It gives the right wingnuts, particularly faux news personalities, plausible deniability in that they can claim, “see?, we tried to stop it.” Rupert Murdoch should be deported, stripped of his US citizenship and Faux should lose their FCC broadcast license. But it won’t happen.
They aren't fooling us, that's for sure. And where are these people that "tried" to stop it now? Poof!
This is a good warning of things possibly to come. OP ed, not news, but definitely unsettling:
Even as the mob ran
screaming and smashing through the capitol on 6 January , it was clear
this was a coup attempt. It was equally clear that it had been
instigated by the then president and his circle, much of whose audience
in the “stop the steal” rally would become that mob. Everything since
has been fill-in, important in building the legal case against the
leaders of this attempted coup and establishing the facts for history
and public knowledge – and, one hopes, for efforts to prevent another
such attempt.
That the goal was a coup
is a solemnly horrifying fact. That those who orchestrated it and those
who have excused and dismissed it afterward continue to conspire against
the rule of law and the right of the people to choose their leaders is
another such fact. Documents such as the Powerpoint presentation turned
over to the 6 January commission by Trump’s then chief of staff Mark
Meadows confirm the details and build our understanding of the threat.
On the basis of sometimes ridiculous pretexts, the circle around Trump
intended to steal the election and seize power. Many, including Utah
senator Mike Lee and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, reportedly knew the agenda.
Had they succeeded in grabbing power with such an
openly lawless act, they could have kept it only by suspending the rule
of law. This is what a dictatorship is, and this is what they wanted: a
government in which laws are nothing and the ruling junta or thug is
everything. What the American people and foreign nations would have done
in response might have overturned it further down the road, had it not
failed that day, but the whole business is still terrifying, and the
threat is not over.
It was clear the military leadership was already alarmed: on 3 January , all 10 living secretaries of defense coauthored an editorial
declaring, “Efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving
election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and
unconstitutional territory.”
That few
Republicans would defend the US constitution, the voice of the voters
and the orderly transition of power was also obvious. At 1.09pm that
day, the Capitol police chief said he wanted to declare an emergency and
call in the National Guard. At 1.11pm, Trump ended his speech with the
words “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country
anymore…” At 1.12pm, two of America’s slimiest elected officials,
Congressman Paul Gosar and Senator Ted Cruz, were objecting to
certifying Arizona’s electoral votes. Gosar, according to two participants in the riot,
seemed to know what was coming and had promised “blanket pardons”. The
evacuation of the House and Senate would begin an hour later. At 2.24,
Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should
have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution…”
Two
conservative Republicans, Vice-President Mike Pence and Congresswoman
Liz Cheney, have been among the few to refuse to participate in the
coup, the big lie and the surrounding corruption, and have paid for it.
That terrible day, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly
called Trump to rage and curse at him and demand he call the mob off,
but he would then fall in line and fudge the reality and significance of
what happened. That day, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell noted
that to overturn the election results would send democracy into a “death
spiral”. Afterward he was furious and shaken, but he too squirmed his way back into alignment with the big lie. By May he was trying to block the formation of the 6 January committee to investigate what had happened.
The
crisis isn’t just that we had a coup attempt almost a year ago, but
that the Republican party has itself become so venal, so corrupt, so
ruthless in its quest for power, that it seems assured that we will see
further attempts to overrule any election outcomes they don’t like.
Already the kind of election laws
they’ve pushed across the country seem aimed at such goals, and voter
suppression has long been one of their anti-democratic tactics (it
played a substantial role in Trump’s 2016 win, and the genuine illegitimacies of that election – foreign interference, anomalies the recount might have uncovered had the Republicans not stopped it – were appropriated as false claims for 2020).
The Republicans
made a devil’s bargain decades ago, when they decided that they would
not change course to win the votes of an increasingly nonwhite,
increasingly progressive people, but would try to suppress those who
would vote against them. That is, they pitted themselves against
democracy as participatory government and free and fair elections. The
rhetoric of the far right makes it clear they are fearful and know their
power will ebb if they cannot command and subvert the laws and
elections of this nation, and they are aiming at some form of minority
rule.
That’s perfectly clear from their attack
on the constitutional process unfolding that afternoon of 6 January,
which was itself a refusal to accept a loss. The refusal to recognize
the authority of Congress by Trump associates, including Steve Bannon
and Mark Meadows, is a further sign of their belief, emboldened by
Trump’s four years of criming in public, that they make their own rules.
Both have been found in contempt of Congress.
The
crisis isn’t just that we had a coup attempt and have a political party
that has gone rogue, but that much of the rest of the nation seems to
be normalizing or forgetting or sleepwalking through the crisis. The
warnings are getting more urgent.
“They’ve
decided to burn it all down with us inside,” said NBC anchor Brian
Williams on Thursday, in his parting words before leaving the network.
Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii stated
Sunday: “The road to autocracy is paved with overly chill responses
from people who would see this all with great clarity if only it were
happening in a faraway place.” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy declared,
“This is nation-ending stuff we’re dealing with here and folks better
wake up soon. I’ll do my part. Think about what yours is.”
I think "they tried" was about overturning Bidens win...
Yeah, kind of like the tried to make it look like they tried to put a halt to the invasion on the Capitol building while they were trying to overturn the election.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
House nears vote to hold Meadows in contempt in Jan. 6 probe
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday debated recommending criminal contempt charges against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after he ceased cooperating with the Jan. 6 Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
If approved, it would be the first time the House voted to hold a former member in contempt since the 1830s, according to the chamber’s records. But it's the second time the special committee has sought to punish a witness for defying a subpoena.
It’s the latest show of force by the Jan. 6 panel, which is leaving no angle unexplored — and no subpoena unanswered — as it investigates the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years. Lawmakers on the panel are determined to get answers quickly, and in doing so reassert the congressional authority that eroded while former President Donald Trump was in office.
“History will be written about these times, about the work this committee has undertaken,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, R-Miss., the chairman. “And history will not look upon any of you as a martyr. History will not look upon you as a victim.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., another member of the panel, began Tuesday’s debate by reading frantic texts from the day of the attack revealing members of Congress, Fox News anchors and even Trump’s son urging Meadows to persuade the outgoing president to act quickly to stop the three-hour assault by his supporters.
The nine-member panel voted 9-0 Monday night to recommend charges against the former North Carolina congressman who left in March 2020 to become Trump's chief of staff. Approval by the full House would refer the issue to the Justice Department, which would decide whether to prosecute. If convicted, Bannon and Meadows could face up to one year behind bars on each charge.
Republicans on Tuesday called the action against Meadows a distraction from the House's work, with one member calling it “evil” and “un-American.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, took to the floor to praise Meadows: “Make no mistake, when Democrats vote in favor of this resolution, it is a vote to put a good man in prison.”
Trump has also defended Meadows in an interview, saying, “I think Mark should do what’s right. He’s an honorable man. He shouldn’t be put through this."
And Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger defended his client in a statement before the vote, noting that he had provided documents to the panel and maintaining that he should not be compelled to appear for an interview.
He said, “The Select Committee’s true intentions in dealing with Mr. Meadows have been revealed when it accuses him of contempt citing the very documents his cooperation has produced.”
Meadows himself has sued the panel, asking a court to invalidate two subpoenas that he says are “overly broad and unduly burdensome.”
Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters “I do think we’re all watching, as you are, what is unfolding on the House side. And it will be interesting to reveal all the participants who were involved.”
He added that he was not in contact with Meadows on the day of the attack.
Democrats quoted at length from Jan. 6 text messages provided by Meadows while he was cooperating with the committee.
“We need an Oval Office address," Donald Trump Jr. texted, the committee said, as his father's supporters were breaking into the Capitol, sending lawmakers running for their lives and interrupting the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory. "He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
Trump Jr. added, "He’s got to condemn this s—- ASAP." In response to one of Trump Jr.'s texts, Meadows said: “I’m pushing it hard. I agree.”
