The House Committee on Homeland Security and the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (SECI 2021)

Criminal referrals would be a symbolic move since the committee has no power to initiate legal proceedings itself. The Justice Department has its own federal investigation into January 6, 2021, now overseen by a special counsel. If the evidence gathered in hundreds of interviews and dramatic televised hearings merited a referral, January 6 would be a moment of stark accountability. A prosecution against an ex-president would put up a marker for the future elections, as well as an attack on democracy with no parallel.

The House committee articulated a powerful legal case encompassing the many schemes of Mr. Trump, John Eastman and others, including the audacious promotion of false electoral slates. The committee recommended the prosecution of Mr. Trump on charges of inciting insurrection and giving aid or comfort to insurrectionists, a charge unseen since the Civil War. The referrals make clear to prosecutors and to Americans just how dangerous the attempted coup was, and how vulnerable our system was (and is) to such assaults.

The panel presented a series of hearings in order to demonstrate how the president oversaw the efforts to overturn the election, as evidenced by the letter that accompanied the subpoena.

Cheney explained that the committee is “obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. We can protect the republic by giving every American the answers.

Editor’s Note: Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, is chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

If Republicans take the House, the January 6 committee will cease to exist, meaning it will only have 3 months to make a final report.

CNN obtained more footage from Fort McNair that was not shown by the committee. The special edition of Anderson Cooper’s show will be airing on CNN. Congressional leaders, who had evacuated from the Capitol, were trying to figure out what was happening at the overrun Capitol, and were begging for help as they rushed to quell the insurrection.

The footage shows how the Trump administration and congressional leaders worked together to stop the riot that he incited, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin. The committee will present new material from January 6 after it shows these behind-the-scenes clips.

The phone calls between Pelosi and Pence on January 6 were shown in the footage.

They all exploded when they saw little help on the way. “Why don’t you get the President to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility,” Schumer barked at Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. While Trump watched as the riot unfolded from the confines of the White House, the legislative leaders were frantic in their efforts to restore peace.

Since that time, we’ve spoken to more high ranking officials like the Trump envoy to Northern Ireland and former Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney who resigned in protest of the President’s misdeeds, and the transportation secretary who resigned due to her association with the president.

End of the videotape: A top aide to Mark Meadows (Ramarita Murmur) admitting he had lost the election

I believe in this country. A peaceful transfer of power is something I believe in. I believe in a democratic society. And so I was a — it was a decision that I made on my own. End the videotape.

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former top aide to Trump White House chief of staff MarkMeadows, gave a new testimony about Trump acknowledging he had lost the election.

I said to Mark, he can’t possibly think we’re going to pull this off. Like, that call was crazy.’ And he looked at me and just started shaking his head. And he’s like, ‘No, Cass, you know, he knows it’s over. He knows he lost. But we’re going to keep trying,’” Hutchinson told the committee.

She said she saw a conversation between Meadows and Trump about the Supreme Court rejecting a lawsuit attempting to overturn the election result.

The President told Mark he didn’t want people to know we lost. This is embarrassing. Figure it out. We have to figure it out. I don’t want people to know that we lost,’” Hutchinson said.

Secret Service Investigation of the Jan. 6, 2016 Incitement of the Mob: A New Analysis of the Threat to the Vice President due to the Accuracies of a Robust Election

We were able to obtain almost one million electronic records from the Secret Service. Over the month of August, the select committee began its review of hundreds of thousands of pages and multiple hours of that material, providing substantial new evidence about what happened on January 6th and the days leading up to it. That review continues.

On the morning of the 6th, the Secret Service was at the Ellipse screening the members of the crowd as they entered the rally site. And they noticed something significant about the crowd. Tens of thousands of people were outside the rally site, but did not want to go through the magnetometers, the metal detectors that were used to screen for dangerous weapons.

Days before January Trump’s communication adviser, Jason Miller, boasted to Meadows that he “got the base FIRED UP,” and shared a link to a pro-Trump webpage containing hundreds of threatening comments about killing lawmakers if they went ahead with certifying Joe Biden’s legitimate electoral victory, according to a new text message the panel showed Thursday.

We’ve obtained new documents from the Secret Service, real time chats that underscore the threat they knew the Vice President would be facing because of the President’s escalating incitement of the mob. One agent in the intelligence division warned Trump that he was probably not going to be good for VP, after he commented about the person.

President Trump made a decision to declare victory and to call for the vote count to be stopped that was not a decision that was made spontaneously. The summary states that it was premeditated.

Now following this conversation, Mr. Jacob drafted a memo to Mr. Short, which the Select Committee got from the National Archives. The memo was sent on November 3rd, Election Day, and advised, “it is essential that the Vice President not be perceived by the public as having decided questions concerning disputed electoral votes prior to the full development of all relevant facts.” A few days before the election, Mr. Trump also consulted with one of his outside advisers, inside activist, Tom Fitton, about the strategy for election night.

The memo says it is essential that the public does not think that the Vice President has taken decisions concerning disputed electoral votes before the facts are known.

The emails were from Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, who said in his emails that Trump should declare victory even after the election.

Despite saying for months that they wanted to hear from Thomas, members of the panel downplayed the significance of her testimony following her interview, and it was clear ahead of Thursday that she was not expected to be a central part of the hearing that was instead solely focused on Trump.

Her absence was notable, since the panel used testimony from several high-profile witnesses who were interviewed before the most recent hearing.

As the panel wrapped up its evidentiary hearings, it was not clear if it had swayed the jury. After four months of hearings with jaw-dropping testimony and more evidence to support their belief, Americans who had blamed Mr. Trump came away, even though most of them remained in his camp.

The relatively little movement in public opinion since the hearings opened in June, at least as measured by an array of polls, underscored the calcification of American politics in recent years. Many voters have been locked into their viewpoints, seemingly immune to contrary information. Some of Mr. Trumps loyalists have remained loyal, despite his claims that the congressional investigation is a partisan exercise.

Regardless of its impact on Trump or the Justice Department, the conclusion of the committee’s work marks a shift in history when Americans had a choice between an effort by an incompetent commander in chief to overrule their voice and the chain of peaceful protest.

The Select Committee will be following up on the attack on the United States Capitol. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare the committee in recess at any point. The chair announced the committee’s approval to release the deposition material during today’s hearing.

The opposition in the congressional investigation of Iran-Contra put out a minority report in 1987, but today that is no longer necessary. Opponents of the committee have an array of tactics to undermine the power of the official findings.

That’s why I asked those who were skeptical of our work to — simply to listen, to listen to the evidence, to hear the testimony with an open mind, and to let the facts speak for themselves before reaching any judgment. Over the course of these hearings, the evidence has proven that there were a multipart plan led by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election.

At times, President Trump acknowledged the reality of his loss. Although he publicly claimed that he had won the election, privately he admitted that Joe Biden would take over as President. There are a few examples of that. Begin videotape.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. President Trump’s efforts to unlawfully overturn the results of the 2020 election were not limited to the big lie and pressuring state officials and the Department of Justice officials. The president attempted to get fake electors to vote for Trump in states he did not win.

How do we know this? How have we been able to present such a clear picture of what took place? We presented you with testimony and the documentary evidence we gathered, because we know that you, the American people, would like to learn more about what happened.

The committee’s focus on using video excerpts and not cross examining witnesses makes it difficult to get a complete picture of the evidence. McCabe noted that some witnesses might have made statements that were favorable to Trump or that were exculpatory in some way that would surely be used by his lawyers in court.

Who has that been? There are people who worked for Donald Trump for many years and others who worked at the highest levels of the campaign.

I’ve served in Congress a long time. It is hard for Congressional investigations to get evidence like what we received, much less a complete view of a president’s inner circle. And I want to be clear. Not all these witnesses were thrilled to talk to us. Some up — put up quite a fight.

The Report on January 6th: Report of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Investigations into a Newly-Revoked US Presidential Election

There is one more change about this day. We are convened this day as a formal business meeting so that we can potentially hold a committee vote on further investigative action, based upon the evidence presented in today’s proceedings.

While the criminal referrals would largely be symbolic in nature – as the DOJ has already undertaken a sprawling investigation into the US Capitol attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 election – committee members have stressed that the move serves as a way to document their views for the record.

The preamble to the Constitution is supposed to be used to establish justice. And our nation’s judiciary and our US Department of Justice have that responsibility. A key element of this committee’s responsibility is to propose reforms to prevent January 6th from ever happening again. The House passed a bill that will make sure that no other attempts to overturn an election are successful.

According to the summary of the report released on Monday, the main cause of January 6th was one man: former President Donald Trump. There would have been no events on January 6th if it weren’t for him.

The members said that Trump knew the election was not stolen but still pushed a lot of baseless claims about voter fraud.

“Ultimately, even Rudolph Giuliani and his legal team acknowledged that they had no definitive evidence of election fraud sufficient to change the election outcome,” the summary states, referring to Trump’s then-personal attorney.

Why Did President Trump Go to the Capitol? Explaining How President Trump’s Action against Crime and the U.S. Constitution is Invulnerable

President Trump may not have gone to the Capitol on January 6th, but what he did from the White House cannot be justified. President Trump refused to help with the violence despite pleas from nearly everyone around him.

Please consider, who had a hand in defeating President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, as well as the White House staff who blocked proposals to use the military to seize voting machines and run.

All of these people had a hand in stopping Donald Trump. This leads to a very important question. How come Americans assume that our Constitution is invulnerable to another attack? Why would we assume that those institutions will not falter next time? A key lesson of this investigation is this.

Our institutions only hold when men and women of good faith make them hold regardless of the political cost. We have no guarantee that these men and women will be in place next time. Future presidents don’t install people who can stand in the way to attempt what Donald Trump did in 2020.

Our country is a country of laws where every person, including the President, must follow the law and respect the judgment of our courts. President Trump’s closest advisers held that view both then and now. Start the videotape.

Cheney said Thursday that committee members made clear that Trump wasn’tduped or irrational. He knew exactly what he was doing. Trump said he didn’t want people to know that we lost when the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit in December 2020.

Those who planned to overturn our election and brought us to the point of violence must also be accountable. With every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former president, we chip away at the foundation of our republic. Relating indefensible conduct is defended. Inexcusable conduct is excused. It will recur if there is no accountability.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Emailing the President to vote early in the game on November 3rd, 2010 at 6:00 AM EDT

As we look at the evidence today, please consider where our nation is in its history. Consider whether we can survive for another 246 years. Most people have not had the freedom to be themselves. America continues because we bind ourselves to the principles of our constitution.

Some principles are more important than any single American who has ever lived. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We start this meeting very soon after the election, by returning to election night on November 3rd. The chairman noted that we’ve presented testimony before about how the election results were expected. In some states, mail-in ballots cast before Election Day would not be counted until after the polls had closed.

That meant that election results would not be known for some time. Although Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy had urged him to encourage mail voting, President Trump did not do so. [Begin videotape]

I remember people arguing that a robust get out the vote effort was important, and that mail in ballots might be a good thing if we looked at it correctly.

Kevin McCarthy was invited to join the meeting because he wanted to know why I thought mail in voting would be good for the President’s campaign. Continue videotape.

So it was expected before the election that the initial counts in some states, in other words, those votes cast on Election Day, would be more heavily Republican and this would create the false perception of a lead for President Trump, a so-called red mirage. But as the results of the absentee ballots that were later counted, there could be trends towards Vice President Biden as those mail in ballots were counted.

Donald Trump was told by his advisers that he should wait for the remaining votes to be counted, as he did not have a factual basis to claim victory. The campaign manager is Bill Stepien. Start the videotape.

It was too early in the game to make such calls. The ballots were still being counted. It was going to be several days before the votes were counted. And it was far too early to be making any proclamation like that. I believed my recommendation was to say that votes are still being counted. It’s too early to make a call on the race.

