Impeachment blunder: Author of tweet introduced at trial says it was falsified, misinterpreted

The author of a tweet introduced by Democrats at the Senate impeachment trial said Thursday her statement "we are bringing the Calvary" was a clear reference to a prayer vigil organized by churchgoers supporting Trump and not a call for military-like violence at the Capitol riot as portrayed by Rep. Eric Swalwell.

Jennifer Lynn Lawrence also said she believes the California Democrat and House impeachment manager falsified her tweet, adding a blue check mark to the version he introduced at the trial suggesting she was a verified Twitter user with more clout when in fact her Twitter account never had a blue check and has never been verified.

"I noticed when they put my tweet on the screen that all of a sudden my tweet had a blue checkmark next to it," she said during an interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "... This way, if he entered that into congressional testimony, it's a verified account, and it has, it could be applicable in law. Secondly, he wanted to show that my Twitter account had more gravitas than it actually did. He wanted to show that the president was trying to use me to bring in the cavalry."

A check of Lawrence's Twitter account shows she does not have a blue check verification. Swalwell's version of her tweet introduced at the trial did.

Swalwell's office did not immediately return a call Thursday seeking reaction.

Lawrence, a Christian conservative activist and former Breitbart writer, said her tweet on Jan. 3 carefully chose the religious word "Calvary" — which means a public display of Christ's crucifixion — as a reference to a prayer vigil they were hosting in Washington, and Swalwell distorted it to convey she was organizing a military cavalry, which is spelled differently and means a military brigade on horses.

"That's exactly what I meant," Lawrence told Just the News. "I did not mean we were bringing the cavalry. I wasn't going to hop on horseback and come riding into D.C. with my horses and my cavalry. ... And you know what we did on January 5? We held a prayer event at Freedom Plaza, and we prayed, and we brought Jesus Christ back into Washington, D.C."

"We would not want violence, we wanted people to come out and peacefully protest," she added. "... None of us engaged in protest. We were all at the Willard, you know, watching this all play out on television. We had no idea this was going to happen."

Lawrence said neither Swalwell nor any other House impeachment managers reached out to her to check what her tweet meant.

During Wednesday's impeachment trial, Swalwell introduced tweets by Lawrence and another woman named Kylie Jane Kremer who both referenced a "Calvary" coming to Washington. Trump retweeted both women. Swalwell used Lawrence's tweet to suggest it was a call to violent action, equivalent to the differently spelled military calvary.

"What did President Trump say in response to hearing that the cavalry was coming?" Swalwell argued. "'A great honor,' he wrote back. This wasn't just a single tweet. He and his organizers would do this over and over repeatedly.

"On January 3 another supporter tweets. 'We have been marching all around the country for you, Mr. President. Now we will bring it to DC on January 6, and proudly stand beside you. Thank you for fighting for us,'" Swalwell continued, referring to Lawrence's specific tweet. "When President Trump reposted her tweet, she wrote back, 'Best day ever. Thank you for the retweet. It has been an honor to stand up and fight for you in our nation. We will be standing strong on January 6 in DC with you. We are bringing the Calvary, Mr. President.'

"We are bringing the cavalry," Swalwell added for emphasis. "That was the consistent message. This was not just any old protests. President Trump was inciting something historic. The cavalry was coming."

Mixing up "Calvary" and "cavalry" is common, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

"On the battlefield, one should send in the cavalry, which is the word for an army component mounted on horseback," the dictionary clarifies. "The similarly spelled word calvary however, refers to an open air depiction of the crucifixion, or more recently an experience of intense suffering ... These two words are often confused."

Lawrence's account was backed up by a Christian church pastor, Brian Gibson, who was accompanying Lawrence and other activists on their trip to Washington at the time she wrote the tweet.

"I was sitting on the bus, and I saw Calvary come through," Gibson told Just the News. "I went back to them, and specifically said, 'Hey, guys, you spelt Calvary wrong, right?' This is what I do for a living. I'm a preacher of the gospel. I'm a theology major, so that jumped off the page at me, and words matter, and I want them to be correct. And she said, 'No pastor, I meant it. We meant to write Calvary like that. Because we were standing up for God, preaching the gospel. We have you ministers here that are going to be praying and leading people to Christ. And so that's what that's what we mean."

Gibson, a religious freedom advocate, said he believes Swalwell badly served the trial, the country and Lawrence by falsely interpreting her meaning without checking,

"We've all learned a lesson in due diligence here, giving someone the benefit of the doubt," he said. "And I think what we're seeing, John, is a political witch hunt, where people have not crossed their t's, dotted their i's. And it's the wrong way for some of our highest elected officials in the land to behave themselves. So I'm praying for Jennifer, I'm praying for everybody that has been put in harm's way by this reckless behavior."