Members of the committee said the texts raise fresh questions about what was happening at the White House — and what Trump himself was doing — as the attack was underway. The committee had planned to question Meadows about the communications, including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages. The panel has not released any of the communications in full.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the panel’s vice chairwoman, said at the committee's Monday evening meeting that an important issue raised by the texts is whether Trump sought to obstruct the congressional certification by refusing to send a strong message to the rioters to stop.
“These texts leave no doubt,” Cheney said. “The White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol.”
The investigating panel has already interviewed more than 300 witnesses, and subpoenaed more than 40 people, as it seeks to create the most comprehensive record yet of the lead-up to the insurrection and of the violent siege itself.
If Meadows had appeared for his deposition, lawmakers had planned to ask him about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in the weeks before the insurrection, including his outreach to states and his communications with members of Congress.
The panel says it wanted to know more about whether Trump was engaged in discussions regarding the response of the National Guard, which was delayed for hours as the violence escalated and the rioters beat police guarding the Capitol building.
The documents provided by Meadows include an email he sent to an unidentified person saying that the Guard would be present to “protect pro Trump people," the panel said, and that more would be available on standby. The committee did not release any additional details about that email.
Committee staff said they would have interviewed Meadows about emails “to leadership at the Department of Justice on December 29th and 30th, 2020, and January 1st, 2021, encouraging investigations of suspected voter fraud,” even though election officials and courts across the country had rejected those claims.
___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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House votes to hold Mark Meadows in contempt in Jan. 6 probe
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Tuesday to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress after he ceased to cooperate with the Jan. 6 Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection — making it the first time the chamber has voted to hold a former member in contempt since the 1830s.
The near-party-line 222-208 vote is the second time the special committee has sought to punish a witness for defying a subpoena. The vote is the latest show of force by the Jan. 6 panel, which is leaving no angle unexplored — and no subpoena unanswered — as it investigates the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years. Lawmakers on the panel are determined to get answers quickly, and in doing so reassert the congressional authority that eroded while former President Donald Trump was in office.
“History will be written about these times, about the work this committee has undertaken,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, R-Miss., the chairman. “And history will not look upon any of you as a martyr. History will not look upon you as a victim.”
The two GOP votes — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who serve on the committee — in favor of the resolution came after nine Republicans voted to hold former Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt in October. While Bannon’s case was more clear-cut -- he never engaged with the committee at all -- Meadows had turned over documents and negotiated for two months with the panel about an interview. Meadows also has closer relationships within the Republican caucus, having just left Congress last year.
Meadows was also Trump’s top aide in the White House, giving him more plausible grounds to claim executive privilege. Bannon had not worked in the White House since 2017.
The Justice Department will also be weighing those factors as prosecutors decide whether to move forward with the case. If convicted, Bannon and Meadows could each face up to one year behind bars on each charge.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., another member of the panel, began Tuesday’s debate on the resolution by reading frantic texts from the day of the attack revealing members of Congress, Fox News anchors and even Trump’s son urging Meadows to persuade the outgoing president to act quickly to stop the three-hour assault by his supporters.
Republicans on Tuesday called the action against Meadows a distraction from the House's work, with one member calling it “evil” and “un-American.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio praised Meadows: “Make no mistake, when Democrats vote in favor of this resolution, it is a vote to put a good man in prison.”
Trump also defended Meadows in an interview, saying: “I think Mark should do what’s right. He’s an honorable man. He shouldn’t be put through this."
And Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger defended his client in a statement before the vote, noting that he had provided documents to the panel and maintaining that he should not be compelled to appear for an interview.
Terwilliger said, “The Select Committee’s true intentions in dealing with Mr. Meadows have been revealed when it accuses him of contempt citing the very documents his cooperation has produced.”
Meadows himself has sued the panel, asking a court to invalidate two subpoenas that he says are “overly broad and unduly burdensome.”
Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters: “I do think we’re all watching, as you are, what is unfolding on the House side. And it will be interesting to reveal all the participants who were involved.”
He added that he was not in contact with Meadows on the day of the attack.
Democrats quoted at length from Jan. 6 text messages provided by Meadows while he was cooperating with the committee.
“We need an Oval Office address," Donald Trump Jr. texted, the committee said, as his father's supporters were breaking into the Capitol, sending lawmakers running for their lives and interrupting the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory. "He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
Trump Jr. added, "He’s got to condemn this s—- ASAP." In response to one of Trump Jr.'s texts, Meadows said: “I’m pushing it hard. I agree.”
Members of the committee said the texts raise fresh questions about what was happening at the White House — and what Trump himself was doing — as the attack was underway. The committee had planned to question Meadows about the communications, including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages. The panel has not released any of the communications in full.
Cheney, the panel’s vice chairwoman, said at the committee's Monday evening meeting that an important issue raised by the texts is whether Trump sought to obstruct the congressional certification by refusing to send a strong message to the rioters to stop.
“These texts leave no doubt,” she said. “The White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol.”
The investigating panel has already interviewed more than 300 witnesses, and subpoenaed more than 40 people, as it seeks to create the most comprehensive record yet of the lead-up to the insurrection and of the violent siege itself.
If Meadows had appeared for his deposition, lawmakers had planned to ask him about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in the weeks before the insurrection, including his outreach to states and his communications with members of Congress.
The panel says it wanted to know more about whether Trump was engaged in discussions regarding the response of the National Guard, which was delayed for hours as the violence escalated and the rioters beat police guarding the Capitol building.
The documents provided by Meadows include an email he sent to an unidentified person saying that the Guard would be present to “protect pro Trump people," the panel said, and that more would be available on standby. The committee did not release any additional details about that email.
Committee staff said they would have interviewed Meadows about emails “to leadership at the Department of Justice on December 29th and 30th, 2020, and January 1st, 2021, encouraging investigations of suspected voter fraud,” even though election officials and courts across the country had rejected those claims.