There is a fraud on the American public. This is not good for our country. We were getting ready to win this election. We won this election. [applause] We want all voting to stop. End video

They made sure that the vice president didn’t echo a false victory announcement from the president. Here’s what the Vice President’s counsel, Greg Jacob, told us about his preparations with the Vice President’s chief of staff, Marc Short. [Begin videotape]

I was told that a declaration of victory within the White House might be pushed for before the results of the election are known. And that he was trying to figure out a way of avoiding the Vice President sort of being thrust into a position of needing to opine on that when he might not have sufficient information to do so. [End videotape]

Everyone knew that ballot counting would lawfully continue past Election Day, claiming that the counting on election night must stop before millions of votes were counted was as we now know a key part of President Trump’s pre-meditated plan. On election day, Mr. Fitton said he had talked to the President about the statement.

Steve Bannon, a Republican strategist who worked for President Trump before he was elected, spoke to a group of Chinese people just a few days before the election. Begin the videotape.

He’s going to say he’s a winner. It’s going to be a big deal when you wake up on Wednesday. Also — also if Trump is — if Trump is losing by 10:00 or 11:00 at night, it’s going to be even crazier, you know, because he’s gonna sit right there and say they stole it.

I’m directing the Attorney General to shut down all ballot places in all 50 states. He’s not going out easy. Trump is going to do some crazy things if Biden is elected. The end of videotape.

All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. The point of attack is tomorrow, as they say, because it’s all coming together. I’ll tell you this, it’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen. Ok. It is going to be very different. And all I can say is strap in. Tomorrow is game day and you have made it happen.

Roger Stone, Enrique Tarrio and the Proud Boys: A Conversation on a Possible Special Counsel with Full Subpoena Power against Donald Trump

A close associate of Donald Trump definitely knew of his intentions. Stone has a reputation for being a dirty trickster. He was sentenced to more than 3 years in prison for lying to Congress. He’s also a longtime adviser to President Trump and was in communication with President Trump throughout 2020. Mr. Trump pardoned Roger Stone on December 23rd, 2020. And recently the Select Committee got footage of Mr. Stone before and after the election from Danish filmmaker, Christopher Gilbranson [ph], pursuant to a subpoena.

I suspect it’ll be — I really do suspect it will still be up in the air. It’s important to claim victory when that happens. Possession is 9/10 of the law.

Even though we do not have all of Roger Stone’s communications records, even his own social media posts acknowledge that he spoke with Donald Trump on December 27th while preparations were underway for January 6th. In the post, you can see how Roger Stone talked about his conversations with the president.

He wrote, “I also told the President exactly how he can appoint a special counsel with full subpoena power to ensure those who are attempting to steal the 2020 election through voter fraud are charged and convicted and to ensure Donald Trump continues as our President.” As we know by now, the idea for a special counsel was not just an idle suggestion.

It is a conspiracy to use violent force against the United States. A number of people associated with Roger Stone have been charged with this crime. Joshua James and other associates of Roger Stone have pled guilty to this crime.

Mr. Stone was testifying in front of our committee on the morning of January 6th at the Willard Hotel. Start the videotape.

Roger Stone’s connection with Enrique Tarrio and the Proud Boys is well documented by video evidence, with phone records the Select Committee has obtained. Tarrio and the other Proud Boys were charged with seditious conspiracy for their role in the attack on January 6th. Tarrio sent a message to other Proud Boys claiming to have done that.

January 6 was not a one-off, random day of chaos where events unexpectedly started spinning out of control according to the committee. It was premeditated.

I know the president knew about the decision of the network when it was called. The President was apprised by a group of other people that the odds of us prevailing in legal challenges were very small.

So we’re in the Oval and there’s a discussion going on. The President says that it could have been Pompeo, but he says words to the effect that we lost. We — we need to let that issue go to the next guy, meaning President Biden.

I remember maybe a week after the election was called, I popped into the Oval just to like give the President the headlines and see how he was doing. And he was looking at the TV and he said, can you believe I lost to this effing guy?

The Presidential Letter of November 11, 2020, and the Delegation of the Forces to Afghanistan, and a Memo to Douglas Macgregor

Knowing that he had lost and that he had only weeks left in office, President Trump rushed to complete his unfinished business. One key example is this: President Trump issued an order for large-scale US troop withdrawals. He disregarded concerns about the consequences for fragile governments on the front lines of the fight against ISIS and Al-Qaeda terrorists.

When he knew that he would be leaving office, he signed this order on November 11th, all of the troops in Afghanistan would have to leave by January 20th. As you watch these clips, you’ll learn that General Keith Kellogg had served as chief of staff to the National Security Council after he was the national security adviser to the vice president.

Are you familiar with a memo that the President reportedly signed on November 11, 2020, ordering that troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan and Somalia?

I’m assuming that you’ve seen something where Johnny McEntee sent a memo to Douglas Macgregor. You have a duty to get the US forces out of Afghanistan. When you first interviewed and met Colonel Douglas Macgregor, is it fair to say you discussed this decision of withdrawing from Somalia and Afghanistan, correct?

He replied back to you that day and said that the DOD leadership was not going to do any of the steps without an order.

I explained in language that should be in the order while I was in the meeting with McEntee, and this was my answer to him. I said, If you want this to happen or the President wants this to happen, he’s got to write an order.

I drew the key statements on the piece of paper. You know, the President directs. You know, this is — what’s the right word — boilerplate language?

McEntee duly takes it up, brings it in to the President. The President signs it and boom, it’s over — faxed over e-mail, scanned over. I receive it from the man who delivered it to me, Kash Patel.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

The Iraq War: Why did We Come to the PPO? And when did we learn that we are going through the next stage of our freedom?

I told the PPO and Macgregor that if I ever saw something like that, I would do something physical. Because I thought what that was then was a tremendous disservice to the nation. It was a very contentious issue. There were people who did not agree with getting out of Afghanistan.

I said that you’re going to have a lot of problems if you don’t act fast, because you’re going to have many resignations and other issues. And that’s not going to be in anyone’s interest. End videotape.

Be aware that the order was for immediate withdrawal. It would have been catastrophic. And yet, President Trump signed the order. These are the highly consequential actions of a President who knows his term will shortly end. At the same time that President Trump was acknowledging privately that he had lost the election, he was hearing that there was no evidence of fraud or irregularities sufficient to change the outcome.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

What Happened to the House of Representatives of the House Selective Causal Committee on Science and Politics at the Peabody Center?

I remember a call with Mr. Meadows, where Mr. Meadows was asking me what I was finding and if I was finding anything. I told him that we didn’t find anything that could change the results in all of the key states.

Stepien added: “We’d have to, you know, relay the news that, yeah, that tip that someone told you about those votes or that fraud or, you know, nothing came of it. That would be our job and it’s easier to tell the president about wild allegations as it’s the truth telling squad’s job. It’s a harder job to be telling him on the back end that, yeah, that wasn’t true.”

What was generally discussed on that topic, was if the fraud, maladministration, abuse or irregular activity if aggregated and read most favorable to the campaign, would be outcome determinative. I think the staff thought that it was not enough to be outcome determinant, and that’s what they thought in the room. Continue the videotape.

The Case against Election Fraud by the Former Vice President Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, and the High-Centric Court: A Memorino

It’s the right of any candidate to make allegations about election malfeasance. Nobody argues that, but President Trump’s litigation was completely unsuccessful. During previous hearings, we told you that the committee had identified 62 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its allies between November 4, 2016 and January 6, 2021. Those cases resulted in 61 losses and only a single victory, which did not affect the outcome for any candidate.

It’s strong language criticizing the lack of evidentiary support for the claims of election fraud in those lawsuits. The federal appeals court in Pennsylvania said the charges need to have specific allegations and proof. We have neither here. A federal judge in Wisconsin wrote, quote, the court has allowed the former president the chance to make his case and he has lost on the merits.

Another judge in Michigan called the claims, quote, nothing but speculation and conjecture that votes for President Trump were either destroyed, discarded or switched to votes for Vice President Biden. A federal judge in Michigan sanctioned nine attorneys, including Sidney Powell, for making frivolous allegations in an election fraud case, describing the case as a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.

Trump’s allies lost a case in the US Supreme Court on December 11th, which they thought was his last chance at success in the courts. A Secret Service message from the same day shows how President Trump felt about the outcome. Quote, just FYI, POTUS is pissed. His lawsuit was denied by the Supreme Court.

He is livid now. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to chief of staff Mark Meadows, was present for that conversation and described it in this way. [Begin videotape]

This is the day that the Supreme Court rejected the case. The White House hosted a Christmas reception for Mr.Meadows and I. The President walked out of the Oval Office and we walked to the Rose Garden colonnade after the reception.

He inquired of the White House employee, whose identity the panel kept secret, if they had watched his rally speech. The employee of the White House told him that it was because they were rioting at the Capitol.

On December 14th, states certified their votes and sent them to Congress. And in my view, that was the end of the matter. I didn’t see — you know, I — I thought that this would lead inexorably to a new administration.

I said to him that I thought the Electoral College had met and that he wouldn’t have any options other than to file a lawsuit.

The Dominion: What is going on in your ballot? What have you heard about the 2020 presidential election? Some of his comments to the president and his advisers

Secretary of Labor Gene Scalia, the son of late Justice Scalia, visited President Trump in mid-December and explained the situation clearly. In beginning videotape.

I made a call to the president. I might have called on the 13th. I told him that it was time for him to acknowledge that Biden had won, and I spoke with him on the 14th. I told the president that when the legal process is over, and the electoral college votes, then the outcome needs to be expected.

I told him that I did believe, yes, that once the — those legal processes were run, if fraud had not been established that had affected the outcome of the election, then unfortunately I believed that what had to be done was concede the outcome. Continue the videotape.

Orchestration: The campaign to overturn the 2020 election was not a haphazard effort where Trump deployed a chaotic plan, desperate to keep power. Rather, key members of the administration, including the former president and key advisers, deliberately pushed to overcome electoral defeat. Roger Stone said that possession was nine tenths of the law. F–k you.”

It was disturbing that I raised the voting machines from the Dominion, because I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations. I told them that it was — that it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that, and it was doing a grave — grave disservice to the country.

We have a company that’s very suspect. Its name is Dominion. If you press a button, the vote will be split between Biden and Trump. What type of system is this?

How the Elections in Antrim County, Pennsylvania, shifted from Trump to Biden, and they showed up at the Big Vote Dump

We definitely talked about Antrim County again. The hand recount had been done and so that was how that was completed at that point. This is an example of what people are telling you and what’s being filed in some of the court filings that are not supported by the evidence.

In addition, there is the highly troubling matter of Dominion voting systems. In one Michigan county alone, 6,000 votes were switched from Trump to Biden, and the same systems are used in the majority of states in our country.

I went into this and would, you know, tell him how crazy some of these allegations were and how ridiculous some of them were. I’m talking about things like more votes cast via Absentee in the state of Pennsylvania, than there are Absentee ballots to choose from, which was easy to blow up. There was no indication of interest in what the actual facts were.

There were more people voting than people voting. Think of that. You had more votes than you had voters. That’s a simple one to figure out, and it’s by thousands.

Then he raised the — the big vote dump, as he called it, in Detroit. And that — you know, he said people saw boxes coming in to the counting station at all hours of the morning. There are 630 Detroit precincts, I said to the President. They centralized the process so that they’re not counted in each precinct.

With regard to Georgia, we looked at the tape. We interviewed the witnesses. There is no carrying things in a suitcase. The president kept fixating on this suitcase that supposedly had fraudulent ballots and that the suitcase was rolled out from under the table. And I said, no, sir, there is no suitcase. You can watch that entire video over and over again.

There is no suitcase. There is a wheeled bin where they carry the ballots, and that’s just how they move ballots around that facility. There is nothing suspicious about that.

Election officials pulled boxes, Democrats, and suitcases of ballots out from under a table. You all saw it on television, totally fraudulent. [End videotape]

“President Trump was informed over and over again, by his senior appointees, campaign experts and those who had served him for years,” the executive summary states, “that his election fraud allegations were nonsense.” The panel relied on the testimony of some of Trump’s top advisers to build its case as well as the public record.

