- A documentarian said Eric Trump was unbothered by possible violence ahead of the January 6 attack.
- Alex Holder told The Independent that Eric Trump was unconcerned by his family's inciting rhetoric.
- According to Holder, Eric Trump thought violence was "fair game," citing 2020 election lies.
A documentary filmmaker who interviewed then-President Donald Trump and several members of his family ahead of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot said some of the Trumps were unconcerned that their ongoing lies about the sanctity of the 2020 presidential election would eventually lead to political violence.
Alex Holder, the British documentary filmmaker whose footage was subpoenaed by the January 6 committee earlier this month, told The Independent that Trump's second eldest son, Eric Trump, suggested in interviews that violence from Trump supporters could be an appropriate response to his father's loss to President Joe Biden, citing baseless and disproven claims of election fraud.
"When I asked Eric about the potential danger of sort of rhetoric and the sort of the belligerence, he felt that it was … fair game in that it … was sort of the equivalent on the other side of the political discourse, or he felt that it was the right thing to do … because the election was stolen," Holder told the outlet.
A spokesperson for Eric Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Trump's rhetoric in the aftermath of the election — including inviting his supporters to Washington, DC, and telling them to "fight like hell — preceded the January 6, 2021 insurrection, which resulted in five deaths and hundreds of arrests.
Holder told The Independent that, as he interviewed members of the Trump family in the months following the November election, he grew increasingly concerned that Trump's lies about a "stolen election" would lead to violence.
"The idea of violence, to me, seemed likely because of the fact that when you tell 75 million people that their vote didn't count, and the person that's telling you that is not just the guy you voted for, but also the incumbent president of the United States, the chance of violence was always there," he told the outlet.
Holder's final film, which is titled "Unprecedented" is set to be released on Discovery+ later this summer. Holder told The Independent that the film focuses on the events leading up to the Capitol siege, while also offering "fascinating insight" into the Trump family's dynamic.
Holder has become a key figure in the House select committee's probe into the insurrection after lawmakers subpoenaed nearly 11 hours of his footage. Last week, the filmmaker privately testified before the panel.