___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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Jim Jordan’s text makes a thoroughly weird case involving Alexander Hamilton
By Aaron Blake December 16 at 6:12 PM EST It’s been no secret that leaders of the effort to overturn the 2020 election were grasping at straws as the clock was running out — or, rather, grasping at them even harder than before. Emails have shown White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and others barraging the Justice Department with a multitude of previously debunked claims about voter fraud and even a conspiracy theory about the election being rigged by Italian satellites. Others promoted the drastic and historically unprecedented step of having Vice President Mike Pence unilaterally reject certain states’ electors to help reinstall Donald Trump. We can now add one more bad argument to the list — courtesy of none other than a lawmaker Republicans tried to appoint to the House’s Jan. 6 committee. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Wednesday confirmed that a Jan. 5 text message to Meadows disclosed as coming from a GOP member of Congress came from him. (The reason he did so is that he and allies have argued the text was “doctored,” because it truncated what he wrote and added a period where one didn’t appear. Jordan also said he was not speaking in his own words but rather forwarding an argument from a former Bush administration official.) The text effectively argued that Pence could and should unilaterally reject certain states’ electors that day, but it did so in a rather remarkable way. “On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all,” said the text in the portion disclosed by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.). The rest of the text read: — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ‘That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916). It’s not clear what disclosing the fuller legal analysis changes about what Jordan sent, even as it probably would’ve been better to just share the whole thing. (“The Select Committee is responsible for and regrets the error,” the Jan. 6 committee said Wednesday.) What is clear is that the congressman was offering an argument that Pence should assist in a highly unorthodox plot to overturn the election. But also don’t lose sight of that fuller legal analysis, which is something. The case Jordan was forwarding was from Joseph Schmitz, a former Defense Department inspector general in the George W. Bush administration. And it sounds high-minded — as if this plot to get Pence to help overturn the election were even something Alexander Hamilton could get behind. The first big problem, of course, is that there was no legitimate reason to argue that election results were unconstitutional, given the courts repeatedly rejected claims of fraud and malfeasance. Others argued — to no avail — that the Electoral Count Act, which guides the process for counting electoral votes, was itself unconstitutional because it violated the 12th Amendment. (The text, though, describes the electoral votes as unconstitutional, not that law.) But even if Pence believed either the results or the Electoral Count Act were unconstitutional, in his heart of hearts, was Hamilton arguing people like him should take action against such things? The Hamilton quote cited comes from Federalist No. 78. You’ll note the title of the paper: “The Judiciary Department.” This was not about lawmakers or executive-branch members ignoring laws they deemed to be unconstitutional; it was about the need to have a judiciary that can review such laws for their adherence to the Constitution. The judicial branch indeed weighed in on many of these claims, and almost universally decided against Trump’s side. What’s more, the express purpose of judicial review was to avoid the people’s representatives trampling on their rights. Right after the quote above, Federalist No. 78 elaborates: “To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves ...” Logic might suggest that would include disregarding the people’s votes in the name of reinstalling yourself in power, without judicial review validating that position. Hamilton also wrote in Federalist No. 78 that this judicial review was “the proper and peculiar province of the courts” and that it “belongs to them to ascertain [a constitution’s] meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body.” And he wrote that, “If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers ... it may be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not to be collected from any particular provisions in the Constitution.” In other words, Hamilton seemed to take a pretty dim view of legislators — and really anybody but the courts — acting as judges of constitutionality. The Schmitz argument, as relayed by Jordan, goes on to cite a court decision supposedly backing up the scheme. It refers to 1915’s Hubbard v. Lowe, which states, “That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.” One might read the text and think this was a Supreme Court precedent, but in fact it’s not! This quote comes from the district court for the Southern District of New York — in a case involving the Cotton Futures Act. (Relying upon a district court judge to undergird your case for overturning an American election is certainly a strategy.) And even if this were Supreme Court precedent, it makes a rather anodyne point that basically says: “There is such thing as an unconstitutional law that can be overturned” — again, with the method for doing so being the courts. It’s noteworthy in all of this that Jordan is distancing himself from the argument, at least somewhat. As Pence-plot architect John Eastman has strained to do, he’s pitching this as merely sharing information. “Mr. Jordan forwarded the text to Mr. Meadows, and Mr. Meadows certainly knew it was a forward,” Jordan’s office said. But as with Eastman, this was someone delivering a rather desperate, legally dubious and democracy-imperiling idea to people who were clearly desperate to pursue such things. It also, crucially, shows a guy Republicans tried to put on the Jan. 6 committee promoting precisely the scheme the Capitol rioters tried to force Congress to pursue. Based upon this — and combining it with the conversations Jordan had with Trump on Jan. 6 — there’s little doubt Jordan’s own actions would’ve been a focus of the committee he was picked to serve on. And as with its predecessors, the idea he promoted didn’t even make much sense.
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Jan. 6 panel seeks interview, records from Rep. Scott Perry
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection requested an interview and documents from Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania on Monday, marking the first time the committee publicly sought to sit down with a sitting member of Congress.
The latest request launches a new phase for the lawmakers on the committee, who have so far resisted reaching out to one of their own as they investigate the insurrection by President Donald Trump’s supporters and his efforts to overturn the election. Perry and other congressional Republicans met with Trump ahead of the attack and strategized about how they could block the results at the Jan. 6 electoral count.
In a letter to Perry, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel had received evidence from multiple witnesses, including then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, that Perry had “an important role” in efforts to install Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.
The letter requests an interview with Perry, who pushed the Justice Department to overturn the election and met with Trump ahead of the violent attack, according to investigators. The panel also asked for any documents and correspondence between Perry and Trump, his legal team or anyone involved in the planning of Jan. 6 events.
A request for comment left with Perry's office was not immediately returned.
The lawmaker representing Pennsylvania's 10th District was cited more than 50 times in a Senate Judiciary report released in October outlining how Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign.
Perry, who has continuously disputed the validity of President Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, has said he obliged Trump’s request for an introduction to Clark, then an assistant attorney general whom Perry knew from unrelated legislative matters. The three men went on to discuss their shared concerns about the election, Perry has said.
The Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state, and senior Justice officials dismissed Perry’s claims
The recent Senate report outlined a call Perry made to Donoghue last December to say the department wasn’t doing its job with respect to the elections. Perry encouraged Donoghue to elicit Clark’s help because he’s “the kind of guy who could really get in there and do something about this,” the report said.
Perry has previously said his “official communications” with Justice Department officials were consistent with the law.
The letter sent Monday night is the first time the panel has publicly released a request to a fellow member of Congress as it investigates Trump’s communications with his Republican allies. But the panel notably did not subpoena Perry, as it has other witnesses close to Trump whom lawmakers believe have relevant information.
In his letter to Perry, Thompson added that the panel “has tremendous respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its Members. At the same time, we have a solemn responsibility to investigate fully all of these facts and circumstances.”
The panel voted in November to hold Clark in contempt after he showed up for a deposition yet declined to answer questions. But Thompson has said he will hold off pursuing the charges and allow Clark to attend another deposition and try again. Clark’s lawyer has said Clark intends to assert his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, but the deposition has been repeatedly postponed as Clark has dealt with an unidentified medical condition.
The panel has already interviewed around 300 people as it seeks to create a comprehensive record of the attack and the events leading up to it.
Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying Vice President Mike Pence and Republican members of Congress to try to overturn the count at the Jan. 6 congressional certification. Election officials across the country, along with the courts, had repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims.
An angry mob of Trump supporters were echoing his false claims as they brutally beat Capitol police and broke into the building that day, interrupting the certification of Biden’s victory.
In his request for a meeting with Perry, Thompson wrote: “We would like to meet with you soon to discuss these topics, but we also want to accommodate your schedule.”
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Rep. Scott Perry denies Jan. 6 panel's request for interview
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania on Tuesday rebuffed a request for him to sit down for an interview and turn over documents to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection, joining other allies of former President Donald Trump in trying to stonewall the committee.
“I stand with immense respect for our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Americans I represent who know that this entity is illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives," Perry said in a statement.
In a letter to Perry on Monday night, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel had received evidence from multiple witnesses, including then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, that Perry had “an important role” in efforts to install Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.
The lawmaker's refusal will test how far the committee is willing to go in its quest for information as members have so far resisted subpoenaing one of their own as they investigate the insurrection by Trump’s supporters and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The letter is the first time the panel has publicly released a request to a fellow member of Congress as the members inquire about the details of Perry and other congressional Republicans who met with Trump ahead of the Capitol attack and strategized about how they could block the results at the Jan. 6 electoral count.
Also in the letter, Thompson added that while the panel “has tremendous respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its Members," it also has "a solemn responsibility to investigate fully all of these facts and circumstances.”
The committee has also asked for any documents and correspondence between Perry and Trump, his legal team or anyone involved in the planning of Jan. 6 events.
The lawmaker, representing Pennsylvania's 10th District, was cited more than 50 times in a Senate Judiciary report released in October outlining how Trump’s effort to overturn his election defeat to Joe Biden brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign.
Perry, who has continuously disputed the validity of Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, has said he obliged Trump’s request for an introduction to Clark, then an assistant attorney general whom Perry knew from unrelated legislative matters. The three men went on to discuss their shared concerns about the election, Perry has said.
The Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state, and senior Justice officials dismissed Perry’s claims.
The recent Senate report outlined a call Perry made to Donoghue last December to say the department wasn’t doing its job with respect to the elections. Perry encouraged Donoghue to elicit Clark’s help because he’s “the kind of guy who could really get in there and do something about this,” the report said.
Perry has said his “official communications” with Justice Department officials were consistent with the law.
The panel voted in November to hold Clark in contempt after he showed up for a deposition yet declined to answer questions. But Thompson has said he will hold off pursuing the charges and allow Clark to attend another deposition and try again. Clark’s lawyer has said Clark intends to assert his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, but the deposition has been repeatedly postponed as Clark has dealt with an unidentified medical condition.
The panel has already interviewed around 300 people as it seeks to create a comprehensive record of the Jan. 6 attack and the events leading up to it.
Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying Vice President Mike Pence and Republican members of Congress to try to overturn the count at the Jan. 6 congressional certification. Election officials across the country, along with the courts, had repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims.