His intent was to make something sound better. President Trump tried to get government officials to change the outcome of the states he lost in. He contacted numerous state officials and coerced them to change their election results in order to please him. The president took actions that made it clear what he was intending to do; to prevent the orderly transfer of power.

The Secretary told the president he lost the election in Georgia, but he didn’t accept that. Instead, he suggested that Secretary Raffensperger himself might be prosecuted. Begin the videotape.

So, look, now all I want to do is this. We won the state and I need to find 11,780 more votes. Look, we need only 11,000 votes. We have far more than that as it stands now. We’ll have more and more. So, what will be done here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes.

I just want to find 11,780 votes. That’s an extraordinary demand by the president, especially since he already knew from the Justice Department there was no genuine basis for this request. The secretary of state would be able to find votes for the president, even if they weren’t legal.

Do you think the United States Justice Department has the right to interfere with the American public opinion? (End videotape) J.D. Clark, the assistant attorney general for the civil division

That’s the thing. That is a criminal offense. You can’t let that happen. That is a big risk to you and your lawyer. That’s a big risk. [End videotape]

Clark, who was the acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Division, tried to weaponize the Justice Department to help Trump win the election. The possibility that Clark had broken the law was raised by the committee. The Justice Department is already investigating Clark and federal agents have searched his home.

For example, when Richard Donoghue and Jeff Rosen, both appointed by President Trump, learned of Mr. Clark’s proposal, here’s why they said they forcefully rejected it. [Begin videotape]

And I recall toward the end saying what you’re proposing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election. But more importantly, this was not based on fact. This was not in keeping with the facts that were developed by the department investigations over the last few weeks.

The President ultimately relented only because the entire leadership of the Department of Justice as well as his White House counsel threatened to resign. Mr. Chairman, I’m giving up.

I did not remember the exact date when I received the call, but it was from the switchboard at the White House.

He turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who talked about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather the contingent electors, in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result of the states. End videotape.

The fake electors’ plan was connected to another plan, which would have the Vice President reject or refuse to count certain Biden electoral votes in order for President Donald Trump to win reelection. Vice President Pence has said something about this scheme.

President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election, but President Trump is wrong. I had no right to change the outcome of the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American President.

Dr. Eastman confirmed it in writing. Do you advise the President that the Vice President doesn’t have the power to decide things on his own? Dr. Eastman replied that he’s been advised.

Of course, President Trump’s own White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, also recognized that this plan was unlawful. Here is Mr. Cipollone’s testimony. Start videotape.

The FBI discovered that President Trump had notified the Proud Boys on January 6th and that he had planned to take back his country

I apologized for being impolite, but do you remember the word that she said her father called the Vice President?

Even though the Vice President’s life was at risk by the President and the rioters at the Capitol, he didn’t change his mind. A federal judge concluded, based on this and other evidence, that President Trump’s pressure campaign against the Vice President likely violated multiple criminal statutes.

In the end, all these people, Department of Justice officials, state elections’ officials, his own Vice President, stood strong in the face of President Trump’s immense pressure. But as we now know, President Trump had already summoned tens of thousands of his supporters to Washington on January 6 to take back their country.

When it was announced that Mr. Trump intended to lead a mob to the Capitol, security professionals in White House complex and who had to report to national security officials responded. Start the videotape.

I only remember in retrospect that he was almost like a psychic. The Capitol is the greatest threat during one of these calls, says Norquist. I will never forget it. [End videotape]

The source stated that the plan was to kill people. Please, please take this tip seriously and investigate further. The source stated that the Proud Boys had detailed their plans on a number of websites. Let’s pause here. The Secret Service had advance information more than ten days beforehand regarding the Proud Boys’ planning for January 6th. The Proud Boys and other people were involved in the assault on the Capitol building.

On December 31st, agents circulated intelligence reports that President Trump’s supporters had proposed a movement to occupy Capitol Hill. In particular, they flagged spikes in violent hashtags like We Are the Storm, 1776 Rebel, and Occupy Capitols. The Secret Service open source unit flagged the Donald.win account as a threat on January 5th because they said it had made a threat to bring a rifle to a rally. A picture of a gun and rifle was posted by the user with the caption, ” Sunday Gun Day Providing Overwatch January 6th Will be Wild”.

Later on the evening of January 5th, the Secret Service learned during an FBI briefing that right-wing groups were establishing armed QRFs or quick reaction forces readying to deploy for January 6th. The Oath Keepers were ready if POTUS asked for help, agents were told.

One agent emailed, possibly because they have stuff that couldn’t come through would probably be an issue with this crowd. It is just a thought. By 9:30 that morning, agents reported more than 25,000 people outside the rally site. The Secret Service reported that the crowd was on the mall but not in line.

The head of the President’s Secret Service protective detail, Robert Engel, was specifically aware of the large crowds outside the magnetometers. He gave Tony Ornato that information when he worked for MarkMeadows. The documents we obtained from the Secret Service show that the agents knew the crowd was armed. Take a look at what they were seeing and hearing.

One report from the rally site at 7:58 a.m. said, some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor, carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks. One person said that there may have been pepper spray and/or plastic riot shields. At 11:23 a.m., agents also reported possible armed individuals, one with a glock, one with a rifle.

Over the next hour, agents reported possible man with a gun reported, confirmed pistol on hip located in a tree; and one detained at 14th and I Street northwest; individual had an assault rifle on his person.

Minutes before President Trump began his speech, members of the Federal Protective Service, an agency tasked with protecting federal buildings, were alerted about an arrest of a protester with a gun on his waistband. And during the speech, the weapons related arrests continued. At 12:13 PM, United States Park Police arrested a man with a rifle in front of the World War II Memorial. The agents were speculating that the situation might get worse after the weapons had been seized.

If I had seen something, I would have flipped it to someone at the White House and said that we had to report it to the Secret Service. [End videotape]

The day after Miller sent his text, agents received reports about a surge in activity on another platform called Parler. The last day of the year was December 30th. An agent received an email stating a lot of violent rhetoric was directed at government people and entities that are associated with the Secret Service.

Another agent reported the dramatic impact of Trump’s anti-Pence tweet on his followers. He lacked courage, with over 24,000 likes in 2 minutes. Employees at the micro-blogging site were nervously watching the situation. They knew that certain Twitter users were rioting at the Capitol and tweeting about it at the same time.

Just that they were — they were fired up. They were angry. He went on and on about how they feel the election has been stolen and that it was rigged. End videotape.

Yes, the president knew the crowd was angry because he had stoked that anger. He knew that they believed the election had been rigged and that he had lied about it. He knew the angry mob could be dangerous and stop the transfer of power if they marched on the Capitol.

Ellipse rallies, and ellipse march to the Capitol. A warning to the Secret Service and to the Military and the Security Service

The gentleman gives up. We’ll take a brief recess at this point. The chair declares the committee in recess for about 10 minutes after the order of the committee. In recess. The gentleman from California is recognized by the chair.

Go to the Capitol. Keep your weapons out of sight. Don’t fuck around. Full kits, 180 rounds minimum for main rifle, another 54 sidearm per person.” What is clear from this record is that the White House had more than enough warning to warrant stopping any plan for an ellipse rally, and certainly for stopping any march to the Capitol.

He wanted it full, and he was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons, what the Secret Service deemed as weapons and are — are weapons. I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, I don’t f’ing care that they have weapons.

They aren’t here to hurt me. Take the magazines away. Let my people in. They can walk to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take that f’ing mags away. The end of videotape.

If the military, Secret Service, and police would allow that many people, it would be great. You’re doing a great job. [Applause] But I’d love it if they could be allowed to come up here with us. Is that possible? Can you just let them come up, please?

The Irate Behavior of the President in the White House: An Exchange between Mc Enany and Ornato and the Committee on Obstructions

As the professional told us, they remember hearing how angry the president was after he got out of the limo. That professional also testified that they were specifically informed of the –president’s irate behavior in the SUV by Mr. Ornato in Mr. Ornato’s office. It was Mr. Engel, with Mr. Ornato in that office.

And I will also note this. The committee is reviewing testimony regarding potential obstruction on this issue, including testimony about advice given not to tell the committee about this specific topic. This matter will be addressed in our report.

We were all shocked, to be honest. Why? Because — because we just — one, I think the actual physical feasibility of doing it, and then also we all knew what that indicated and what that meant, that this was no longer a rally, that this was going to move to something else if he physically walked to the Capitol.

I — I don’t know if you want to use the word insurrection, coup, whatever. We all knew that this would move from a normal democratic, you know, public event into something else. Why were we are alarmed?

The people sworn to protect the safety of the president of the United States and who routinely put themselves in harm’s way were convinced that this was a bad idea. Secret Service documents also reveal how agents were poised to take President Trump to the Capitol later that afternoon. Agents were told to keep their protective gear on and be ready to move.

Here’s Mc Enany describing an exchange she had with the president as he came back to the White House. [Begin videotape]

I recall him wanting to walk and be a part of the march and then he said he’d ride in the presidential limo if he needed to. [End videotape]

The Secret Service Email from January 6th, 2016: President Trump Tells His Family to “Come and See What Happened to the White House”

From the Secret Service, the Select Committee has also obtained important new evidence on this issue. It shows how frantic this hour must have been for the Secret Service, scrambling to get the president of the United States to back down from a dangerous and reckless decision that put people in harm’s way.

Take a look at the Secret Service email from 1:19 PM on January 6th, the minute that President Trump got out of the presidential vehicle back at the White House. As soon as the president left his motorcade, leadership from the Secret Service contacted Bobby Engel, the lead agent for the presidential detail, and warned him that they were “concerned about an OTR,” an off the record movement to the Capitol.

Between 2:30 and 2:35, within 10 minutes of President Trump’s tweet, thousands of rioters overran the line that the Metropolitan Police Force’s Civil Disturbance Unit was holding on the west side of the Capitol. This was the first time that a security line had been broken by the Metropolitan Police Department.

I can’t talk about conversations with the president, but I can generically say that I said, you know, people need to be told — there needs to be a public announcement fast that they need to leave the Capitol.

Approximately when? Almost immediately after I found out people were getting into the Capitol or approaching the Capitol in a way that was — was violent.

I can’t think of a single person who did not want people to leave the Capitol on that day. I mean —

I’m sorry. I am. I am sorry. I thought you said who on — who else on the staff. I can’t tell you what’s going on, but I think. [End videotape]

You heard what he had said, Pat. He doesn’t want to do anything more. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong. [End videotape]

The committee reveals a conversation Trump had with a White House employee upon returning to the White House after his speech on January 6. There are still lots of gaps in information between when he returned to the White House and when he called off the rioters.

Throughout this period, some of the president’s most important political allies, family members, and senior staff all begged him to tell his supporters to disperse and go home. They included Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and other allies at Fox News, his son Donald Trump Jr, the House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, others in Congress, and officials in the cabinet and the executive branch.

Perhaps in an attempt to pivot beyond the explosive anecdote itself, the select committee emphasized that their goal was to discover the intent behind Trump’s actions in the SUV. Many witnesses, including Trump’s press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the Secret Service press secretary, have said Trump wanted to go to the Capitol and was angry when told he could not.

Were the president in a private dining room for the entire time that the Capitol was attacked, or did he go somewhere else, only to your knowledge?

Yeah. What did they say, Mr. Meadows or the president, at all during that brief encounter with you in the dining room? What do you remember? Everyone was watching the TV, I think. Do you know whether he was watching TV in the dining room when you talked to him on January 6th?

Was it possible that the violence at the capitol could be seen on the television screen in the dining room?

The footage showed Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and other legislative leaders scrambling to get more police and National Guard forces to repel the rioters on Capitol Hill as they realized the threat that was.

