Murkowski says of Trump indictment: Former president 'played a key role' in riot

After Donald Trump was indicted on four criminal charges, Alaska 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.

The senator said in an Aug. 2 statement that her 2021 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.

A spokesperson for Alaska’s other U.S. senator, Dan Sullivan, said Aug. 2 that Sullivan was on Marine Corps Reserve duty 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 for 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.

Alaska’s lone member of the U.S. House, Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, did not comment on the substance of Trump’s indictments in March and June. In an Aug. 2 statement on the latest indictment, she said, “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 6 posed to our country cannot be understated.”