What's more:The January 6th Committee has referred Donald Trump to the Dept. of Justice for:
1. Obstruction of an official proceeding;
2. Conspiracy to defraud the United States;
3. Conspiracy to make a false statement;
4. Inciting, assisting or aiding/comforting an insurrection
The January 6th Committee also refers to the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply with Congressional subpoenas:
1) House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy
2) Rep. Jim Jordan
3) Rep. Scott Perry
4) Rep. Andy Biggs
The executive summary of the Committee's report includes this line about the failures of law enforcement and intelligence to be prepared for the violence on January 6th. While concerns about possible threats were shared in advance of that day's events:N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 7:52 pm We'd heard a little before about some disagreements among the members of the January 6th Committee about how the final report should be focused. Apparently those discussions got heated last week, with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) arguing that the report was not emphasizing Donald Trump's role sufficiently in contrast to Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Florida), who argued that the failures of law enforcement needed more attention.
(I'm not sure this isn't a strategic leak meant to emphasize the thoughtfulness of the Committee.)
Because many had been convinced that it was the left/Antifa one had to be concerned about.. not the right wing, 'pro-police(cough) patriots'. There had to be some intent behind that misdirection.N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:53 pm The executive summary of the Committee's report includes this line about the failures of law enforcement and intelligence to be prepared for the violence on January 6th. While concerns about possible threats were shared in advance of that day's events:
"What was not shared, and what was not fully understood by intelligence and law enforcement authorities is what role President Trump would play on January 6th in exacerbating the violence, and later refusing for multiple hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave the Capitol."
Some people argue that this is insane, and that's my gut reaction, too. However, is there any prior example ever where you would need to warn police that the President to the United States would try to have them murdered? I can see how it would be difficult to for people to actually understand this possibility before it happened.
Marcy Wheeler has previously suggested that part of the problem is that the FBI was very gun-shy about investigating anything connected to Donald Trump after Trump and his lackey attorney general Bill Barr repeatedly punished Bureau employees for having done so. But Jurecic feels that even this framing (which parallels what I wrote above about agencies lacking the ability to imagine a President leading an insurrection) lets the FBI and intelligence agencies off the hook.The summary systematically elides the egregious failures of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to predict and respond to the violence of Jan. 6. More than that, it goes out of its way to present those agencies in a positive light, despite their catastrophic neglect. ... Jan. 6 is a story about Trump and his supporters, but it is also a story about how the federal government dropped the ball on anticipating and preparing for violence. As NBC states in its reporting on the summary’s odd framing, many experts and former officials have termed this “the biggest intelligence failure since Sept. 11.” The FBI produced only one document in the runup to Jan. 6 warning of potential violence—a bulletin not from FBI headquarters or the desk of the director, but from the bureau’s Norfolk, Virginia field office. FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that he was not aware of that report in advance of Jan. 6. According to the bureau’s top counterterrorism official, the FBI was also not aware of online conversations about potential violence in the days before the insurrection—a bizarre statement given that the plans for violence were plainly available to anyone with an internet connection.
Republicans know this.. but distract, distract, distract. They had a good idea of what was going to happen that day but what did they do?Facts First: The Speaker of the House is not in charge of Capitol security. That’s the responsibility of the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the US Capitol Police and approves requests for National Guard assistance.
Sean Hannity testified in a deposition that he never believed (not "for one second") the conspiracy theories that Fox News was pushing about Dominion having stolen the 2020 election for Joe Biden. Dominion is suing Fox for $1.6 billion. Fox News is worth about $20 billion, so I suppose they can afford to lose this and make it back in a few years.N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 10:23 pm The Washington Post reports that "forensic experts directed by Trump-allied lawyers copied sensitive data from election systems in Georgia as part of a multistate effort to access voting equipment that was broader and more organized than was previously known." This has come to light because of defamation lawsuits filed by the Dominion voting machine company against Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and others.
Kelli Ward, the former chair of the Republican Party in Arizona, was asked if she had formerly been the chair of the Republican Party in Arizona.N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Thu Dec 22, 2022 5:08 am Michael Flynn was asked who Sydney Powell was (she was his lawyer), and he responded by invoking the Fifth Amendment.
Charlie Kirk was asked if he founded Turning Point USA, and he responded by invoking the Fifth Amendment.
Roger Stone was asked if he had ever spoken with Donald Trump on his cell phone, and he responded by invoking the Fifth Amendment.
Fox News' Sean Hannity says he knew all along Trump lost the election
In the transcript of one of Cassidy Hutchinson's later interviews with the January 6th Committee, she discusses how her previous lawyer, Stefan Passantino, convinced her not to tell the committee about what she had heard about Donald Trump's behavior in the presidential limousine following the rally. Passantino told her: (1) that the Committee was unlikely to know about it, and if they didn't ask her, she shouldn't volunteer it; (2) that it was an unimportant anecdote that wasn't relevant to the information sought by the committee; (3) that it was the responsibility of the man who told her that story, Tony Ornato, to share it with the committee; and (4) that his job as her lawyer was to get her into and out of the hearing as quickly as possible, following which "you're going to be taken care of. You're going to be done. It's going to be off your hands."N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 4:23 am The New York Times is reporting that the former attorney for Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Stefan Passantino, who was implied by the Committee to have encouraged Hutchinson to lie to them (she later changed lawyers and then was much more forthcoming with information about January 6th), has taken a leave of absence from his law firm so that he can defend his reputation against what the Committee's "false insinuations."