An angry mob of Trump supporters was echoing his false claims as it brutally beat Capitol police and broke into the building that day, interrupting the certification of Biden’s victory.
Thompson, in his request for a meeting with Perry, wrote: “We would like to meet with you soon to discuss these topics, but we also want to accommodate your schedule.”
___
Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.
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(CNN)Michael Flynn has swiftly lost his bid in court to block a possible House select committee subpoena for his phone records and to hold off demands he speak to the panel investigating January 6.
The ruling comes one day after he asked a federal judge in Florida for a temporary restraining order, and it's the first quick response to a lawsuit from a House witness, after several went to court to try to invalidate the committee and block the House from pursuing their phone records.
So far, 11 others for whom the committee subpoenaed phone records have sued.
(CNN)Michael Flynn has swiftly lost his bid in court to block a possible House select committee subpoena for his phone records and to hold off demands he speak to the panel investigating January 6.
The ruling comes one day after he asked a federal judge in Florida for a temporary restraining order, and it's the first quick response to a lawsuit from a House witness, after several went to court to try to invalidate the committee and block the House from pursuing their phone records.
So far, 11 others for whom the committee subpoenaed phone records have sued.
Guess who’s talking about the “security situation at the southern border?” If you guessed “Gym Jordan,” come on down! You’re the next contestant on the Punishment is Right!
Televised hearings in 2022 are going to be brilliant brilliance in all its brilliancy of must see tv.
Guess who’s talking about the “security situation at the southern border?” If you guessed “Gym Jordan,” come on down! You’re the next contestant on the Punishment is Right!
Televised hearings in 2022 are going to be brilliant brilliance in all its brilliancy of must see tv.
I wonder if Trump will say he’s running in 2024 during his press conference on 1/6, then he can rally the cult by saying all the investigations are political attacks and how the dems are undermining democracy by going after political opponents by way of the investigations and hearings?
Guess who’s talking about the “security situation at the southern border?” If you guessed “Gym Jordan,” come on down! You’re the next contestant on the Punishment is Right!
Televised hearings in 2022 are going to be brilliant brilliance in all its brilliancy of must see tv.
I wonder if Trump will say he’s running in 2024 during his press conference on 1/6, then he can rally the cult by saying all the investigations are political attacks and how the dems are undermining democracy by going after political opponents by way of the investigations and hearings?
probably. and he'll announce that, if elected, he'll make Jan 6 Real Patriot's Day.
Guess who’s talking about the “security situation at the southern border?” If you guessed “Gym Jordan,” come on down! You’re the next contestant on the Punishment is Right!
Televised hearings in 2022 are going to be brilliant brilliance in all its brilliancy of must see tv.
I wonder if Trump will say he’s running in 2024 during his press conference on 1/6, then he can rally the cult by saying all the investigations are political attacks and how the dems are undermining democracy by going after political opponents by way of the investigations and hearings?
If only to avoid criminal charges and to grift the suckers. Knowing what I know of the repub party and those that support it, authoritarianism is in this nation’s future. Good luck.
And did you see where Jared Dear Boy’s investment firm raised $3B? Much of it from unidentified foreign investors? Yup, no influence being peddled there. Never mind POOTWH’s social media enterprise.
White House, Jan. 6 committee agree to shield some documents
By ZEKE MILLER
58 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has agreed to defer its attempt to get hundreds of pages of records from the Trump administration, holding off at the request of the Biden White House.
The deferral is in response to concerns by the Biden White House that releasing all the Trump administration documents sought by the committee could compromise national security and executive privilege.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly rejected former President Donald Trump's blanket efforts to cite executive privilege to block the release of documents surrounding that day. But Biden's White House is still working with the committee to shield some documents from being turned over.
Trump is appealing to the Supreme Court to try to block the National Archives and Records Administration, which maintains custody of the documents from his time in office, from giving them to the committee.
The agreement to keep some Trump-era records away from the committee is memorialized in a Dec. 16 letter from the White House counsel's office. It mostly shields records that do not involve the events of Jan. 6 but were covered by the committee's sweeping request for documents from the Trump White House about the events of that day.
Dozen of pages created Jan. 6 don't pertain to the assault on the Capitol. Other documents involve sensitive preparations and deliberations by the National Security Council. Biden's officials were worried that if those pages were turned over to Congress, that would set a troublesome precedent for the executive branch, no matter who is president.
Still other documents are highly classified and the White House asked Congress to work with the federal agencies that created them to discuss their release.
“The documents for which the Select Committee has agreed to withdraw or defer its request do not appear to bear on the White House’s preparations for or response to the events of January 6, or on efforts to overturn the election or otherwise obstruct the peaceful transfer of power,” White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su wrote in one of two letters to the committee obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
Su wrote that for the committee, withholding the documents "should not compromise its ability to complete its critical investigation expeditiously.”
Committee spokesman Tim Mulvey said: “The committee has agreed to defer action on certain records as part of the accommodations process, as was the case with an earlier tranche of records. The Select Committee has not withdrawn its request for these records and will continue to engage with the executive branch to ensure the committee gets access to all the information relevant to our probe.”
For the last several months the National Archives has been transmitting tranches of documents to the White House and to lawyers for Trump to determine whether they contain any privileged information. Trump has raised both broad objections to the release of the documents as well as specific concerns about particular documents.
The National Archives has said that the records Trump wants to block include presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts, handwritten notes “concerning the events of January 6” from the files of former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and “a draft Executive Order on the topic of election integrity.”
Biden has repeatedly rejected Trump's claims of executive privilege over those documents, including in a letter sent Dec. 23 regarding about 20 pages of documents.
“The President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified,” White House counsel Dana Remus reiterated in the latest letter.
Trump has taken to the courts to block the document releases. A federal appeals court ruled this month against Trump, and he has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, though the high court has yet to decide whether to take up the case.
Judge Patricia Millett, writing for the court in the Dec. 9 opinion, said Congress had a “uniquely vital interest” in studying the events of Jan. 6 and Biden had made a “carefully reasoned” determination that the documents were in the public interest and that executive privilege should therefore not be invoked. Trump also failed to show any harm that would occur from the release of the sought-after records, Millett wrote.
“On the record before us, former President Trump has provided no basis for this court to override President Biden’s judgment and the agreement and accommodations worked out between the Political Branches over these documents,” the opinion stated.
—
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed.
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Judge refuses to dismiss alleged Proud Boys leaders' charges
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
2 hours ago
A federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss an indictment charging four alleged leaders of the far-right Proud Boys with conspiring to attack the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected defense attorneys' arguments that the four men — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe — are charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.
Kelly said the defendants had many nonviolent ways to express their opinions about the 2020 presidential election.
“Defendants are not, as they argue, charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands, or participating in mere sit-ins or protests," Kelly wrote in his 43-page ruling. “Moreover, even if the charged conduct had some expressive aspect, it lost whatever First Amendment protection it may have had."
Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe were indicted in March on charges including conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding. All four of them remain jailed while they await a trial scheduled for May.
Defense lawyers also argued that the obstruction charge doesn't apply to their clients' cases because Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote was not an “official proceeding." Kelly disagreed.
The case against Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe is a focus of the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection. More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates, including at least 16 defendants charged with conspiracy.
Last Wednesday, a New York man pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members. Matthew Greene is the first Proud Boys member to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. He agreed to cooperate with authorities.
Other extremist group members have been charged with conspiring to carry out coordinated attacks on the Capitol, including more than 20 people linked to the antigovernment Oath Keepers.
Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and member of the group’s national “Elders Council.” Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Donohoe, of Kernersville, North Carolina, also served as president of his local chapter, according to the indictment.
Lawyers for the four men declined to comment on Tuesday's ruling.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.
Just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, the indictment says. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol building itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.
More than 700 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. At least 165 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses punishable by a maximum of six months' imprisonment.
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Jan. 6 committee prepares to go public as findings mount
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — They’ve interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump.
Now, after six months of intense work, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to go public.
