U.S. President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, called for "trial by combat" before a violent mob of Trump supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, according to several media outlets.
A violent mob of pro-Trump supporters gathered outside the U.S. Capitol building to extend support to the president's false claims that the presidential election was rigged and fraudulently won by president-elect Joe Biden.
The protesters tussled with law enforcement before breaching the barriers set up set up along the perimeter of the Capitol building and broke inside. The breach resulted in at least four deaths.
However, hours before the Trump mob stormed the Capitol, multiple reports claimed that during a speech at the "Save America" rally that was held earlier in the day, Giuliani made a reference to the HBO series Game of Thrones when he called for a "trial by combat" while pushing baseless conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud.
'Let's Have Trial by Combat'
We can confirm that the former NYC mayor did, in fact, make this statement, as captured on video by Vox journalist Aaron Rupar.
While baselessly claiming that Democrats fraudulently won the election, Giuliani bellowed to the crowd: "Who hides evidence? Criminals hide evidence, not honest people!"
"Over the next ten days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we're wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we're right, a lot of them will go to jail."
Mr Giuliani then suddenly yelled: "Let's have trial by combat!" A statement that was met with cheers from the crowd. The term defines a method of law and justice used to determine the guilt or innocence of a party and involves a physical battle to the death.
Trump also took the stage at the rally in front of the White House and urged his supporters to march to the Capital. The outgoing president and his allies have lost scores of lawsuits challenging the election results in state and federal courts and state election officials have roundly debunked Team Trump's allegations of widespread voter fraud.