We are starting to get surrounded. They’re working on the north front. Unless we get more munitions, we are not going to be able to hold. The door has been breached and people are gaining access into the Capitol.

There has to be some way that we can make sure that the people of the United States know that the government can work, and that they will vote for the president of the country. Did we go back into session?

We did go back into session, but now apparently everybody on the floor is putting on tear gas masks to prepare for a breach. I’m trying to locate more information.

I can’t. The members of the house need a place to stay. They are all walking through the tunnel. You should bring her here. If you don’t bring her out, we’ll come in.

I’m going to call up the f’ing secretary of DOD. We have some Senators who are still in their hideaways. They need massive personnel now. Can you get the Maryland National Guard to come too?

Mr Secretary, I have something to say. We’re — I’m going to call the mayor of Washington DC right now and see what other outreach she has to other police departments, as Steny — Leader Hoyer has mentioned.

Hi, Governor. Nancy is here. I’m not sure if you’ve been approached about the Virginia National Guard. Mr.hummel told Governor Hogan that he probably needed the Ok of the federal government if he wanted to come in to another jurisdiction. Thank you.

They said someone was shot. It’s just terrible. And all at the instigation of the president of the United States. Thank you, Governor. I appreciate what you’re doing. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to stay in touch. Thank you. Thank you.

The Governor told me they sent 200 state police and a unit of the National Guard. They broke windows and went into our offices ransacking all of them. That’s nothing. We are concerned about personal harm.

Personal safety is much more than that. But the fact is on any given day, they’re breaking the law in many different ways, and quite frankly, much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States. And now if he could — could — at least somebody.

Yeah, why don’t you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility, a public statement they should all leave.

The Capitol Building is a Disaster: Donald Trump and the State of the House of Representatives (Senate Bob Reinertiary Report)

I don’t want to speak for the leadership that’s going to be responsible for executing the operation, so I’m not going to say that. Because they are meeting on the ground and they’re the experts [Inaudible]

Pretend for a moment that it was the Pentagon or the White House that was under siege. Let me say you can logistically get people there as you make the plan. We’re working on figuring out how we can complete this job today. We talked to Mitch about it earlier. He’s not in the room right now, but he was with us earlier and said, you know, we want to expedite this They would like us to vote if they just focused it on Arizona, and just move forward with the rest of the state.

To do it at the Capitol is the main wish. We are being told it is going to take days for the Capitol to be back to normal. We’ve gotten a report about the House floor which is in very poor condition. I don’t think that that’s hard to clean up, but I do think it is more from a security standpoint of making sure that everybody is out of the building and how long will that take.

It may take days to get back, I said, because it could take time to clean up the poo poo that they’re making in the Capitol.

Nancy, so I’m at the Capitol building. The Chief of Police of the US Capitol Police is standing with me. He just informed me what you will hear through official channels, Paul Irving, your Sergeant-at-Arms, will inform you that their best information is that they believe that the House and the Senate will be able to reconvene in roughly an hour.

It was obvious that President Trump was the only one who could end this. He was the only one who could. Former aides begged him to do so. They called the administration. The President wasn’t quick to act. He did not do his job. He didn’t take any steps to make sure federal law was faithfully executed.

Another witness, Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s former chief of staff, has also come forward and corroborated her shocking account. Begin video.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, told me he called Donald Trump, after I asked him about it. and he said, you have got to get on TV. You have to be on social media. You need to call them off. You know what the President told him? This is how things are happening.

He said, well, Kevin, these aren’t my people. You know, these are — these are Antifa. And Kevin responded and said, no, they’re your people. They literally just came through my office windows, and my staff are running for cover. I mean, they’re running for their lives. You need to call them off. And the President’s response to Kevin to me was chilling.

Kevin was told they are more upset about the election and theft than he is. And that’s — you know, you’ve seen widespread reports of Kevin McCarthy and the President having a — basically a swearing conversation. That’s when the swearing commenced, because the President was basically saying, no, I’m — I’m Ok with this.

I had a conversation about a week after the riot with Kevin McCarthy. Yeah, it is. It was very similar to what Jaime had, the conversation she had retold about how he called and asked the President to get them to stop. The President told Kevin that the people may be more angry about this than he is.

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has concluded that former President Donald Trump was ultimately responsible for the insurrection, laying out for the public and the Justice Department a trove of evidence for why he should be prosecuted for multiple crimes.

Let’s be clear about what the President is expected to do and what he is responsible for: words and actions. I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He said that he should acknowledge that he has some responsibility for what happened.

It further inflamed the mob which was chanting, hang Mike Pence, and provoked them to even greater violence. This deliberate decision to further enrage the mob against Vice President Pence cannot be justified by anything that President Trump might have thought about the election. The tweet came precisely at the time Pence’s Secret Service detail was most seriously concerned for the Vice President’s physical safety.

The company detected a spike in violence on the platform, including lines of lethal insinuation like executing Mike Pence as the day progressed. Listen to this former Twitter employee, Anika Navaroli, who first came to the committee anonymously, but has now bravely agreed to be named because she wants to speak out about the magnitude of the threats facing our people.

In response to this, as well. I think that as many as many Donald Trump’s posts did, it again fanned the flames. The people who were already constructing the gallows wanted to execute someone and look for someone to be killed. Now, the individual was called upon then to begin this coup is now pointing the finger at another individual while they’re ready to do this.

Mike Pence has screwed us up. The case of the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. (Report on “Hidden and Unstable Senators in the United States”

Mike Pence will not stick up for Donald Trump. Mike Pence traitor. If you haven’t heard yet, Mike Pence has messed us up. What happened? What happened? I keep hearing that Mike Pence has screwed us. I’ve been hearing claims that Mike Pence has hurt us. The end of the videotape.

President Trump’s conduct that day was so shameful and so outrageous that it prompted numerous members of the White House staff and other Trump appointees to resign. Matt Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, a deputy White House Press Secretary, told the previous hearings why they felt compelled to resign.

I was amazed by the violence, and surprised by the President’s indifference to it. It is time for the President to act presidential. I thought he failed at doing it. I thought he failed at a critical time to be the sort of leader that the nation needed.

I think the events at the Capitol, however they occurred, were shocking. And it was something that, as I mentioned in my statement, that I could not put aside. The events were so bad that it was difficult for me to continue given my values and philosophy. I came to the United States as an immigrant.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

Donald Trump, The Day of D-Day and the Battle of Yorktown, for all the injured and wounded cops: a message that everybody will go home

The message is being delivered by us. Donald Trump wants everyone to go home. Our order is that. [Inaudible]) He told them to go home. This videotape ends.

Remember this day forever, he wrote proudly, as if he were talking about D-Day or the Battle of Yorktown. The deadly violence was not stopped because Trump did nothing. He thought it was all justified. He helped it by inciting it. [Begin videotape]

These are the things that happen, he said, giving the whole game away. Trump was telling us that the Vice President, the Congress, and all the injured and wounded cops, some of whom are with us today, got what was coming to us. According to Trump. January 6 should be a day that is remembered for more than simply being horrible in our history.

Would it have been possible at any moment for the president to walk down to the podium in the briefing room and — and tell — talk to the nation at any time between when you first gave him that advice at 2:00 and 4:17 when — the video statement? Would that have been possible?

What have we learned about the January 6 riots? A panel report of the Commission on the Judiciary and Constitutional Rights of the United States

The panel zeroes in on the section of the constitution that states that if an individual has taken an oath to support the Constitution but is involved in an insurrection, they can be disqualified from office.

The best explanation for why democracy rejects insurrection is given by President Lincoln at the start of the Civil War. Insurrection, he said, is a war upon the first principle of popular government, the rights of the people. American democracy is not for a single man. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The gentleman yields back. The first hearing of the committee took place in July of last year and we had police officers testify about the January 6 riots. They were asked what they hoped to see done by the committee. Officer Grinnell wanted to understand why the rioters believed that the election process was rigged.

Officer Fanone asked us to look into the actions and activities that resulted in the day’s events. Officer Hodges was concerned about whether anyone in power had a role. Officer Dunn put it simply, get to the bottom of what happened. We’ve worked for more than a year to get those answers. We’ve conducted more than a thousand interviews and depositions.

The Committee on Investigating the Case of Donald Trump: John Eastman, the Oath Keepers, General Michael Flynn, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives

The separation of powers prevents Congress from compelling a President to testify, according to Trump’s attorney.

This step is taken in full view of the American people, because the subject matter at issue is so crucial to the future of our democracy, and we need to keep that in mind when making this decision. I notice that the Vice Chair is Ms. Cheney of Wyoming.

I would like to thank Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, our committee now has sufficient information to answer many of the critical questions posed by Congress at the outset. A key task remains despite the fact that we have enough information to consider criminal referrals for multiple individuals and recommend legislative proposals to protect against another January 6th.

We need to find the testimony of the central player. More than 30 witnesses in our investigation have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and several of them did so specifically to defend their dealings with Donald Trump. Here are a few examples.

On December 12th, 2020, General Michael Flynn and the Oath Keepers walked together, and here is his testimony before the committee. [Begin videotape]

Here is John Eastman fraudulently instructing tens of thousands of angry protesters that the Vice President could change the election outcome on January 6th. Dr. Eastman acknowledged in a letter that Donald Trump was attempting to be illegal. Here is John Eastman testifying before our committee.

You may discuss your position in the media, but you will not discuss it with this committee, because you had direct conversations with the President.

Report on the Investigating the Charge of Donald J. Trump with a High-Dimensional Contempt of Congress (Conditional Report on Navarro)

Other witnesses have also gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with Donald Trump. A jury of his peers have found him guilty for contempt of Congress. He is scheduled to be sentenced for this crime later this month. Criminal proceedings regarding Peter Navarro continue.

The resolution has been agreed to. A motion to reconsider is laid on the table without objection. The Chair would like the members in the hearing room to remain seated until the police arrive. The committee stands adjourned without objection.

Editor’s Note: Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of several books, including, “The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment.” He uses the handle jlianzelizer on social media. The views that are expressed in this commentary are of his own. View more opinion on CNN.

Demystifying the 2020 Demographic Reshonkey Event: A Bipartisan Congressional Response to the 2016 Watergate Insights

In public hearings during the past four months, the bipartisan panel attempted to reveal the full context of what happened that day and who was responsible.

Unlike the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974, one of the most distinctive elements of Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election is that so much of it happened in broad daylight.

The committee gave us evidence and details that we were unaware of at the time, as well as giving us important facts that we did not know at the time.

As viewers could hear, Steve Bannon said to a group of non-identified associates that the former president would declare victory, which didn’t mean he was victorious, just that he would say he was. “If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit,” Bannon predicted.

When told in subsequent weeks repeatedly by top election and legal advisers, such as then-Attorney General William Barr, that the claims of fraud were “bullshit,” Trump and his inner cabal ignored those warnings and moved forward with reckless abandon.

The committee received testimony that indicated the former president was briefed on security at the rally, as well as the fact that the Secret Service had mentioned that prohibited items were being seized from individuals trying to attend.

They wanted to see if any of the state officials would do their bidding. Giuliani and Trump called the speaker of the Arizona House in late November 2020 to get the legislature to reconvene and void the results of the election. The road map that the president wrote for their attempted election steal was written by John Eastman, who pressured the vice president to reject the results.

The 2016 November 6 Congressional Reaction Against Donald J. Trump and the 2020 U.S. Capitol Reheating Rehearsal

Continuum: January 6 was just one piece of a much larger story. It is more accurate to refer to the January 6 committee as a committee to investigate the campaign to overturn the election. This reframing helps understand the months between November 2020 and January 2021.

Throughout these events, we have learned, Trump understood exactly what was happening. He was told many times about how he was making claims that were untrue and warned of the dangers he was taking. Advisers such as Barr and lawyers who supported him privately urged him to stop.

