2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is a very interesting note from Hutchinson's testimony. I wonder who this GOP congressperson is?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

If that's the sum of how Passantino coached Hutchinson not to tell the story, would he face any legal consequences?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

A January 6th defendant who faces trial in March, Gabriel Garcia (formerly an Army captain), tweeted some holiday wishes this weekend: he'd like Russia to use nuclear weapons to attack Ukraine to destroy Washington D.C.

Merry Christmas!

[N.E. Brigand]

I don't know what 'right wing spin machine' you're talking about, but everything you said above would be considered ludicrous in actual right wing circles. ...

Turning to the FBI, their classic M.O. for 'thwarting' terrorist plots (find a hapless muslim, radicalize him, suggest a terrorist plot, fund the plot, then go arrest him when he tries to carry it out (The Hill), was used in the fake Whitmer kidnapping. It's interesting to note that the FBI agent in charge of that failed and humiliating operation was promoted to the Washington field office shortly afterwards (revolver), before the plot was revealed to be a sting operation and the defendants acquitted at trial. He would thus have been in charge of operations at the Capitol on Jan.6. Of course, the FBI refused to say how many operatives they had at the Capitol that day, or if any of them perpetrated acts of violence. (FBI)

Emphasis mine.

Since this was the most recent post to mention the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, let me note here that following two days of deliberation, the two ringleaders of that plot, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, were convicted today in federal court of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, and Croft was additionally convicted of possessing an unregistered destructive device. They likely face many years in prison.

This was a retrial after a jury four months ago hung on the charges against Fox and Croft and acquitted two others then alleged to have been part of the plot. Two other plotters, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, previously pled guilty to kidnapping conspiracy charges and testified in this trial. Another ten members of the group are facing state charges.

A jury has convicted three more men in the Whitmer kidnapping plot. So much for the narrative that it was all a set-up by the FBI?

Adam Fox, one of the leaders in the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, was sentenced today to 16 years' imprisonment. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Fox, so I guess this result confirms the failure and humiliation of the FBI.

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Nearly two years after the attack on the Capitol, the FBI continues to identify and arrest participants. Today we learned about the arrests of:

-- Jacqueline Starer, a doctor from Massachusetts. There was a tip to the FBI about Starer having attended the event just five days after the Jan. 6th Insurrection, although the tipster wasn't sure what Starer had done there. Well, it turns out there are photographs of her hitting a cop inside the Captiol rotunda: "Officer M.B. stated that a blonde woman wearing a red jacket and hat punched her in the left side of her head." Dr. Starer has been charged with assault, entering a restricted area, and disorderly conduct.

-- Rebecca Lavrenz of Colorado didn't assault anyone, but she did enter the Capitol despite being very well aware that it was a restricted area, and she's being charged for that and for disorderly conduct.

Yet another arrest, this time of Michael Scott Lockwood from Ohio, who allegedly fought with a police officer and stole the officer's baton as cops were attempting to clear out the Capitol on January 6th, reveals that the FBI is now using Google reverse image searches to identify insurrectionists. In this case, starting from video taken by someone else that day, the FBI searched one of the faces, which brought up a picture from Lockwood's Facebook page, in which he was wearing the same hat as he had on January 6th, and then the FBI got Lockwood's grandmother to confirm his identity. Interestingly, the affidavit also makes it clear that there are people who engaged in violence that day yet to be identified.

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The Department of Justice is asking a judge not to release a January 6th defendant William Robert Norwood of South Carolina pending his trial because Norwood has been threatening his wife in a "malicious campaign of witness tampering" (lots of nasty emails at the link).

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I found it useful to read this Twitter thread by Marcy Wheeler, in which she annotates some of the January 6th Committee's interview with Caroline Wren, a very experienced Republican fundraiser. (Wren's was among several new depositions released today by the committee, including more from Cassidy Hutchinson.) You get a real sense of how tricky it can be to follow the money and understand how the different players were involved in planning that day's events. Wren cold called a funder she didn't know based on Federal Elections Commission filings and got a $3 million donation. That funder, Florida supermarket heiress Julie Fancelli, was supposed to attend the event. She backed out late, but she let Roger Stone fly to D.C. on her private plane. And yet to go by Wren's interview, Fancelli is pretty clueless.

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A jury today returned a mixed verdict in the case of Jan. 6th insurrectionist Riley Williams of Pennsylvania. Williams, a self-described "Groyper" (white nationalists who follow Nick Fuentes), was convicted of six counts, most seriously of "impeding officers who tried to clear the Capitol Rotunda," but the jury hung on two other charges: "whether Williams 'aided and abetted' in the theft of a laptop from Pelosi’s office . . . and obstruction of Congress' Jan. 6 proceeding." Williams's attorney (a public defender) apparently was successful in convincing some jurors that while Williams did break the law by being in the Capitol, she was too stupid to realize the gravity of what she was doing. That said, apparently Williams did urge others in Pelosi's office to "take that fucking laptop" and advised one rioter to "put on gloves" when he went to do so.

The article doesn't say and I don't remember: was that stolen laptop ever recovered?

Merditith McGraw of Politico has been told by a source that that Nick Fuentes yesterday was at Mar-a-Lago with Kanye West. (Edited to add: and here is video of Fuentes and West together at the Miami airport. It's undisputed that West went to Mar-a-Lago, but McGraw's is the only report that Fuentes was there.)