In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies’ persistent efforts to whitewash the riots and reject suggestions that he helped instigate them. The committee also faces the burden of trying to persuade the American public that their conclusions are fact-based and credible.
But the nine lawmakers — seven Democrats and two Republicans — are united in their commitment to tell the full story of Jan. 6, and they are planning televised hearings and reports that will bring their findings out into the open.
Their goal is not only to show the severity of the riot, but also to make a clear connection between the attack and Trump’s brazen pressure on the states and Congress to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate election as president.
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Jan. 6 panel seeks interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and ERIC TUCKER
1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection on Tuesday requested an interview with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in the media, as the committee continues to widen its scope.
In a letter to Hannity, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel wants to question him regarding his communications with former President Donald Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others in Trump’s orbit in the days surrounding the insurrection.
A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment on the request. Jay Sekulow, Hannity's lawyer, told The Associated Press Tuesday night that they are reviewing the committee’s letter and "will respond as appropriate.”
In his letter, Thompson said: “The Select Committee has immense respect for the First Amendment to our Constitution, freedom of the press, and the rights of Americans to express their political opinions freely. For that reason, we do not intend to seek information from you regarding your broadcasts on radio or television, your public reporting or commentary, or your political views regarding any candidate for office.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection is demanding records and testimony from a former White House aide they say helped draft former President Donald Trump's Jan. 6 speech, along with two others it says were in communication with people close to Trump.
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, issued subpoenas on Tuesday to Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, strategists who advised Donald Trump Jr., and Ross Worthington, a former White House official who the committee says helped draft the speech Trump gave at the rally directly preceding last year's attack.
“We have reason to believe the individuals we’ve subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to join the more than 340 individuals who have spoken with the Select Committee as we push ahead to investigate this attack on our democracy and ensure nothing like this ever happens again," Thompson said in a letter Tuesday.
Worthington is a former Trump White House and campaign aide who served as a speechwriter and policy adviser. He had previously worked for former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally.
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GOP leader McCarthy says he won't cooperate with 1/6 panel
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and ERIC TUCKER
1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is refusing a request by the House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection to submit to an interview and turn over records pertaining to the deadly riot.
The panel is seeking first-hand details from members of Congress on then-President Donald Trump’s actions on the day hundreds of his supporters brutally beat police, stormed the building and interrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
McCarthy, R-Calif., issued a statement Wednesday refusing to cooperate with the House committee. He said the investigation was not legitimate and accused the panel of “abuse of power.”
He told Fox News Channel on Thursday that he had nothing to add beyond his media interviews after the riot. He claimed some committee members want “to deny me ever the chance to be speaker," if Republicans retake the House in the 2022 midterm elections.
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, requested that McCarthy provide information to the nine-member panel about his conversations with Trump “before, during and after” the riot. The request also seeks information about McCarthy’s communications with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the days before the attack
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GOP leader McCarthy says he won't cooperate with 1/6 panel
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and ERIC TUCKER
1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is refusing a request by the House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection to submit to an interview and turn over records pertaining to the deadly riot.
The panel is seeking first-hand details from members of Congress on then-President Donald Trump’s actions on the day hundreds of his supporters brutally beat police, stormed the building and interrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
McCarthy, R-Calif., issued a statement Wednesday refusing to cooperate with the House committee. He said the investigation was not legitimate and accused the panel of “abuse of power.”
He told Fox News Channel on Thursday that he had nothing to add beyond his media interviews after the riot. He claimed some committee members want “to deny me ever the chance to be speaker," if Republicans retake the House in the 2022 midterm elections.
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, requested that McCarthy provide information to the nine-member panel about his conversations with Trump “before, during and after” the riot. The request also seeks information about McCarthy’s communications with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the days before the attack
continues....
I’ll relish the day when Gym Jordan is peppering an empty chair with inane questions and rambling commentary or when the witness refuses to cooperate or answer his questions, never mind show up, to his “witch hunt” investigative committee hearing.
The repubs have made it clear that congressional hearings are of no consequence, shouldn’t be taken seriously and that you don’t need to attend, never mind defend, explain or justify your actions. Nice precedence.
Comments
Yeah, kind of like the tried to make it look like they tried to put a halt to the invasion on the Capitol building while they were trying to overturn the election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday debated recommending criminal contempt charges against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after he ceased cooperating with the Jan. 6 Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
If approved, it would be the first time the House voted to hold a former member in contempt since the 1830s, according to the chamber’s records. But it's the second time the special committee has sought to punish a witness for defying a subpoena.
It’s the latest show of force by the Jan. 6 panel, which is leaving no angle unexplored — and no subpoena unanswered — as it investigates the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years. Lawmakers on the panel are determined to get answers quickly, and in doing so reassert the congressional authority that eroded while former President Donald Trump was in office.
“History will be written about these times, about the work this committee has undertaken,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, R-Miss., the chairman. “And history will not look upon any of you as a martyr. History will not look upon you as a victim.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., another member of the panel, began Tuesday’s debate by reading frantic texts from the day of the attack revealing members of Congress, Fox News anchors and even Trump’s son urging Meadows to persuade the outgoing president to act quickly to stop the three-hour assault by his supporters.
The nine-member panel voted 9-0 Monday night to recommend charges against the former North Carolina congressman who left in March 2020 to become Trump's chief of staff. Approval by the full House would refer the issue to the Justice Department, which would decide whether to prosecute. If convicted, Bannon and Meadows could face up to one year behind bars on each charge.
Republicans on Tuesday called the action against Meadows a distraction from the House's work, with one member calling it “evil” and “un-American.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, took to the floor to praise Meadows: “Make no mistake, when Democrats vote in favor of this resolution, it is a vote to put a good man in prison.”
Trump has also defended Meadows in an interview, saying, “I think Mark should do what’s right. He’s an honorable man. He shouldn’t be put through this."
And Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger defended his client in a statement before the vote, noting that he had provided documents to the panel and maintaining that he should not be compelled to appear for an interview.
He said, “The Select Committee’s true intentions in dealing with Mr. Meadows have been revealed when it accuses him of contempt citing the very documents his cooperation has produced.”
STEVE BANNON
Jan. 6 panel votes for contempt charges against Mark Meadows
Meadows sues as Jan. 6 panel proceeds with contempt case
Jan. 6 panel threatens contempt vote after Meadows withdraws
Turning outrage into power: How far right is changing GOP
Meadows himself has sued the panel, asking a court to invalidate two subpoenas that he says are “overly broad and unduly burdensome.”
Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters “I do think we’re all watching, as you are, what is unfolding on the House side. And it will be interesting to reveal all the participants who were involved.”
He added that he was not in contact with Meadows on the day of the attack.
Democrats quoted at length from Jan. 6 text messages provided by Meadows while he was cooperating with the committee.
“We need an Oval Office address," Donald Trump Jr. texted, the committee said, as his father's supporters were breaking into the Capitol, sending lawmakers running for their lives and interrupting the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory. "He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
Trump Jr. added, "He’s got to condemn this s—- ASAP." In response to one of Trump Jr.'s texts, Meadows said: “I’m pushing it hard. I agree.”
Members of the committee said the texts raise fresh questions about what was happening at the White House — and what Trump himself was doing — as the attack was underway. The committee had planned to question Meadows about the communications, including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages. The panel has not released any of the communications in full.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the panel’s vice chairwoman, said at the committee's Monday evening meeting that an important issue raised by the texts is whether Trump sought to obstruct the congressional certification by refusing to send a strong message to the rioters to stop.
“These texts leave no doubt,” Cheney said. “The White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol.”
The investigating panel has already interviewed more than 300 witnesses, and subpoenaed more than 40 people, as it seeks to create the most comprehensive record yet of the lead-up to the insurrection and of the violent siege itself.
If Meadows had appeared for his deposition, lawmakers had planned to ask him about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in the weeks before the insurrection, including his outreach to states and his communications with members of Congress.
The panel says it wanted to know more about whether Trump was engaged in discussions regarding the response of the National Guard, which was delayed for hours as the violence escalated and the rioters beat police guarding the Capitol building.