Ongoing Threat: In its pivotal hearing Thursday, the committee wanted to make one thing clear, the danger is not over in 2022. “There remains a clear and present danger to our electoral system and to democratic institutions,” Raskin said, “So, that is something that will come through in our final hearing. This is not something that has been seen in the past; this is a continuing threat. That continued threat exists on many levels. Many Republican candidates are threatening to boycott the upcoming elections due to the election denialism that has taken hold.

Republicans who subscribe to this agenda are also running for several key offices, ranging from gubernatorial positions to secretaries of state in key states such as Pennsylvania and Arizona, all of whom will play a key role in overseeing future elections. The former president remains the front runner for the Republican nomination.

The dark days that followed the election were well brought up by the committee. They have been exposed in clear detail right in front of our eyes. The biggest mystery left is whether as a nation we will close our eyes and simply move forward without demanding accountability, justice and reform.

On the day the U.S. Capitol was ransacked, as stunned lawmakers emerged from hiding and police officers were still counting the injured, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York walked into the Rotunda, held up a shaky camera and went live on Fox News.

Other Republican leaders had already begun distancing the party from President Donald J. Trump, whose monthslong campaign to overturn his election loss helped incite the violence. Mr. Zeldin was ready to exonerate him that evening.

He said that the riot was not just about the president of the United States. People on the left have double standards.

Since everything about Trump’s political career has been unprecedented, it’s hardly surprising that his political reemergence is posing new questions with the potential to further challenge and damage the country’s political institutions.

It was the clearest hint yet that Trump was going to run for president again at a moment when he is on a collision course with the Biden administration.

The political scene was already very unusual when it came to Trump. One-term presidents typically fade fairly fast into history. It is a testament to the firm hold he keeps over GOP that he is still a key player almost two years after losing reelection. And while there is growing talk about whether his thicket of legal and political controversies could convince some GOP primary voters it’s time to move on, Trump still seems to have plenty of juice.

The ex-president’s claims of political persecution could cause a presidential campaign that is tied to his allegations to be even more crazy than his four years in office.

There is every chance that the next election in the year of the ex President will largely be about his past and future, as both Democrats and Republicans agree on policies on the economy, abortion and foreign policy.

Sensitivities to Biden’s tit-for-tat impeachment charges against the Trump Organization and the ex-President

The Trump lawyers tapped to deal with the committee’s subpoena demands have been coordinating with other members of the former president’s legal team while determining how to proceed, according to a source familiar with the matter.

In Arizona, one of the ex-President’s favorite candidates, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake – a serial spreader of voter fraud falsehoods – is again raising doubts about the election system. Lake feared that it probably wasn’t going to be fair.

The New York Post reported last week that Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking leader in the House, told them that impeachment of Biden was on the table. South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, however, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday she did not want to see tit-for-tat impeachment proceedings after Trump was twice impeached. She didn’t like that the process was being weaponized. But when asked whether Biden had committed impeachable offenses, she said: “That is something that would have to be investigated.”

After the elections, the Republican Party is likely to expand its presence in Washington. The platform of many candidates for president raises concerns about whether they will accept the results if they lose their races in just over two weeks.

On another politically sensitive front, the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud and grandy larceny trial begins in Manhattan on Monday. The trial of the ex- President could have an effect on his business empire and cause new claims by him that he is being persecuted because of his political beliefs, thus injecting more controversy into election season. In a separate civil case, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, has filed a $250 million civil suit against Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization, alleging that they ran tax and insurance fraud schemes to enrich themselves for years.

Democrats have made their own attempts to return Trump to the political spotlight. President Joe Biden equated MAGA followers with “semi-fascism” and some campaigns have tried to scare critical suburban voters by warning pro-Trump candidates are a danger to democracy.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/24/politics/donald-trump-circus-analysis/index.html

The Paul Pelosi Case: When Will We Attempt to Win the White House? A Brief Introduction to the Debate in Washington and the Implications for the Practice of Democracy

But raging inflation and spikes in gasoline prices appear to be a far more potent concern before voters head to the polls, which could spell bad news for the party in power in Washington.

The ex-president said at the Texas rally that he will probably try to win the White House again.

“It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves,” Cheney told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

This will not be the first debate against Joe Biden and the circus and the food fight that preceded it. The issues are far too serious.

The former President may be less likely to testify during an intense period of days or hours because it would be more difficult for him to dictate how his testimony would be used.

Garland has a dilemma if there is evidence of a crime as to whether to prosecute the former president or not for his actions that led to the country’s downfall.

A decision to charge an ex-president running for a non-consecutive second White House term would undoubtedly cause a firestorm. If he was spared from accountability if there is evidence of a crime, it would send a wrong message to the next president.

While troubling indicators — such as growing support for political violence, a rise in threats against elected officials and election workers, and the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — have clearly signaled the path of the country’s political environment over the past two years, many see the current election cycle as a crucial test of how much those factors will affect the practice of democracy in the United States.

Details emerging from the investigation in the Paul Pelosi case on Monday appeared to further undermine claims by Republicans that the attack had nothing to do with politics or was somehow just a one-off incident.

His comments do not reflect the charge sheet now facing DePape and the investigators in San Francisco. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the assault was “politically motivated” based on DePape’s statements. The man who allegedly attempted to abduct a US official and assault a family member is now facing federal charges. He is also facing charges from state officials with “attempted murder, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, false imprisonment of an elder, as well as threats to a public official and their family.”

It is too early to link any piece of political rhetoric to what happened in the court trial of this version of events. But the incident leaves extremist politicians who fling vitriol – yet refuse to take responsibility for their words – on ever more tenuous ground.

Even a few years ago, the comments from Lake and various right-wing pundits might have been disqualifying. In the Trump era, the aim is typically to establish credibility with a radical base of voters by saying what once would have been seen as callous. Their rhetoric often exacerbates the process of dehumanizing political opponents that seems to make violence more likely.

It was another example of the pervasive harassment and violence in modern politics. It happened less than two years after a violent insurrection at the US Capitol began over Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. It followed a few months after a man was arrested and charged with attempting to murder conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This came five years after GOP House Minority Whip Steve Scalise was shot at a congressional baseball practice. And it’s less than 12 years since Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was left with a brain injury after she was shot in the head in Tucson, Arizona.

The Paul Pelosi attack also took place against a backdrop of tension surrounding the midterm elections next week, including reports of groups monitoring voter drop boxes in Arizona. In May of this year, a former poll worker from Georgia told a House Select committee that she didn’t feel safe because she had been drawn in to Trump’s voter fraud conspiracy.

Trump, Finchem, and the New York Post: What do conservatives say about the insurrection of January 6 and the nature of voter intimidation?

A Washington Post poll taken around the anniversary of the insurrection in January found, meanwhile, that 34% of Americans – and 40% of Republicans – said violence against the government is sometimes justified.

“Just last year, we have seen threats against Congress people and their families went up to 9,500, which is double what we have seen ever before in our history.”

Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a conspiracy theory social media post featuring a hammer, as though the ordeal suffered by Paul Pelosi, who is still in the hospital, was funny. The possibility that one of the world’s newest social media gatekeepers might end up increasing the toxic political culture was raised when Musk retweeted and deleted a similar post.

“This attack goes to the core of our democracy and it can’t be just written off to some crazy person. Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner, told CNN on Monday what leaders say matters.

Trump claimed in an interview that the crime rate in American cities was rising and that what happened was a terrible thing.

“I guess I was acting like a traitor against my own government,” said Graydon Young, the first Oath Keeper to plead guilty to conspiracy in connection to January 6.

His comments showed the power of the inflammatory rhetoric coming from leaders like Trump who have seemingly encouraged political violence.

“It is very sad to see that once again, we are at a point in history where people believe it is okay to express their political sentiments through violence,” she said.

On the same day that Pelosi was attacked, an internal bulletin was released from federal agencies warning of a heightened threat from domestic violent extremists.

She said there was a lot of violence around Election Day in 2020. “There was a lot of preparation, and more than that, that has already been done by non government groups to make sure that that will happen again this year.”

Still, early voting in some places has been fraught. In Arizona, armed civilians showed up at ballot drop boxes to watch voters. The activities, which prompted claims of voter intimidation, have been encouraged by Republicans across the country since 2020.

One of them is Mark Finchem, the GOP nominee for Arizona secretary of state who has spread baseless claims of election fraud and encouraged his followers to monitor vote operations.

“You are responsible for maintaining your election — not me, you!” Finchem said at a rally last year, which began with those in attendance pledging allegiance to a flag that was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. You must be at the polls. You cannot leave this to someone else.”

Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, said last week that the RNC had trained more than 30,000 poll watchers.

The Weld County Clerk told Colorado Public Radio that she approved 35 poll watchers who were connected to election denial groups.

That could present a more complicated situation. On one hand, having conspiracy-minded volunteers involved in the process can be a valuable chance to educate them on the way elections actually work.

If the people set their beliefs that there is fraud and they need to uncover it, it can be a powder keg.

“It’s not about service and it’s not about volunteering; it’s about political activism and vindicating an election from a couple years ago,” Overton said. That could lead to real conflict.

The days following the election may pose a greater risk of violence than on Election Day, particularly in locations where vote counting drags on.

“What happens when people don’t like a certain Candidate?” asked Oren Segal of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. There is a community of conspiracy that you’re able to create around that. I think violence is not that far behind.”

They have seen that denial is a way forward, that you’re able to create a community of conspiracy around that. I think violence is not that far behind.

Establishing Evidence to Prevent Election Violation: Addressing the Real Issues Around 2016’s Midterm Congressional Black-Hole Scenario

Some influential voices on the right have stated they are prepared for litigation regarding races that aren’t favoring Republican candidates.

“You are able to make a written record of anything you see not going correctly,” he said, according to the audio obtained by Documented. “That’s called creating evidence.”

According to Hiller of the Bridging Divides Initiative, she expects the field of locations where threats of violence are the most threatening to narrow fairly quickly. In the state of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia, false claims of election fraud have become accepted by political leaders even as many voters remain unaware of it.

There are senior leaders in the Republican Party that are calling into question the results of the election, or who advocated for violence in the aftermath of the election.

Nonetheless, Hiller is optimistic that institutions that have preserved the democratic process in the past will have the resources they need in the face of these threats.

One of the stories of 2020 is that many fail-safes worked. The court systems were effective. The recounts that happened were very effective. And folks were able to surge resources to those locations,” she said. “So we’re in for another election that’s going to test those resources and that resolve.”

The next big election, the presidential one in 2020, is what many are watching closely. Whether or not former President Donald Trump runs again, experts say the efforts around undermining democracy during the midterms could drastically affect what many perceive to be the even-higher-stakes race for the White House, calling it a “dry run” for 2024.

“This should be a dry run for people who want to protect democracy,” he said. Our leaders need a dry run to make sure that they are protecting our democracy moving forward.

The upcoming elections will test local organizing of far-right groups around challenging voter rolls and vote counting, as well as increased presence as election workers. Those efforts would ramp up into the presidential election if it happens.

She said groups have been preparing for a while. “I think the majority of polling places are well prepared for any kind of issue, even if it’s a small issue, even if there’s someone in a polling place trying to create issues.” There’s been a lot of additional thought on how to make sure folks are supported with de-escalation skills.”

Segal said it’s critical that local and national institutions and leaders demonstrate in the coming weeks how they will navigate a supercharged political event.

When the U.S. Capitol Becomes More Tortured by Right-Right Extremists, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is Suspicious

This August, after the execution of a federal search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, violent rhetoric from the far-right escalated exponentially, including – shockingly – calls for civil war. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, warned that if former President Trump is prosecuted, there will be “riots in the streets.” MAGA Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona compared the FBI to “brown shirts,” a term used to describe Nazi storm troopers.

Sadly, public figures on the extreme right are crippling our efforts to curb this violence by attacking the rule of law and continuing to give extremists the go-ahead, either tacitly or expressly.

