False: Donald Trump invoked the Insurrection Act.

By: Devika Kandelwal
January 12 2021

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The Insurrection Act, a law that allows the president to deploy the military to quell rebellion, has not been invoked. Several social media posts have claimed that, in the wake, of the Capitol riots, President Donald Trump has invoked the Insurrection Act, a law that allows the president to deploy the military to squash rebellion. However, these claims are false and no such Act has been invoked. The Insurrection Act allows the president to dispatch the military or federalize the National Guard in states that are unable to "put down an insurrection or are defying federal law." This act was last invoked in 1992 by George H.W. Bush during the unrest in Los Angeles after the acquittal of police officers who savagely beat Rodney King. While Trump did not invoke the act, on January 10, Buzzfeed reported that, before the siege on the Capitol, "in a closed briefing to the 13-member City Council...the DC Attorney General’s office shared a two-page memo analyzing the risk that Trump could seize control of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department or send federal troops into the district."