The documents provided by Meadows include an email he sent to an unidentified person saying that the Guard would be present to “protect pro Trump people," the panel said, and that more would be available on standby. The committee did not release any additional details about that email.
Committee staff said they would have interviewed Meadows about emails “to leadership at the Department of Justice on December 29th and 30th, 2020, and January 1st, 2021, encouraging investigations of suspected voter fraud,” even though election officials and courts across the country had rejected those claims.
___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Tuesday to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress after he ceased to cooperate with the Jan. 6 Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection — making it the first time the chamber has voted to hold a former member in contempt since the 1830s.
The near-party-line 222-208 vote is the second time the special committee has sought to punish a witness for defying a subpoena. The vote is the latest show of force by the Jan. 6 panel, which is leaving no angle unexplored — and no subpoena unanswered — as it investigates the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years. Lawmakers on the panel are determined to get answers quickly, and in doing so reassert the congressional authority that eroded while former President Donald Trump was in office.
“History will be written about these times, about the work this committee has undertaken,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, R-Miss., the chairman. “And history will not look upon any of you as a martyr. History will not look upon you as a victim.”
The two GOP votes — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who serve on the committee — in favor of the resolution came after nine Republicans voted to hold former Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt in October. While Bannon’s case was more clear-cut -- he never engaged with the committee at all -- Meadows had turned over documents and negotiated for two months with the panel about an interview. Meadows also has closer relationships within the Republican caucus, having just left Congress last year.
Meadows was also Trump’s top aide in the White House, giving him more plausible grounds to claim executive privilege. Bannon had not worked in the White House since 2017.
The Justice Department will also be weighing those factors as prosecutors decide whether to move forward with the case. If convicted, Bannon and Meadows could each face up to one year behind bars on each charge.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., another member of the panel, began Tuesday’s debate on the resolution by reading frantic texts from the day of the attack revealing members of Congress, Fox News anchors and even Trump’s son urging Meadows to persuade the outgoing president to act quickly to stop the three-hour assault by his supporters.
Republicans on Tuesday called the action against Meadows a distraction from the House's work, with one member calling it “evil” and “un-American.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio praised Meadows: “Make no mistake, when Democrats vote in favor of this resolution, it is a vote to put a good man in prison.”
Trump also defended Meadows in an interview, saying: “I think Mark should do what’s right. He’s an honorable man. He shouldn’t be put through this."
And Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger defended his client in a statement before the vote, noting that he had provided documents to the panel and maintaining that he should not be compelled to appear for an interview.
Terwilliger said, “The Select Committee’s true intentions in dealing with Mr. Meadows have been revealed when it accuses him of contempt citing the very documents his cooperation has produced.”
STEVE BANNON
House votes to hold Mark Meadows in contempt in Jan. 6 probe
Jan. 6 panel votes for contempt charges against Mark Meadows
Meadows sues as Jan. 6 panel proceeds with contempt case
Jan. 6 panel threatens contempt vote after Meadows withdraws
Meadows himself has sued the panel, asking a court to invalidate two subpoenas that he says are “overly broad and unduly burdensome.”
Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters: “I do think we’re all watching, as you are, what is unfolding on the House side. And it will be interesting to reveal all the participants who were involved.”
He added that he was not in contact with Meadows on the day of the attack.
Democrats quoted at length from Jan. 6 text messages provided by Meadows while he was cooperating with the committee.
“We need an Oval Office address," Donald Trump Jr. texted, the committee said, as his father's supporters were breaking into the Capitol, sending lawmakers running for their lives and interrupting the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory. "He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
Trump Jr. added, "He’s got to condemn this s—- ASAP." In response to one of Trump Jr.'s texts, Meadows said: “I’m pushing it hard. I agree.”
Members of the committee said the texts raise fresh questions about what was happening at the White House — and what Trump himself was doing — as the attack was underway. The committee had planned to question Meadows about the communications, including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages. The panel has not released any of the communications in full.
Cheney, the panel’s vice chairwoman, said at the committee's Monday evening meeting that an important issue raised by the texts is whether Trump sought to obstruct the congressional certification by refusing to send a strong message to the rioters to stop.
“These texts leave no doubt,” she said. “The White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol.”
The investigating panel has already interviewed more than 300 witnesses, and subpoenaed more than 40 people, as it seeks to create the most comprehensive record yet of the lead-up to the insurrection and of the violent siege itself.
If Meadows had appeared for his deposition, lawmakers had planned to ask him about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in the weeks before the insurrection, including his outreach to states and his communications with members of Congress.
The panel says it wanted to know more about whether Trump was engaged in discussions regarding the response of the National Guard, which was delayed for hours as the violence escalated and the rioters beat police guarding the Capitol building.
The documents provided by Meadows include an email he sent to an unidentified person saying that the Guard would be present to “protect pro Trump people," the panel said, and that more would be available on standby. The committee did not release any additional details about that email.
Committee staff said they would have interviewed Meadows about emails “to leadership at the Department of Justice on December 29th and 30th, 2020, and January 1st, 2021, encouraging investigations of suspected voter fraud,” even though election officials and courts across the country had rejected those claims.
___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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December 16 at 6:12 PM EST
It’s been no secret that leaders of the effort to overturn the 2020 election were grasping at straws as the clock was running out — or, rather, grasping at them even harder than before.
Emails have shown White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and others barraging the Justice Department with a multitude of previously debunked claims about voter fraud and even a conspiracy theory about the election being rigged by Italian satellites. Others promoted the drastic and historically unprecedented step of having Vice President Mike Pence unilaterally reject certain states’ electors to help reinstall Donald Trump.
We can now add one more bad argument to the list — courtesy of none other than a lawmaker Republicans tried to appoint to the House’s Jan. 6 committee.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Wednesday confirmed that a Jan. 5 text message to Meadows disclosed as coming from a GOP member of Congress came from him. (The reason he did so is that he and allies have argued the text was “doctored,” because it truncated what he wrote and added a period where one didn’t appear. Jordan also said he was not speaking in his own words but rather forwarding an argument from a former Bush administration official.)
The text effectively argued that Pence could and should unilaterally reject certain states’ electors that day, but it did so in a rather remarkable way.
“On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all,” said the text in the portion disclosed by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.).
The rest of the text read:
— in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ‘That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916).
It’s not clear what disclosing the fuller legal analysis changes about what Jordan sent, even as it probably would’ve been better to just share the whole thing. (“The Select Committee is responsible for and regrets the error,” the Jan. 6 committee said Wednesday.)
What is clear is that the congressman was offering an argument that Pence should assist in a highly unorthodox plot to overturn the election.
But also don’t lose sight of that fuller legal analysis, which is something.
The case Jordan was forwarding was from Joseph Schmitz, a former Defense Department inspector general in the George W. Bush administration. And it sounds high-minded — as if this plot to get Pence to help overturn the election were even something Alexander Hamilton could get behind.
The first big problem, of course, is that there was no legitimate reason to argue that election results were unconstitutional, given the courts repeatedly rejected claims of fraud and malfeasance. Others argued — to no avail — that the Electoral Count Act, which guides the process for counting electoral votes, was itself unconstitutional because it violated the 12th Amendment. (The text, though, describes the electoral votes as unconstitutional, not that law.)
But even if Pence believed either the results or the Electoral Count Act were unconstitutional, in his heart of hearts, was Hamilton arguing people like him should take action against such things?
The Hamilton quote cited comes from Federalist No. 78. You’ll note the title of the paper: “The Judiciary Department.” This was not about lawmakers or executive-branch members ignoring laws they deemed to be unconstitutional; it was about the need to have a judiciary that can review such laws for their adherence to the Constitution. The judicial branch indeed weighed in on many of these claims, and almost universally decided against Trump’s side.
What’s more, the express purpose of judicial review was to avoid the people’s representatives trampling on their rights. Right after the quote above, Federalist No. 78 elaborates: “To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves ...” Logic might suggest that would include disregarding the people’s votes in the name of reinstalling yourself in power, without judicial review validating that position.