Hours before the attack on the US Capitol, Trump warned his supporters on the National Mall that he would not allow the country to be torn apart. The Alabama lawmaker told Trump supporters that “our ancestors sacrificed their blood, sweat, their tears, their fortunes and sometimes their deaths” while telling the crowd that it was the day Americans start taking down names and kicking ass. Josh Hawley pumped his fist in the air as rioters came to the Capitol to demand the election be overturned.

In the aftermath of the attack, insurrectionists testified in court that they were only “following presidential orders,” when they breached the Capitol and threatened the lives of all who work there.

Since 2015, the year Trump declared his candidacy for president, there have been 333 domestic terrorism plots or attacks in the United States – an all-time high. Right-wing extremists have perpetrated 80% of those attacks, resulting in 91 tragic deaths.

Our public spaces increasingly face violence. Mass shootings, hostage taking and other violent plots have reduced state capitols, grocery stores, schools, houses of worship, and concerts to crime scenes. A bulletin from the federal government last week stated that there was a heightened threat to the elections due to a rise in violent domestic extremism.

An estimated 13 million Americans think force is justified to restore Trump to the White House, and another 15 million Americans agree with using force to prevent the former president from being brought to justice. The safety and security of our citizens, as well as the rule of law, are being attacked.

To understand how MAGA Republicans exploit their followers and dog-whistle at violence, look no further than their reaction to the FBI’s execution of a lawful search warrant for highly classified documents apparently kept illegally at the former President’s beach club. The Department of Justice followed the law after trying to obtain the classified documents without a lawyer present. Although no one is above the law in this country, Trump and MAGA extremist politicians’ immediate reaction was to attack the rule of law and dog-whistle at violence.

It has been all too predictable. Within an hour after the search, the posts about civil War had increased by over 3000%. Federal law enforcement saw an increase in threats against their officers. An armed man tried to gain access to an FBI office in Ohio, and later engaged in an hours long standoff with police. The incident ended when the man pointed his firearm at police and was shot and killed.

A Select Committee Study of the U.S. Capitol Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and Other Extremist Groups

The committee also said it “received correspondence from the former President and his counsel in connection with the Select Committee’s subpoena” but did not provide additional information.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice chairwoman of the committee, previously said the committee was “in discussions” with Trump’s attorneys about testifying under oath in the probe. But it remains unclear whether those discussions will lead to him sitting for a deposition.

The broad document request sought all documents relating to the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, or other Extremist Groups from September 1, 2020 to the present. The panel has an document request in 19 categories.

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is suing the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to avoid cooperating with a subpoena requiring him to testify.

Warrington said Trump had engaged with the committee “in a good faith effort to resolve these concerns consistent with Executive Branch prerogatives and separation of powers,” but said the panel “insists on pursuing a political path, leaving President Trump with no choice but to involve the third branch, the judicial branch, in this dispute between the executive and legislative branches.”

The committee declined to comment on the filing, which comes days before the the deadline set by the committee for Trump to begin cooperating. But the suit likely dooms the prospect of Trump ever having to testify, given that the committee is expected to disband at the end of the legislative session in January.

The request for documents includes personal communications between the President and members of Congress as well as extremist groups, according to the letter. The nine-member panel extended its deadline to this week, even though the response by Trump was due last week.

The report summary says there’s evidence to pursue Trump on multiple crimes, including obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make false statements, assisting or aiding an insurrection, conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.

Trump and his company deny any wrongdoing or criminality in all matters, state and federal, and have aggressively maintained innocence. Trump has won dismissals in two cases, one brought by his niece and another by his former attorney.

Mar-a-Lago documents: Did Trump mishandle classified material? The Justice Department investigation continues into whether documents from the Trump White House were illegally mishandled when they were brought to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he left office. The grand jury in Washington has been interviewing possible witnesses to learn more about how Trump handled the documents. The National Archives has said there were at least 15 boxes of White House records that were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, including some classified records.

Thompson told reporters earlier in the week that they would make referrals. As to how many, we’ve not decided that yet.” CNN previously reported that the committee is weighing Trump and a number of his closest allies for criminal referrals.

Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said Thursday that committee members are expected to reach a decision on criminal referrals when members meet virtually on Sunday.

The Committee on Investigating the Sexual Affect of President Mark Meadows and Judicial Assistant Mark Edwards on a White House Appointment

“I think the more we looked at the body of evidence that we had collected, we just felt that while we’re not in the business of investigating people for criminal activities, we just couldn’t overlook some of them.”

The system of justice in ours is not like that where foot soldiers go to jail and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass, according to Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of the committee.

“The gravest offense in constitutional terms is the attempt to overthrow a presidential election and bypass the constitutional order,” Raskin told reporters. The scale and gravity of the assault on America is supported by a whole host of statutory offenses.

A group of Democrats and Republicans comprise the panel’s vice chair GOP Rep. Liz Cheney.

Meadows did not turn over other documents he had, and the House committee voted to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress for it and for his refusal to testify, referring the matter to the Justice Department. The Justice Department has declined to indict Meadows for evading his subpoena, given his high level position in the Trump West Wing and claims of executive privilege.

Raskin also suggested Thursday that previous referrals to DOJ for contempt of Congress would not impact how the panel handles these criminal referrals.

“We obviously did contempt of Congress referrals earlier and there’s a whole statutory process for making that happen,” he said. We will show you in detail the reasons we are making certain kinds of referrals.

The committee has been sending documents and transcripts over the last week, with the focus on two people: former White House chief of staff MarkMeadows and Trump’s former election lawyer John Eastman.

Clark invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during his deposition with the committee. Federal investigators raided Clark’s home as part of a criminal investigation.

The committee zeroed in on one individual who worked to get Clark into the White House. Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

CNN has previously reported on the role that Perry played, and the committee in court filings released text messages Perry exchanged with Meadows about Clark.

In a deposition played at that hearing, Cassidy Hutchinson said thatPerry wanted Mr. Jeff Clark to take over the Department of Justice.

Giuliani, Trump’s onetime personal attorney and a lead architect of his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, met with the panel in May for more than nine hours.

“This is someone who in multiple ways tried to pressure state officials to find votes that didn’t exist. This is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol,” Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the January 6 committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “If that’s not criminal, then I don’t know what it is.

“We will also be considering what’s the appropriate remedy for members of Congress who ignore a congressional subpoena, as well as the evidence that was so pertinent to our investigation and why we wanted to bring them in,” the California Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona, could all face possible sanctions for their refusal to comply with committee subpoenas.

Now, that doesn’t mean Trump will be charged. The committee doesn’t have power over what the DOJ does. The Justice Department’s own investigation of Trump is being conducted by special counsel Jack Smith.

The impact House referrals could have remains unclear because the Department of Justice special counsel investigation is already examining Trump in its extensive probe into January 6.

It was something that we have considered. The committee is going to announce its decision on ethics referrals Monday, according to Schiff.

He thinks Trump violated multiple criminal statutes, including one for insurrection, although he wouldn’t comment on the specific charges the committee is considering referring to the Justice Department.

The person tried to get the state officials to find votes that did not exist. This is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol. If it’s not a crime, I don’t know what is.

“If you compare Donald Trump’s acts with the statute, it’s a pretty decent match,” said the lawmaker when contacted about the charge.

I think the president has messed with the law. You need to be prosecuted for breaking the law and treated like any other American who breaks the law.

The summary revisits Trump and the Secretary of State of Georgia, where he begged for enough votes to prevent Biden from winning the state. Trump went to the extreme of using his cell phone number to undermine the leader of the Michigan Senate, who had said he wouldn’t undermine the election results.

Often, it was Republicans – some who were with Trump in the West Wing on January 6 – who courageously testified about his assault on the Constitution, including Cassidy Hutchinson. The ex-aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows recalled, “It was unpatriotic. It was not American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”

One question hanging over the congressional committee, however, is whether the higher standard of evidence required by a court could lead prosecutors to believe it would be hard to convict the former president. The strength of a criminal case over Trump is not certain because witnesses and evidence were not subjected to the type of cross-examination seen in court.

Could the act of sending criminal referrals to the DOJ risk furthering the perception of politicization of separate investigations into the aftermath of January 6?

Will an impression that Trump is being harassed by any referrals will help his campaign in the long run?

And do Americans as a whole, at a time of national strain amid high inflation and the aftermath of a once-in-a-century pandemic, really care about events that rattled US democracy nearly two years ago?

What Happened on January 6, 2015, was the First Day of a Democratic Referendum on the House Floor, as Cheney did

Kinzinger explained his actions in seeking to hold Trump to account in his final speech on the House floor, as Cheney did, for serving on the committee in defiance of his party.

“Every American must consider this,” Cheney said at one of the committee’s public hearings, in July. “Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?”

It is believed that her sacrifice in the House GOP may be in vain after her fellow Republicans refused to acknowledge her ex-president’s conduct. Certainly, there was little sense during the compelling hearings that the public was as transfixed with this act of accountability as it was, for instance, with the Senate Watergate hearings in the 1970s that helped lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Today’s polarized times and the power of conservative media to distort what really happened on January 6 may help explain this dichotomy.

Still, Americans rejected many of the candidates in Trumps race, suggesting that there was a desire to protect American democracy.

It is impossible to quantify how the committee’s work affected voters in November. Even as the ex-president launched a new campaign that could be seen as political persecution, it continued to keep evidence of Trump’s insurrection in the news. This is especially valuable as some pro-Trump Republicans, like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, escalate their attempts to distort what happened in the unprecedented attack on the Capitol.

“This is a massive investigation that the committee has undertook. Huge amounts of evidence, a huge amount of witnesses being identified,” former federal prosecutor Shan Wu told CNN’s Pamela Brown on “CNN Newsroom” on Saturday.

“I think it’s the detail that accompanies the referrals themselves and the report that will give a roadmap to DOJ. The DOJ is late to this party and has been playing catch up, but that detail could be very helpful to them and will put a lot of pressure on them.

If nothing else, future generations will be able to judge the determination of the panel members, especially its two Republicans, and the courage of witnesses who told the truth to try save democracy.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/politics/jan-6-committee-investigation-final-session/index.html

The Illinois Republican Challenges Authoritarianism: Donald Trump and the War for Justice in the era of ephemeral crisis

The Illinois Republican said that democracy is being challenged by authoritarianism because a lie is Trump’s truth.

“If we, America’s elected leaders, do not search within ourselves for a way out, I fear that this great experiment will fall into the ash heap of history.”

The full report, based on 1,000-plus interviews, documents collected including emails, texts, phone records and a year and a half of investigation by the nine-member bipartisan committee, will be released Wednesday, along with along with transcripts and other materials collected in the investigation.

Committee chairman Bennie Thompson has every confidence that the work of the committee will help to provide a road map to justice, and that the agencies and institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we have provided to aid in their work.

Donald Trump did not follow through with that faith. The 2020 election was the one he lost. He chose to try to stay in office through a multi-part scheme to overturn the results and prevent the transfer of power. “In the end, he summoned a mob to Washington, and knowing they were armed and angry, pointed them at the Capitol and told them to ‘fight like hell.’ There’s no doubt about this.”

The clip showed how Trump was able to block his election loss by attacking election workers and police officers.

The House Ethics Committee: Where are we going? Where do we stand, where we are going? What do we need to know? How did we start the committee? How many times have we asked for a report?

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona – one of the four subpoenaed GOP lawmakers that the panel referred to the House Ethics Committee on Monday – tweeted before the hearing that the committee was a “partisan sham.” Texas Republican Troy Nehls was the only one who boycotted the committee.

It’s important to remember how this all started. House Democrats were willing to give committee slots to Republicans who had voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The Republicans boycotted.

To be sure, Cheney and Kinzinger are outliers in their conference because they are anti-Trump. That is the core of Trump’s criticism of the committee, that it is stacked with Trump supporters. Even if they don’t like Trump, Kinzinger and Cheney are still conservative Republicans. Neither is returning to Congress next year – Kinzinger is retiring and Cheney lost her primary this summer.

