a key role in instigating” the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Murkowski is an outspoken Trump critic and was one of seven Republican senators who voted in 2021 to convict the impeached former president for inciting an insurrection.

Murkowski said in a Tuesday statement that her vote was “based on clear evidence that he attempted to overturn the 2020 election after losing it.”

”Additional evidence presented since then, including by the January 6 commission, has only reinforced that the former President played a key role in instigating the riots, resulting in physical violence and desecration of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

“Like all Americans, he is innocent until proven guilty and will have his day in court. As that process begins, I encourage everyone to read the indictment, to understand the very serious allegations being made in this case,” Murkowski said.

[Trump has been indicted before. Historians say this time is different.]

A spokesperson for Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said Tuesday that Sullivan is on Marine Corps Reserve duty this week and unavailable for comment.

Sullivan criticized the two other Trump indictments filed this year. He called the March indictment involving hush money payments to an adult film star an “abuse of the rule of law” and said the Department of Justice’s June indictment addressing mishandled classified documents “will almost certainly do lasting damage to our polarized nation.”

In early 2021, Sullivan condemned Trump’s “actions and inactions” around Jan. 6 but voted to acquit him of inciting an insurrection. He said impeachment was intended to remove someone from office and Trump had already left.

The indictment mentions that a Trump co-conspirator called a handful of unnamed senators on Jan. 6 to enlist them to attempt to delay the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

A December report from the House of Representatives January 6 Committee said that attorney Rudy Giuliani called Sullivan and other Republican senators on the evening of the attack. A spokesperson for Sullivan, Amanda Coyne, said in December that Giuliani tried to call Sullivan twice that day before leaving “incoherent” messages about delaying the certification, and said Sullivan had never met or spoken with Giuliani and that the messages were intended for another senator.

Alaska Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola did not comment on the substance of prior Trump indictments in March and June. In a Tuesday statement, she said that was because “I do not want to create any perception of partisanship in the cases against the former president.”

“I will continue to avoid commenting on the specifics of this case but will say that the seriousness of these charges and the threat that January 6th posed to our country cannot be understated,” Peltola said. “The legal system is best suited to deal with these charges, so I will continue to focus on representing Alaska in Congress while this case is decided by a court of law.”