Hamilton also wrote in Federalist No. 78 that this judicial review was “the proper and peculiar province of the courts” and that it “belongs to them to ascertain [a constitution’s] meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body.” And he wrote that, “If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers ... it may be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not to be collected from any particular provisions in the Constitution.” In other words, Hamilton seemed to take a pretty dim view of legislators — and really anybody but the courts — acting as judges of constitutionality.
The Schmitz argument, as relayed by Jordan, goes on to cite a court decision supposedly backing up the scheme. It refers to 1915’s Hubbard v. Lowe, which states, “That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.” One might read the text and think this was a Supreme Court precedent, but in fact it’s not! This quote comes from the district court for the Southern District of New York — in a case involving the Cotton Futures Act. (Relying upon a district court judge to undergird your case for overturning an American election is certainly a strategy.)
And even if this were Supreme Court precedent, it makes a rather anodyne point that basically says: “There is such thing as an unconstitutional law that can be overturned” — again, with the method for doing so being the courts.
It’s noteworthy in all of this that Jordan is distancing himself from the argument, at least somewhat. As Pence-plot architect John Eastman has strained to do, he’s pitching this as merely sharing information. “Mr. Jordan forwarded the text to Mr. Meadows, and Mr. Meadows certainly knew it was a forward,” Jordan’s office said.
But as with Eastman, this was someone delivering a rather desperate, legally dubious and democracy-imperiling idea to people who were clearly desperate to pursue such things. It also, crucially, shows a guy Republicans tried to put on the Jan. 6 committee promoting precisely the scheme the Capitol rioters tried to force Congress to pursue. Based upon this — and combining it with the conversations Jordan had with Trump on Jan. 6 — there’s little doubt Jordan’s own actions would’ve been a focus of the committee he was picked to serve on.
And as with its predecessors, the idea he promoted didn’t even make much sense.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection requested an interview and documents from Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania on Monday, marking the first time the committee publicly sought to sit down with a sitting member of Congress.
The latest request launches a new phase for the lawmakers on the committee, who have so far resisted reaching out to one of their own as they investigate the insurrection by President Donald Trump’s supporters and his efforts to overturn the election. Perry and other congressional Republicans met with Trump ahead of the attack and strategized about how they could block the results at the Jan. 6 electoral count.
In a letter to Perry, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel had received evidence from multiple witnesses, including then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, that Perry had “an important role” in efforts to install Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.
The letter requests an interview with Perry, who pushed the Justice Department to overturn the election and met with Trump ahead of the violent attack, according to investigators. The panel also asked for any documents and correspondence between Perry and Trump, his legal team or anyone involved in the planning of Jan. 6 events.
A request for comment left with Perry's office was not immediately returned.
The lawmaker representing Pennsylvania's 10th District was cited more than 50 times in a Senate Judiciary report released in October outlining how Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign.
Perry, who has continuously disputed the validity of President Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, has said he obliged Trump’s request for an introduction to Clark, then an assistant attorney general whom Perry knew from unrelated legislative matters. The three men went on to discuss their shared concerns about the election, Perry has said.
The Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state, and senior Justice officials dismissed Perry’s claims
The recent Senate report outlined a call Perry made to Donoghue last December to say the department wasn’t doing its job with respect to the elections. Perry encouraged Donoghue to elicit Clark’s help because he’s “the kind of guy who could really get in there and do something about this,” the report said.
Perry has previously said his “official communications” with Justice Department officials were consistent with the law.
The letter sent Monday night is the first time the panel has publicly released a request to a fellow member of Congress as it investigates Trump’s communications with his Republican allies. But the panel notably did not subpoena Perry, as it has other witnesses close to Trump whom lawmakers believe have relevant information.
In his letter to Perry, Thompson added that the panel “has tremendous respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its Members. At the same time, we have a solemn responsibility to investigate fully all of these facts and circumstances.”
The panel voted in November to hold Clark in contempt after he showed up for a deposition yet declined to answer questions. But Thompson has said he will hold off pursuing the charges and allow Clark to attend another deposition and try again. Clark’s lawyer has said Clark intends to assert his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, but the deposition has been repeatedly postponed as Clark has dealt with an unidentified medical condition.
The panel has already interviewed around 300 people as it seeks to create a comprehensive record of the attack and the events leading up to it.
Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying Vice President Mike Pence and Republican members of Congress to try to overturn the count at the Jan. 6 congressional certification. Election officials across the country, along with the courts, had repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims.
An angry mob of Trump supporters were echoing his false claims as they brutally beat Capitol police and broke into the building that day, interrupting the certification of Biden’s victory.
In his request for a meeting with Perry, Thompson wrote: “We would like to meet with you soon to discuss these topics, but we also want to accommodate your schedule.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania on Tuesday rebuffed a request for him to sit down for an interview and turn over documents to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection, joining other allies of former President Donald Trump in trying to stonewall the committee.
“I stand with immense respect for our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Americans I represent who know that this entity is illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives," Perry said in a statement.
In a letter to Perry on Monday night, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel had received evidence from multiple witnesses, including then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, that Perry had “an important role” in efforts to install Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.
The lawmaker's refusal will test how far the committee is willing to go in its quest for information as members have so far resisted subpoenaing one of their own as they investigate the insurrection by Trump’s supporters and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The letter is the first time the panel has publicly released a request to a fellow member of Congress as the members inquire about the details of Perry and other congressional Republicans who met with Trump ahead of the Capitol attack and strategized about how they could block the results at the Jan. 6 electoral count.
Also in the letter, Thompson added that while the panel “has tremendous respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its Members," it also has "a solemn responsibility to investigate fully all of these facts and circumstances.”
The committee has also asked for any documents and correspondence between Perry and Trump, his legal team or anyone involved in the planning of Jan. 6 events.
The lawmaker, representing Pennsylvania's 10th District, was cited more than 50 times in a Senate Judiciary report released in October outlining how Trump’s effort to overturn his election defeat to Joe Biden brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign.
Perry, who has continuously disputed the validity of Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, has said he obliged Trump’s request for an introduction to Clark, then an assistant attorney general whom Perry knew from unrelated legislative matters. The three men went on to discuss their shared concerns about the election, Perry has said.
The Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state, and senior Justice officials dismissed Perry’s claims.
The recent Senate report outlined a call Perry made to Donoghue last December to say the department wasn’t doing its job with respect to the elections. Perry encouraged Donoghue to elicit Clark’s help because he’s “the kind of guy who could really get in there and do something about this,” the report said.
Perry has said his “official communications” with Justice Department officials were consistent with the law.
The panel voted in November to hold Clark in contempt after he showed up for a deposition yet declined to answer questions. But Thompson has said he will hold off pursuing the charges and allow Clark to attend another deposition and try again. Clark’s lawyer has said Clark intends to assert his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, but the deposition has been repeatedly postponed as Clark has dealt with an unidentified medical condition.
The panel has already interviewed around 300 people as it seeks to create a comprehensive record of the Jan. 6 attack and the events leading up to it.
Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying Vice President Mike Pence and Republican members of Congress to try to overturn the count at the Jan. 6 congressional certification. Election officials across the country, along with the courts, had repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims.
An angry mob of Trump supporters was echoing his false claims as it brutally beat Capitol police and broke into the building that day, interrupting the certification of Biden’s victory.
Thompson, in his request for a meeting with Perry, wrote: “We would like to meet with you soon to discuss these topics, but we also want to accommodate your schedule.”
___
Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.
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(CNN)Michael Flynn has swiftly lost his bid in court to block a possible House select committee subpoena for his phone records and to hold off demands he speak to the panel investigating January 6.
Michael Flynn loses his legal challenge to the House January 6 probe, one day after filing it - CNNPolitics
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Jim Jordan: House committee seeks to interview GOP firebrand about January 6 - CNNPolitics
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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Televised hearings in 2022 are going to be brilliant brilliance in all its brilliancy of must see tv.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has agreed to defer its attempt to get hundreds of pages of records from the Trump administration, holding off at the request of the Biden White House.