During Monday’s hearing, Kinzinger described how his House GOP colleagues were complicit in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. He highlighted evidence that Trump wanted top Justice Department officials to “put the facade of legitimacy” on his voter fraud claims so “Republican congressmen … can distort and destroy and create doubt” about the 2020 election results.

Democrats will always be able to say that the panel’s findings, conclusions and criminal referrals are bipartisan even if Trump and his allies disagree with them.

Thompson said the committee’s full report will come out later this week. The document will be studied for many years. Never before has a sitting president tried to steal a second term.

The sheer volume of this material can’t be overstated. The panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, likely generating tens of thousands of pages of transcripts. Many of these interviews were filmed, which means the panel has hundreds of hours of footage that it might release very soon.

The committee demonstrated its seriousness of purpose by refusing to put forth a laundry list of defendants. The committee members have all along thought as legislators and public educators, but also have put themselves in the minds of prosecutors. That led them to rightly focus on a short list of prospective defendants against whom the evidence is most damning, providing critical context to the prosecutors. Focusing on the very best cases avoids diluting the effect of the referrals with more tenuous theories against a large number of actors, and emphasizes the cases the prosecutors can actually win.

Many of those in the mob that trashed the Capitol have already been convicted and imprisoned, so the issue of accountability gets to the core of the comment about foot soldiers. Trump has avoided paying political and legal prices as his ultimate example of skipping judgement since he became president. The trove of information apparently showing Trump obstructing the Russia investigation was unearthed by RobertMueller, but he didn’t implicate the president in a crime. In both of the times Trump was impeached, most Republicans in the Senate found reasons not to convict him.

The committee cites Section 1512 (c) (2) of Title 18 of the US code, which makes it a crime to “corruptly” obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding or attempt to do so. Based on what the panel presented, that seems exactly what Trump did, with a cocktail of schemes apparently aimed at thwarting the will of voters in the run-up to the mob attack on Congress.

The DOJ investigation into the insurrection: Do we have a case against Donald Trump and his lawyer’s lawyers? The case against Trump and the FBI

The DOJ investigation into the events surrounding the insurrection, which took place in a Capitol Hill committee room on Monday, will affect whether the case stands up in court.

Andrew McCabe, who served as the FBI’s deputy director, said on Monday that the Justice Department has to go further on all of the people who were interviewed by the committee.

Honig said that the lawyers of Trump had the right to read each and every word of it. They are going to look for any inconsistencies, they are going to look for any basis to attack the potential witnesses against them, preferably in court. That is what defense lawyers do.

One particular complicating factor for the Justice Department is that the nature of the insurrection, and the involvement of a former president, makes this an unprecedented case. It is possible for a good defense team to muddy the issue of whether there was fraud in the 2020 election by reframing Trump’s true intent. They could also claim that in telling supporters to “fight like hell” to save their country, he was simply exercising his constitutional rights to free speech. Jack Smith and Garland will have to decide whether to prosecute after considering the likely thrust of Trump’s defense.

Rod Rosenstein, who served as deputy attorney general in the Trump Justice Department, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the most serious referral – accusing Trump of giving aid and comfort to an insurrection – would likely come up against a First Amendment defense.

The Department would have to prove that the president was inciting imminent lawless action. In other words, they’d actually have to prove he intended for a mob to engage in violent activity. That would be a hurdle to prosecuting him under that charge,” Rosenstein said.

The DOJ investigation being led by Smith is examining Trump in its extensive probe into January 6, and it appears that federal investigators are already looking at much of the conduct that the select committee has highlighted.

It’s difficult to argue that Monday’s events will add to the DOJ’s mounting pressure on investigating Trump, even though he declared his plan to run for president last month. But at the same time, if Garland were to disregard multiple referrals, he would be certain to infuriate Democrats who already think the department has been slow to pursue Trump.

It’s not clear if the Justice Department will take any action. Since Trump announced another run for the presidency, the DOJ appointed special counsel Jack Smith to lead the department’s investigations into the former president.

The graphic depiction of Trumps behavior could help Smith if he prepares the public for the possibility that a former president could go on trial. Attempted coups are, after all, more akin to fragile developing world democracies and dictatorships.

“No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office,” the Wyoming Republican said on Monday.

The Case of a Republican Senator Who Isn’t a Demonstration Against the First Day of January 6 Insurrection

The author of the book “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation got Left Behind” is a journalist based in New York. Follow her on Twitter @JillFilipovic. The opinions are of her own. You can check out opinion on CNN.

That conclusion is extraordinary and completely needed, exactly two years after Trump sent a late night email to his supporters to come to Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021, promising that it will be wild.

The committee has spent months interviewing witnesses, evaluating the evidence, and putting together a full and coherent tale about what happened in the days and weeks before and after the January 6 insurrection.

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming laid out the weight of what happened that day. The United States has been an experiment in democracy, and since George Washington turned the office of the president over to John Adams the American tradition of peaceful transfers of power has been essential for our nation’s well-being.

There are both political and legal solutions for the situation where a former President would encourage his followers to subvert American democracy and break our national tradition of peaceful handover.

It seems like a foregone conclusion they will claim that the charges are politicized and trumped-up, leveled because Trump is a threat to the “swamp” and “deep state,” and that Democrats fear him so much they are willing to shut him down using any means necessary. An indictment would be hugely divisive in an already-divided nation.

But it’s worse to allow a former leader to destroy the nation’s trust in elections and its democratic processes. If there is no penalty for doing the same thing, what can be done to stop others from doing it?

There is no evidence that Trump regrets his actions. He planned on repeating his election fraud claim if his favored candidates lost, even though he was sure the 2020 election was stolen. He’s running for President again and if he wins could use his power to destroy American democracy.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/20/opinions/criminal-referrals-jan-6-committee-filipovic/index.html

The GOP has become a cult of Trumpism: How will we live in a world run by a despot?

The Republican Party has become more of a cult of Trumpism, with racists, antisemites, liars, and members of the cult of MAGA among the party’s members.

The GOP has become so intellectually bankrupt that it didn’t even bother with a platform in the last presidential election, instead essentially saying that its policy positions are whatever Trump wants. Some Republican politicians, and voters, seem to be fine with an America run by a despot, as long as it’s their guy.

Other Republicans understand how big a monster they created and don’t like where the story is going. They should demand that the US justice system does its job.

There is no perfect playbook for how to handle such a situation. Nations that have suffered trauma need truth and reconciliation. They never write over or forget what happened.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith once Trump announced he was running for president again as a way to show independence from the investigation.

“Ours is not a system of justice, where people just go to jail and don’t pay a dime,” said committee member Jamie Raskin, who announced the referrals.

A close friend of the Trump White House, and the case of a former communications adviser in the e-republican office: Are congressional republicans interested in the investigation of the Mueller investigation?

All are close allies of Trump and their constant resistance in the face of the rules has been shown to be in line with the style of U.S. politics before Trump came on scene.

McCarthy is in line to be the next speaker of the congress and Republicans will control the ethics committee, so it’s not certain if anything happens to them.

That’s been evident to those of us who’ve covered Trump for a while, but it was affirmed by Hope Hicks, a former communications adviser in the Trump White House, someone who was very close to Trump.

In taped testimony she gave Monday, which was the first time we heard from her, she said she had told Trump that the false claims of fraud were damaging his legacy.

“He said something along the lines of, ‘You know nobody will care about my legacy if I lose,’ ” Hicks said, ” ‘So that won’t matter, the only thing that matters is winning.’ “

“He was—he had—usually he had pretty clear eyes,” said Bill Stepien, the Trump 2020 campaign manager, according to written testimony released in a report by the committee. “He was pretty realistic with our viewpoint, and we told him where we thought the race was, and I think he had a good idea of the forecast.”

One of Trump’s campaign lawyers, Alex Cannon, in a mid-to-late November phone call with former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said, per the report, that he found nothing “sufficient to change the results in any of the key States.”

Eighty percent of Democrats and 55% of independents said they were paying attention to the hearings. But many Republicans said they were not.

The investigators are paying close attention to the details of the committee’s report, which they don’t have to act on. The special counsel’s work is not expected to be covered much by the DOJ, who tend to stay quiet on the details of ongoing investigations until they present them in court.

Politically, it’s going to be up to voters to choose. The support of Trump’s base will likely be retained. As we noted, Republicans have been the least likely to be paying close attention to these hearings. In a multi-candidate primary, Trump remains the front-runner for the GOP nomination.

But he’s in legal trouble in multiple states, not just federally, and many of his preferred candidates — and election deniers — lost in swing states. So whether it’s because of the chaos that often surrounds him, the threat he presents to U.S. democracy and faith in its elections, or simply because his brand is not a winner in competitive states where Republicans likely need to win to take over the White House and Congress, Trump is at his most vulnerable point since winning the presidency six years ago.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1144303656/5-takeaways-from-the-final-jan-6-committee-hearing

Sensitivity of the Investigative Committee to the Report of the Insurrection Case to the Attorney General’s Attorney General Garland

And the members of this committee — some of whom won’t be returning to Congress because of the wrath, or potential wrath, of Trump’s base — certainly hope voters respond.

Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Garland to oversee part of the Department of Justice’s investigation in to the insurrection, sent a letter to the committee earlier this month requesting all of the information from the investigation, one of the sources said.

A key week for the committee takes place during the handover. On Monday the panel held its last public meeting and members voted to refer former President Donald Trump to the DOJ on several criminal charges. The full report from the panel is due to be released on Wednesday.

California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the committee, said on CNN on Monday, “We’ve actually given some transcripts to the Department of Justice during the last month,” adding that the committee would begin making transcripts public on Wednesday.

But whether the department brings charges will depend on whether the facts and the evidence support a prosecution, Garland, who will make the ultimate call on charging decisions, has said.

From Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise visit to the White House to the release of the House January 6, 2021, committee’s final report and the fate of a consequential immigration rule hanging in the balance, this is not the capital’s typical year-end cram session.

Biden is expected to announce an additional $1.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, a significant boost in aid headlined by the Patriot missile systems within the defense assistance package, a US official told CNN.

Zelensky will address members of Congress in the prime time before the White House news conference after which he’ll speak to the media.

Sam Bankman-Fried and the Biden Administration: a bipartisan challenge to the extension of Title 42 to the High Taxpayers’ Conundrum

The Senate hopes to get the procedural steps in order and send the omnibus spending bill to the House by Thursday.

A controversial border restriction known as Title 42 will remain in place until the Supreme Court issues an order, which can come at any time.

The Biden administration told the Supreme Court Tuesday that the justices should reject an emergency bid by a group of GOP-led states to keep the restriction in effect while legal challenges play out. But it also asked for the court to delay the ending of Title 42 until at least December 27, citing ongoing preparations for an influx of migrants and the upcoming holiday weekend.

The rule has allowed border officials to immediately turn away migrants who have crossed the southern border illegally, all in the name of Covid-19 prevention. Under the Biden administration, there have been over 2 million expulsions and they have been bracing for an influx if the authority is lifted.

The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday asserted that the IRS failed to properly audit Trump’s taxes while he was in office. It released a report that detailed six years’ worth of the former president’s tax returns, including his claims of massive annual losses that significantly reduced his tax burden.

The extradition hearing for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to be scheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET, according to Nassau Magistrate Court administrator Alpha Grant.

Grant confirmed the timing of Wednesday’s hearing shortly after Jerone Roberts, Bankman-Fried’s Bahamian attorney, spent several hours in the courthouse Tuesday afternoon and then left amid a swarm of unanswered questions from reporters.

The night before he was to appear before the House Financial Service Committee, Bankman-Fried was arrested at his residence in the Bahamas.

A Senate Committee on the January 6, 2021 Insurrection: Trump’s history as a threat to the fundamental freedoms of the United States

Concluding its final public meeting Monday, the House January 6 committee released a summary of its key findings — the conclusions of which are devastating, even if they lack all the details expected in the final report.

For anyone who continues to believe that the January 6, 2021, insurrection was exaggerated or was a haphazard, amateurish effort gone bad, the final report should throw cold water on those beliefs. The recommendations are historic.

The committee found that Trump stoked the violence with incendiary tweets and that the White House was purposely slow in responding to the insurrection at the US Capitol.

Citing former President Ronald Reagan, a conservative icon, Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the panel’s two Republicans, argued that the “peaceful transfer of power” was a “miracle” of our system and only one President — Trump — had failed to abide by this process.

The findings are among the worst presidential scandals. It is fair to say that a sitting President being part of a concerted effort to reverse his own election stands alongside the abuses of power that President Richard Nixon engaged in and the violations of law under the Reagan administration exposed during the Iran-Contra hearings.

In conclusion, the committee concluded that Trump made history by participating in an abuse of presidential power that threatened the very foundation of democracy: elections. While the term “unprecedented” has been grossly overused, in this case the term works.

In 1974 the “smoking gun” tape that showed Nixon obstructing an investigation was enough for the politicians in both parties to say enough.

The discoveries that national security officials in the Reagan administration violated the Boland Amendment by sending money and arms to the Nicaraguan Contras caused Reagan’s approval ratings to plummet and put his legacy in jeopardy.

The President was saved by the fact that the committee could not link the illegal activity to him, and by the fact that the administration mounted an effective public relations campaign to win back public support. The congressional democrats decided not to pursue impeachment.

Even Clinton’s scandal, which was over an issue far less relevant than what faced Nixon or Reagan, clearly contradicted his public statements and legal testimony about the subject after DNA evidence emerged of his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

The political realignment that was possible after 9/11 didn’t happen. Polarization is almost always triumphant, even when the leader of a party is found to have committed egregious abuses of power.

Another related challenge stems from what social scientists call “asymmetric polarization.” The Republican Party is more right than the Democrats are. Many in the GOP have embraced a type of smashmouth partisanship that does not have limits as to what is permissible.

In this case, the odds that the relevant party will change its ways or respond are minimal. The plan to establish an independent commission to investigate January 6 was stopped by Senate Republicans who did not cooperate with the congressional committee that was set up to investigate.

Nor does our media ecosystem lend itself to the sort of reaction that took place with Watergate. While there was a time, such as the 1970s, when professional journalists coalesced around the facts presented by a judicious investigation, those times are gone.

Partisan media outlets such as Fox News ignore the weight of evidence. Show hosts are more than willing to spin the news in a particular direction that satisfies political yearnings.

In the coming weeks, there will likely be stories that misrepresent what the committee discovered and that will promote conspiratorial claims with no basis in fact. The filter-less world of social media probably will offer ample opportunity to push disinformation that contradicts the harrowing stories found in the report.

Some of the forces that will review the impact of the report are from a national culture that seems incapable of staying focused on issues for a long time. The news media happily obliges when we push them from one issue to the other, because everything has to be new and fresh in our short attention span.

The January 6 committee already has experienced this challenge as dramatic televised hearings, which proved capable of shifting attention to how bad the coup attempt had been, were quickly drowned out by the latest celebrity scandal or news story coming from Washington. It’s almost impossible to keep the public eye on a single topic because of the sheer number of outlets for information.

The Watergate scandal was the story that defined much of the period between 1972 and 1974, but for many Americans January 6 has just become one other thing among many that happened in the chaos of our era.

The Investigation of the Capitol Attack on Jan. 6: When Secretary General Garland can make a serious step toward restoring accountability in our democracy

Attorney General Garland now has to decide whether to indict Trump since he is one of President joe Biden’s campaign opponents in a few years. Garland has appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, who is overseeing the investigations of Trump and will make recommendation s.

The question is whether this report will be able to push Garland towards taking action to ensure accountability, instead of just focusing on the issues of division.

Given its expected dramatic findings, the January 6 report is certainly a stress test for the problematic state of our democracy. It’s not possible to change the basic dynamics.

The full report from the House committee that investigated the attack at the U.S. Capitol is due to be released Thursday.

Nancy Pelosi praised the work of the committee in her statement, but did not give an indication as to what she sees as the next steps.

The Committee has reached important conclusions, and I respect their findings. Our Founders made clear that, in the United States of America, no one is above the law. “This bedrock principle is true and justice must be done,” Pelosi said.

A bipartisan bill to update the Electoral Count Act has bipartisan support and is part of the omnibus spending bill that is moving through Congress.

A Committee-Summary on a Committee-Membership Report on the Report of the Mueller Investigating Committee on Causality and Cosmic Crimes

The committee said it has the evidence to put him on trial for obstruction, and that he was also implicated in other criminal activity.

In describing why the committee believes Trump’s conduct meet the prongs of each criminal statute, the summary stresses evidence that Trump had been warned that his schemes were unlawful.

The committee believes that attorneys who are paid by the political committee or allied groups to defend the former president have incentives to do so rather than represent their own clients. The Department of Justice and the Fulton County District Attorney were given some information about the topic.

In one instance, a witness whose lawyer was being paid by a Trump-allied group was told she could “in certain circumstances, tell the Committee that she did not recall facts when she actually did recall them.” When the witness raised concerns with her lawyer about that approach, the lawyer said, “They don’t know what you know, [witness]. They have no idea that you can remember some of these things. So you saying ‘I don’t recall’ is an entirely acceptable response to this,” according to the report summary.

When he came to a specific issue that reflected negatively on Trump, the lawyer told his client, “No, no, no.” We don’t want to go there. We do not want to talk about that.

The committee believes two Trump appointees at the Justice Department abused their positions and acted unethically.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/politics/what-is-in-jan-6-committee-report-summary/index.html

A summary of prosecutions filed by the then-vice president, Ivanka Trump, and former justice department chief of staff Tony Ornato, who was allegedly attempting to pardon Gaetz

In another instance, Trump had an angry conversation with Pence in which he referred to the then-vice president as “The P word,” according to a committee interview with Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff, Julie Radford.

He joined the Justice Department in the last few weeks of the administration after working for the Trump campaign. Even though election- related matters are not part of the Civil portfolio, he spent some of his time helping Clark with his attempts to overturn the election.

The Justice Department’s prosecutions should be expanded beyond the ones who physically invaded the Capitol because of the summary’s section outlining the referrals.

The summary states that if President Trump and the associates who aided him in an effort to overturn the lawful outcome of the 2020 election are not held accountable under the law, their behavior could invite danger for future elections. “A failure to hold them accountable now may ultimately lead to future unlawful efforts to overturn our elections, thereby threatening the security and viability of our Republic.”

Like Freeman and Moss, other officials who faced Trump’s ire received death and rape threats and an avalanche of phone calls and emails, and some of them feared for their safety.

The evidence that Trump allies sought pardons as the administration drew to a close shows that they knew their conduct was legally problematic, the committee argues.

The summary points to previously public accounts of pardon requests from members of Congress, while providing new details of Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz’s alleged attempt for a pardon, which had been discussed in the public committee testimony of ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

The panel suggests former White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato failed to adequately serve as the intermediary between the intelligence community and the White House when it came to security updates ahead of January 6.

The head of Trump’s security detail, Bobby Engel, testified to the committee that he shared critical information with Ornato as a means to convey messages to the White House.

When asked about whether he talked to him about the threat landscape going into January 6 he didn’t recall but said that he would make sure he was watching the demos which he received. So he most likely was getting all this in his daily brief as well.”

Hope spoke to Hogan Gidley several times and she suggested that Trump state that January 6 remained peaceful in a public statement. It was testified that Herschmann told Trump to make a public statement about not having violence on January 6. No such statement was ever made.

The panel writes that it has obtained evidence from “several sources about a ‘furious interaction’ in the SUV.” Several members of the Secret Service, a member of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police and national security officials in the White House described Trump as “irate,” “furious,” “insistent” and “profane.”

The committee wanted to show that the call for Trump’s supporters to leave the capitol was pre- planned.

For example, the committee notes that January 6 rally organizer Kylie Kremer texted MyPIllow CEO Mike Lindell, “This stays only between us. … It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly.’”

“President Trump did not contact a single top national security official during the day. The committee does not include the Pentagon, DHS, Justice, F.B.I., Capitol Police Department or D.C. Mayor’s office. President Trump didn’t try to reach out to his own Vice President to make sure that he was safe, as VP Pence has confirmed.

“No photographs exist of the President for the remainder of the afternoon until after 4 p.m. President Trump appears to have instructed that the White House photographer was not to take any photographs,” the committee writes, citing testimony from former White House photographer Shealah Craighead.

House Committee Summary Report on the Mueller Investigation of Donald Trump’s Associated Democrat Effort during the Decay of January 6

In the aftermath, on the evening of January 6, Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale told Katrina Pierson, one of the rally organizers, that that he felt guilty helping Trump win, the report states..

McCarthy reached out to members of the Trump family for help during the riot, according to Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former White House senior adviser.

There is a shooting at the US Capitol, and the White House chief of staff just recieved a text from a Republican lawmaker. This isn’t the way to solve anything, so please tell the president to calm people.

The summary acknowledges the roadblocks the House committee ran into in its investigation and says the Justice Department has the tools – such as grand jury subpoena power – to knock down those obstacles.

There were no new bombshells in the report that the committee released on Thursday and instead they focused on the depth and detail of their investigation.

The report offered the most comprehensive account to date of what transpired in the two months between Election Day on November 3, 2020, and Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021.

It is a narrative which expands upon the committee hearings in the summer, walking readers through the various schemes Trump orchestrated and the help he had from allies inside and outside his administration.

While the report had main headlines all about Donald Trump, the conclusion of the report offers a definitive picture of the attack on Congress as well as the contributing factors within American discourse.

The committee also interviewed leaders of agencies who were directing law enforcement response, such as the Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser and police force heads.

The select committee also says it interviewed 24 witnesses and reviewed 37,000 pages of documents for a review of the response of the DC National Guard, which attempts to explain the delayed response of the force to the Capitol.

The committee was told, for instance, that commander of the DC National Guard, Major Gen. William Walker, “strongly” considered deploying troops to the US Capitol on the afternoon of January 6 without approval from his superiors even if it meant he would have to resign the next day.

The House Judicious Standing Committee Report on the Mueller Investigation of the January 6 Insurrection: Comments on Mark Meadows, Peter Eastman, and Ornato

“Engel did not characterize the exchange in the vehicle the way Hutchinson described the account she heard from (deputy White House chief of staff Tony) Ornato, and indicated that he did not recall President Trump gesturing toward him,” the panel wrote.

The committee’s report underscores how the House’s successful court fights to pry loose documents, emails and phone records played a major role in helping the committee flesh out its narrative of January 6.

Some of the most explosive moments of the committee’s investigation stemmed from records the committee obtained, from text messages of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other top aides to emails from conservative lawyer John Eastman about Vice President Mike Pence’s role on January 6.

There are more transcripts expected in the committee’s final days from other witness testimony, teasing out evermore details in the hours before the committee is dissolved, as is expected in the new Congress.

Republicans as well as Trump are waiting for the release of several parties, including GOP lawmakers and Trump himself, who are still facing legal scrutiny for his role in the January 6 insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Samuel Fletcher Cheney, the 17th president of the United States, and his comeback to Tennessee after Grant’s victory in the Civil War

The committee was thinking about the past when it made these referrals. Representative Liz Cheney spoke movingly of her great-great-grandfather, Samuel Fletcher Cheney, who served in the Union’s 21st Regiment, Ohio Infantry, during the Civil War. He passed President Andrew Johnson at the reviewing stand in the Grand Review of the Armies, after he’d returned from the war. She might also have added that Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, would soon be impeached. Like Donald Trump. And like Donald Trump, he was acquitted.

Johnson got home to Tennessee to plot his comeback after Grant won the election. Since he possessed a talent for bringing moderate and radical Republicans together, it wasn’t easy for many of his former supporters to forgive and forget. But it was not illegal.