Another Gropyer, Thomas Carey, has agreed to plead guilty to unlawfully entering the Capitol and Nancy Pelosi's office therein. His statement of offense describes worse conduct by other January 6th defendants, including Joseph Brody, who is charged with assaulting a police officer and who later worked for the successful gubernatorial campaign of Republican Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. Brody is reportedly the man in the suit in this photo:

[N.E. Brigand]

I found it useful to read this Twitter thread by Marcy Wheeler, in which she annotates some of the January 6th Committee's interview with Caroline Wren, a very experienced Republican fundraiser. (Wren's was among several new depositions released today by the committee, including more from Cassidy Hutchinson.) You get a real sense of how tricky it can be to follow the money and understand how the different players were involved in planning that day's events. Wren cold called a funder she didn't know based on Federal Elections Commission filings and got a $3 million donation. That funder, Florida supermarket heiress Julie Fancelli, was supposed to attend the event. She backed out late, but she let Roger Stone fly to D.C. on her private plane. And yet to go by Wren's interview, Fancelli is pretty clueless.

That said, Fancelli herself was interviewed by the committee, and when she was asked about her support for Alex Jones, she took the Fifth.

[N.E. Brigand]

Adam Fox, one of the leaders in the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, was sentenced today to 16 years' imprisonment. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Fox, so I guess this result confirms the failure and humiliation of the FBI.

Barry Croft, the other leader of the plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer, was sentenced today to 19 years' imprisonment.

[N.E. Brigand]

From NBC: "The House sergeant-at-arms, who headed the D.C. National Guard during the Capitol attack, told the Jan. 6 committee he thinks the law enforcement response would've looked 'vastly different' if the rioters were Black": if that had been the case, he thinks a lot more of the January 6th terrorists would have been shot by police. William J. Walker, who is himself Black, added: "You’re looking at somebody who would get stopped by the police for driving a high-value government vehicle. No other reason."

Also in this news: "Liz Cheney's spokesman said last month that (scrapped) material prepared by Jan. 6 staffers reflected 'long-held liberal biases about federal law enforcement.'" Apparently that includes this commentary from federal law enforcement, which was not incorporated into the committee's final report.

[RoseMorninStar]

From NBC: "The House sergeant-at-arms, who headed the D.C. National Guard during the Capitol attack, told the Jan. 6 committee he thinks the law enforcement response would've looked 'vastly different' if the rioters were Black": if that had been the case, he thinks a lot more of the January 6th terrorists would have been shot by police. William J. Walker, who is himself Black, added: "You’re looking at somebody who would get stopped by the police for driving a high-value government vehicle. No other reason."

Also in this news: "Liz Cheney's spokesman said last month that (scrapped) material prepared by Jan. 6 staffers reflected 'long-held liberal biases about federal law enforcement.'" Apparently that includes this commentary from federal law enforcement, which was not incorporated into the committee's final report.

I was wondering what was being alluded to (in the bolded print above) and I think it's important. From the linked article:

(...)A spokesman for Jan. 6 panel member Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., told The Washington Post last month that committee staffers had “submitted subpar material for the report that reflects long-held liberal biases about federal law enforcement” and that she would not “sign onto any ‘narrative’ that suggests Republicans are inherently racist or smears men and women in law enforcement.”

Still, the testimony of Walker — a highly decorated commanding general and a long-serving DEA special agent who rose to top leadership positions at the agency before becoming the first Black House sergeant at arms — underscores some of the systemic issues that went unaddressed in the committee's final report.

I don't know where Liz Cheney is coming from, but she's not living in reality if she thinks there isn't bias. A black person is almost always pulled over just for driving through some of the predominantly white towns in our area. I have a good friend whose husband is a doctor and is multi-racial and they have a son-in-law who is black, the number of times they get pulled over for no reason other than a 'check' (no speeding or other violation) is incredible. I've never had that happen. I think one can hold law enforcement in high regard yet expect high standards. Ignoring reality serves no one and that is how issues get swept under the rug.

[N.E. Brigand]

"Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander's way of dodging questions reminds me a lot of Carter Page.

[N.E. Brigand]

Weird detail: "Former Michigan state senate majority leader Mike Shirkey says he was given a heads up by the state house speaker that President Trump might call him [in December 2020 to discuss Michigan's electoral votes] and that it would show up on his phone as 'Spam risk Egypt.'"

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[RoseMorninStar]

Many people have been victims of that pressure/Trump implied threats via his radical (brainwashed) followers.

[N.E. Brigand]

"Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander's way of dodging questions reminds me a lot of Carter Page.

Among many interesting (but meanderingly conveyed) details in Alexander's testimony is the fact that despite being subpoenaed by the committee for all communications pertaining to January 6th, he didn't give them his communications with the office of Congressman Mo Brooks, although it's clear from other messages he did provide the committee that he had been in touch with Brooks's team about January 6th. He also failed to give the committee his communications with White House staffer Garrett Ziegler.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This seems quite significant to me.

[N.E. Brigand]

This seems quite significant to me.

The White House claimed at the time that Enrique Tarrio was merely there as part of a public tour group (this explanation led me to foolishly delete the portion of a post here that had flagged his visit as suspicious), but not long after, someone pointed out that the names of even those guests are supposed to be provided in advance for review by the Secret Service, which typically prohibits convicted felons (like Tarrio) from entering. So it could just be Secret Service incompetence.

That also might explain something else Kyle Cheney notes from the Tony Ornato interview: Ornato confirms that Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris was in DNC headquarters when a pipe bomb was discovered next to the building. (Another pipe bomb was fond next to RNC headquarters.) But that pipe bomb had been placed there many hours before: that seems like the sort of the thing the Secret Service should have caught before letting Harris enter.

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Cheney also shared a passage from the January 6th Committee's interview with Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell, in which Mitchell is forthright in her view that people don't actually have the right to vote for President because that's actually the responsibility of state legislatures.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Poor Ginni Thomas is the real victim here.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Then there is this little tidbit from her testimony.