The deferral is in response to concerns by the Biden White House that releasing all the Trump administration documents sought by the committee could compromise national security and executive privilege.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly rejected former President Donald Trump's blanket efforts to cite executive privilege to block the release of documents surrounding that day. But Biden's White House is still working with the committee to shield some documents from being turned over.
Trump is appealing to the Supreme Court to try to block the National Archives and Records Administration, which maintains custody of the documents from his time in office, from giving them to the committee.
The agreement to keep some Trump-era records away from the committee is memorialized in a Dec. 16 letter from the White House counsel's office. It mostly shields records that do not involve the events of Jan. 6 but were covered by the committee's sweeping request for documents from the Trump White House about the events of that day.
JOE BIDEN
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White House, Jan. 6 committee agree to shield some documents
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Dozen of pages created Jan. 6 don't pertain to the assault on the Capitol. Other documents involve sensitive preparations and deliberations by the National Security Council. Biden's officials were worried that if those pages were turned over to Congress, that would set a troublesome precedent for the executive branch, no matter who is president.
Still other documents are highly classified and the White House asked Congress to work with the federal agencies that created them to discuss their release.
“The documents for which the Select Committee has agreed to withdraw or defer its request do not appear to bear on the White House’s preparations for or response to the events of January 6, or on efforts to overturn the election or otherwise obstruct the peaceful transfer of power,” White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su wrote in one of two letters to the committee obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
Su wrote that for the committee, withholding the documents "should not compromise its ability to complete its critical investigation expeditiously.”
Committee spokesman Tim Mulvey said: “The committee has agreed to defer action on certain records as part of the accommodations process, as was the case with an earlier tranche of records. The Select Committee has not withdrawn its request for these records and will continue to engage with the executive branch to ensure the committee gets access to all the information relevant to our probe.”
For the last several months the National Archives has been transmitting tranches of documents to the White House and to lawyers for Trump to determine whether they contain any privileged information. Trump has raised both broad objections to the release of the documents as well as specific concerns about particular documents.
The National Archives has said that the records Trump wants to block include presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts, handwritten notes “concerning the events of January 6” from the files of former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and “a draft Executive Order on the topic of election integrity.”
Biden has repeatedly rejected Trump's claims of executive privilege over those documents, including in a letter sent Dec. 23 regarding about 20 pages of documents.
“The President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified,” White House counsel Dana Remus reiterated in the latest letter.
Trump has taken to the courts to block the document releases. A federal appeals court ruled this month against Trump, and he has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, though the high court has yet to decide whether to take up the case.
Judge Patricia Millett, writing for the court in the Dec. 9 opinion, said Congress had a “uniquely vital interest” in studying the events of Jan. 6 and Biden had made a “carefully reasoned” determination that the documents were in the public interest and that executive privilege should therefore not be invoked. Trump also failed to show any harm that would occur from the release of the sought-after records, Millett wrote.
“On the record before us, former President Trump has provided no basis for this court to override President Biden’s judgment and the agreement and accommodations worked out between the Political Branches over these documents,” the opinion stated.
—
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed.
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A federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss an indictment charging four alleged leaders of the far-right Proud Boys with conspiring to attack the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected defense attorneys' arguments that the four men — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe — are charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.
Kelly said the defendants had many nonviolent ways to express their opinions about the 2020 presidential election.
“Defendants are not, as they argue, charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands, or participating in mere sit-ins or protests," Kelly wrote in his 43-page ruling. “Moreover, even if the charged conduct had some expressive aspect, it lost whatever First Amendment protection it may have had."
Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe were indicted in March on charges including conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding. All four of them remain jailed while they await a trial scheduled for May.
JOE BIDEN
Biden's new German shepherd draws attention from pup-arazzi
White House, Jan. 6 committee agree to shield some documents
Judge refuses to dismiss alleged Proud Boys leaders' charges
Fauci: US should consider vaccine mandate for US air travel
Defense lawyers also argued that the obstruction charge doesn't apply to their clients' cases because Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote was not an “official proceeding." Kelly disagreed.
Earlier this month, another judge in the District of Columbia's federal court upheld prosecutors’ use of the same obstruction charge in a separate case against two riot defendants.
The case against Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe is a focus of the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection. More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates, including at least 16 defendants charged with conspiracy.
Last Wednesday, a New York man pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members. Matthew Greene is the first Proud Boys member to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. He agreed to cooperate with authorities.
Other extremist group members have been charged with conspiring to carry out coordinated attacks on the Capitol, including more than 20 people linked to the antigovernment Oath Keepers.
Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and member of the group’s national “Elders Council.” Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Donohoe, of Kernersville, North Carolina, also served as president of his local chapter, according to the indictment.
Lawyers for the four men declined to comment on Tuesday's ruling.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.
Just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, the indictment says. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol building itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.
More than 700 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. At least 165 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses punishable by a maximum of six months' imprisonment.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — They’ve interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump.
Now, after six months of intense work, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to go public.
In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies’ persistent efforts to whitewash the riots and reject suggestions that he helped instigate them. The committee also faces the burden of trying to persuade the American public that their conclusions are fact-based and credible.
But the nine lawmakers — seven Democrats and two Republicans — are united in their commitment to tell the full story of Jan. 6, and they are planning televised hearings and reports that will bring their findings out into the open.
Their goal is not only to show the severity of the riot, but also to make a clear connection between the attack and Trump’s brazen pressure on the states and Congress to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate election as president.
continues....
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection on Tuesday requested an interview with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in the media, as the committee continues to widen its scope.
In a letter to Hannity, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel wants to question him regarding his communications with former President Donald Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others in Trump’s orbit in the days surrounding the insurrection.
A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment on the request. Jay Sekulow, Hannity's lawyer, told The Associated Press Tuesday night that they are reviewing the committee’s letter and "will respond as appropriate.”
In his letter, Thompson said: “The Select Committee has immense respect for the First Amendment to our Constitution, freedom of the press, and the rights of Americans to express their political opinions freely. For that reason, we do not intend to seek information from you regarding your broadcasts on radio or television, your public reporting or commentary, or your political views regarding any candidate for office.”
continues..
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The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Thread from tRump's former Comm director
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection is demanding records and testimony from a former White House aide they say helped draft former President Donald Trump's Jan. 6 speech, along with two others it says were in communication with people close to Trump.
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, issued subpoenas on Tuesday to Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, strategists who advised Donald Trump Jr., and Ross Worthington, a former White House official who the committee says helped draft the speech Trump gave at the rally directly preceding last year's attack.
“We have reason to believe the individuals we’ve subpoenaed today have relevant information and we expect them to join the more than 340 individuals who have spoken with the Select Committee as we push ahead to investigate this attack on our democracy and ensure nothing like this ever happens again," Thompson said in a letter Tuesday.
Worthington is a former Trump White House and campaign aide who served as a speechwriter and policy adviser. He had previously worked for former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally.
continues.....
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WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is refusing a request by the House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection to submit to an interview and turn over records pertaining to the deadly riot.
The panel is seeking first-hand details from members of Congress on then-President Donald Trump’s actions on the day hundreds of his supporters brutally beat police, stormed the building and interrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
McCarthy, R-Calif., issued a statement Wednesday refusing to cooperate with the House committee. He said the investigation was not legitimate and accused the panel of “abuse of power.”
He told Fox News Channel on Thursday that he had nothing to add beyond his media interviews after the riot. He claimed some committee members want “to deny me ever the chance to be speaker," if Republicans retake the House in the 2022 midterm elections.
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, requested that McCarthy provide information to the nine-member panel about his conversations with Trump “before, during and after” the riot. The request also seeks information about McCarthy’s communications with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the days before the attack
continues....
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The repubs have made it clear that congressional hearings are of no consequence, shouldn’t be taken seriously and that you don’t need to attend, never mind defend, explain or justify your actions. Nice precedence.
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good point...
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana