2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[N.E. Brigand]

I actually wrote emails to a number of political and legal commentators at the time, I think including George Conway and Lawrence Tribe, to defend Chuck Schumer's remarks that Ginni Thomas is referencing there. (I can't remember if Joyce Vance was among them.) Much later, I posted a version of my argument here. As noted there, Chuck Schumer actually apologized for what he had said, unlike almost all the Republicans involved in the events of January 6th.

[N.E. Brigand]

I've been reading some of the final committee interview with Tony Ornato, the Secret Service agent who became the Deputy White House Chief of Staff in the Trump administration and then returned to the Secret Service before retiring earlier this year. The committee confronts him with the testimony of three different people -- Cassidy Hutchinson, Robert Engel, and an unidentified military attaché -- who say that on the afternoon of January 6th there was a discussion in Ornato's office about (1) whether President Trump would go to the Capitol and (2) that the President was irate not to have gone there.

Ornato repeatedly says that he has no memory of this discussion happening.

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Meanwhile North Carolina's attorney general has announced that Trump's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, won't face charges of voter fraud for having voted in 2020 using an address where he didn't actually live and while apparently also being registered to vote in two other states. The AG said they wouldn't be able to "prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they had engaged in intentional voter fraud." It seems like a reasonable decision, but given the charges of voter fraud other states have brought against people who clearly made innocent mistakes, it still feels like a case where powerful people are treated differently.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is interesting.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Ruby Freeman is currently suing Rudy Giuliani for defamation. Trump is likely to be next.



He originally attacked her when he was still president, and I think the calculation was made that it wasn't worth including him because he would argue that he was immune from suit because he was somehow acting in the course of his duties as president, like he did in the Carroll case. But he isn't president now.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is probably unwarranted speculation but I'll put it here anyway.

[N.E. Brigand]

This Milkshake brings all the boys to the prison yard. (I'm surely not the first person to make that joke today.)

[N.E. Brigand]

Per CNN, Michigan's attorney general has announced that her office is reopening its investigation into the 2020 fake elector scheme in her state, which she had referred to federal authorities more than a year ago, because (1) information released by the Jan. 6th Committee makes it appear all the likelier that crimes were committed and (2) the Dept. of Justice has yet to bring charges. When she previously referred the case, she had said there appeared to be evidence the phony electors had engaged in "forgery of a public record."

[N.E. Brigand]

Christopher Miller, who was the Acting Secretary of Defense for the last two months of Donald Trump's presidency, is publishing a memoir in which he downplays the events of January 6th and mocks members of Congress for "cowering like frightened children." The excerpts from the book at that link reveal Miller as a bald-faced liar.

[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.

After January 6th, Twitter had suspended the account of Ali Alexander and a number of other involved in the insurrection, including the slightly treasonous retired general MIchael Flynn. (I feel that description is just, given how Flynn at one point was working openly for the U.S. president elect and receiving national security briefings while simultaneously and clandestinely working for the Turkish government, so even if you set aside his still unclear relationship with Russia, it's clear why the judge who oversaw the case against Flynn for lying to the FBI in 2017 actually asked prosecutors if they had considered charging Flynn with treason.)

Flynn's account was reactivated this past Friday -- the two-year anniversary of January 6th.

Alexander's account was reactivated today.

Marcy Wheeler believes that the Dept. of Justice needs to successfully prosecute the Proud Boys (that trial is only just wrapping up jury selection) in order to move on to figures who organized the day's events, like Alexander. (Not sure if Flynn will ever be charged for his part.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Georgia grand jury investigating Trump and 2020 election aftermath completes its work

No word yet about what its recommendations are.

[N.E. Brigand]

CNN (and others): "Giuliani subpoenaed amid special counsel investigation into Trump’s fundraising."

"The subpoena, which was sent more than a month ago and has not been previously reported, requests documents from Rudy Giuliani about payments he received around the 2020 election, when Giuliani filed numerous lawsuits on Trump’s behalf contesting the election results ... Prosecutors have also subpoenaed other witnesses who are close to Trump, asking specifically for documents related to disbursements from the Save America PAC, Trump’s primary fundraising operation set up shortly after the 2020 election."

[N.E. Brigand]

Jury selection in the Proud Boys trial concluded yesterday. Opening statements should be tomorrow. Today the judge in the case ruled that prosecutors may present video of President Donald Trump telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" during a presidential debate right here in Cleveland in September 2020. The defendants argued that Trump's comment had nothing to do with their actions, but the judge noted the Proud Boys' president, Enrique Tarrio (who months later made a visit to the White House that still hasn't been properly explained), tweeted "standing by, sir" immediately after Trump's remarks.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

What happened with the issue of the defense attorney who had his license suspended? I'll have to look that up.

[N.E. Brigand]

What happened with the issue of the defense attorney who had his license suspended? I'll have to look that up.

He may be withdrawing? And another lawyer has a possible conflict.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Pattis got a stay of his bar suspension in Connecticut, so he is back to representing Biggs.

Government called their first witness today, Thomas Loyd, a Capital Police Division commander.

[N.E. Brigand]

January 6th defendant Joshua Black requested a bench trial rather than a jury trial. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, best known for presiding over trials of Paul Manafort and Roger Stone (and being threatened by Stone and his supporters), found Black guilty of entering restricted grounds and disorderly conduct, in both cases enhanced because he had a deadly weapon (a long knife) but not guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, because Black said God had told him to "plead the blood of Jesus" in the Capitol and he didn't even know that Joe Biden's election was still to be certified -- and the judge said that prosecutors offered no evidence proving that Black knew otherwise.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I think ABJ got that one right.