House Select Committee on 1/6

[LFC]

Sheep to be sheared. I heard on GMA today that they raised nearly $250M on the "stop the steal" lies and virtually none of it went to fight the election results. Stupid, ignorant, angry, and now a little poorer to get nothing they were promised.

According to the committee’s senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick, it went like this: After Trump lost the 2020 election — and even after the “safe harbor date” that usually spells the end of election lawsuits — Trump and his campaign pursued a fundraising strategy based around a so-called “Election Integrity Fund”: A fund that they told donors would help “PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF OUR ELECTION” in dozens of emails over several weeks.

But the Election Integrity Fund didn’t exist: Gary Coby, the campaign’s former digital director, agreed during a deposition that it was a “marketing tactic.” And the tactic worked: The committee found that Trump and his allies raised nearly $100 million in the first week after the election.

On Nov. 9, Trump created the “Save America PAC.” Wick said most of the money for the “Election Defense Fund” went to that account. And that PAC, in turn, made millions in donations to Trump-aligned groups: $1 million to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ charitable foundation, $1 million to the America First Policy Institute, which employed several former Trump administration officials, $204,857 to the Trump Hotel Collection, and over $5 million to Event Strategies Inc., the company that ran Trump’s White House Ellipse rally — the event that preceded the Capitol attack.

The campaign sent fundraising emails regularly, including one about 30 minutes before the Capitol was breached, Wick said.

The committee, at times, seems to have an audience of one: Attorney General Merrick Garland, who would have final say over any high-level criminal charging decisions related to the Capitol attack. And the panel’s focus on these funds may be an instance of its members shaping their arguments for the attorney general.

“Throughout the committee’s investigation, we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said at the end of the hearing. “So not only was there the Big Lie. There was the Big Ripoff.”

(Garland, for what it’s worth, said Monday that he was watching all of the committee’s hearings, adding, “I can assure you the Jan 6th prosecutors are watching all the hearings as well.”)

[LFC]

TPM has two history lessons. First, no matter what Bill Barr testified to he can never separate himself from his corrupt, disgusting, anti-democracy record under Trump.

Attorney General Bill Barr revealed many things at the Jan. 6 Committee hearing on Monday.

But for me, the biggest impression his testimony left was the depths he reached in serving Trump.

Barr narrated the period of time from Nov. 3, Election Day, until he departed on Dec. 23. Over those seven weeks, Barr recounted how Trump began to reach for wilder and wilder claims that might explain why he was not the loser in the election, but rather, the victim of mass electoral fraud.

To do that, Barr also described how he himself became enmeshed in voter fraud investigations, not only pursuing claims that he admitted that he knew were bogus, but also apparently taking a personal role in investigations normally conducted by line prosecutors.

[snip]

“I was influenced by the fact that all the early claims that I understood were completely bogus and silly and usually based on complete misinformation,” Barr said.

A few things are odd here. One is the presumption that any of the claims might have been made in good faith, considering what they alleged, the people making them and the chain of events — including Trump’s refusal to concede — that led to them being made.

Barr himself boosted the suggestion that Democrats would use mail-in voting to steal the election before November, saying at one point that the Democrats were “creating an incendiary situation where there’s going to be loss of confidence in the vote, it’ll be a close vote. People will say ‘The President won Nevada — oh, wait a minute! We just discovered a hundred thousand ballots, every vote must be counted!’”

After the election took place, Barr removed a longstanding DOJ policy which banned voter fraud investigations until after the results had been certified. That decision accepted the premise of the claims that Trump was making, and also led to the resignation of the head of the DOJ’s election crimes branch.

Barr also told the committee about a mid-November meeting that he held with Trump.

“The department doesn’t take sides in elections. The department is not an extension of your legal team,” Barr recalled telling the former President.

Look what he said next:

“Our role is to investigate fraud and we’ll look at something if it’s specific, credible and could affect the outcome of the election. We’re doing that. It’s just not meritorious. It’s not panning out.”

Who made the “specific, credible” claims of voter fraud? Did anybody do so in 2020? If so, please let me know. Otherwise, it seems that Barr was willing to let the DOJ become, in his phrasing, “an extension of [Trump’s] legal team,” investigating voter fraud claims that could not affect the outcome of the election.

Second, the GOP did everything in their power to kill any investigation. They were so laser (but not Jewish space laser) focused on it that they threw away every last bit of leverage they had. I guess they expected the Dems to fold rather than go full speed ahead and hold a half dozen public hearings. Oh, well.

In his opening statement of the first public hearing, Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) reminded listeners of the different, and likely more toothless, version of the panel he and his fellow Democrats were clamoring for around this time last summer.

“My colleagues and I all wanted an outside, independent commission to investigate January 6th, similar to what we had after 9/11,” he said. “But after first agreeing to the idea, Donald Trump’s allies in Congress put a stop to it. Apparently, they don’t want January 6th investigated at all.”

It’s a callback to a time when short-sighted Republicans saved Democrats from a version of the fact-finding effort that Trump’s allies could have much more easily obstructed.

Back then, as Thompson recalled, Democrats hungered for a commission in the vaunted 9/11 model — resolutely bipartisan and largely unanimous. Most Republicans, after some initial and short-lived endorsement of a theoretical independent commission, didn’t really want to investigate the insurrection at all beyond a superficial look at Capitol security weak spots.

Still, Reps. John Katko (R-NY) and Thompson, leaders of the House Homeland Security committee, got to work outlining the contours of an independent commission in spring 2021. The former reportedly did so at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) behest.

Their design was so emphatically collaborative that it would have given the recalcitrant Republicans extensive control over the investigation: Republican cooperation was required to issue each subpoena; the commission’s final report was due not later than the last day of 2021, well before the midterms; the non-lawmaker appointees would have been evenly split between the two parties, increasing the chances of a partisan schism.

“I ask you to set aside politics just this once,” Katko implored his colleagues from the House floor, banging on the lectern to punctuate his words. “Just this once — I beg you — and pass this bill.”

But Republican leadership had turned on the idea. McCarthy, at the eleventh hour, urged his members to vote against the legislation he’d asked Katko to help draft. Thirty-five of them voted for it anyway.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), too, pressured his members to oppose the bill. Republican leadership found it easier, on the whole, to write Katko out of the story, the better to decry the panel as a brainchild of Democratic leadership.

“I’ve made the decision to oppose the House Democrats’ slanted and unbalanced proposal for another commission to study the events of January the 6th,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.

Six Republicans ignored his guidance, four fewer than were needed to overcome the filibuster.

And the independent commission, one which Republicans could have manipulated far more easily than its current iteration, was dead. Katko announced that he’d retire from the House a few months later.

With the Senate effectively out of the picture, the drama moved back to the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could unilaterally set up a select committee staffed by current lawmakers.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 14, 2022 15:47:14 GMT LFC said:

TPM's live blogging of hearing #2. They note that convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza is melting down because Bill Barr mocked his "documentary" on alleged (i.e. not real) election fraud back in 2000.

Bill Barr told the committee how Doug Mastriano, the current GOP nominee for PA state governor, is the source of fabricated bullshit about voter fraud in Philadelphia. It wasn't even clever.

Barr Throws Mastriano Under The Bus For Boosting Election Fraud Falsehoods Trump Embraced

In taped testimony, former Attorney General Bill Barr said that then-state senator Doug Mastriano (R) was an original source of one of Trump’s voter fraud claims. Barr said he asked then-U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain about claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania that Mastriano had pushed. Barr said McSwain told him that he did not find voter fraud in the commonwealth.

Barr noted that in Pennsylvania, Trump “generally was a weak element on the Republican ticket.”

“That does not suggest the election was stolen by fraud,” Barr said.

(Side note: Mastriano, a champion of the Big Lie who won the GOP Pennsylvania governor primary, is endorsed by Trump. Mastriano has openly suggested that as governor, he would reject future election results.)

Here's a clip of Barr's testimony. You can start at 1:42. Interestingly I put this up on Facebook about 15 minutes ago and my post still hasn't shown up. I guess CSpan is one of those sources that needs to be checked.

I heard that yesterday and wondered what you would say about it.  I've been reading about that guy...sheesh...who let him out of a rubber room?

[indy]

So, the Proud Toddlers (some call them proud boys I guess) had a "comprehensive" plan to take over many buildings in DC, not just the capitol. I use quotes for comprehensive because basically it's just an outline with some bullet points (find it here).

What really caught my eye was the second to last page, which says: "Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Pence, and Bill Gates: We the People are Watching You"

Bill Gates?? What an odd addition.

[Bact PhD]

Jun 15, 2022 20:22:33 GMT indy said:

What really caught my eye was the second to last page, which says: "Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Pence, and Bill Gates: We the People are Watching You"

Bill Gates?? What an odd addition.

Not really, when you consider how prominently his name is in the anti-vaxx circles—remember his microchips?? All they needed was to mention George Soros and they’d have had a full bingo card.

[AnBr]

Jun 15, 2022 21:46:08 GMT Bact PhD said:

Jun 15, 2022 20:22:33 GMT indy said:

What really caught my eye was the second to last page, which says: "Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Pence, and Bill Gates: We the People are Watching You"

Bill Gates?? What an odd addition.

Not really, when you consider how prominently his name is in the anti-vaxx circles—remember his microchips?? All they needed was to mention George Soros and they’d have had a full bingo card.

[goldenvalley]

It was VP Mike Pence Day at the hearing. I don't agree on the guy about anything but he took his job as VP in this instance seriously and didn't cave in to pretty significant pressure so he moved up a bit in my estimation.  But, he didn't appear before the Committee today or ever talk directly with the Committee.  That stinks.  He may not be VP anymore but he still owes it to this country to come in and talk about what happened.

[AnBr]

[AnBr]

[An Old Pal Dropping By]

I can't believe Trump is going to get away again because he can claim he believed whole-heartedly that he won the election and somehow he's been wronged. That somehow according to ex- Justice dept. AUSA and USAs absolves him of his crime.


In that case if a bank has wronged me, and I fervently believe they wronged me, and then I take recourse in courts, and lose all my cases, and yet I don't abandon my sincerely held belief of being wronged, can I then rob banks to make myself whole, if I find a lawyer who tells me robbing is a bank legal under certain circumstances?

[goldenvalley]

This LGM post has video that The New York Times compiled and narrated about the behavior and actions of the Proud Boys on 1/6.  Must see viewing, plus the comments that follow are, as usual, informative and sometimes funny.

This video is actually here. www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000008392796/rile-up-the-normies-how-proud-boys-breached-the-capitol.html?smid=tw-share

[goldenvalley]

This could be interesting:

[LFC]

Jun 18, 2022 22:25:36 GMT An Old Pal Dropping By said:

I can't believe Trump is going to get away again because he can claim he believed whole-heartedly that he won the election and somehow he's been wronged.

I'm wondering if you could ever get Trump convicted for anything in virtually any court in America. His followers have already proven they don't care about reality, decency, democracy, or morality. All it would take is one quiet MAGAt (i.e. without a big online profile of their crazy) on a jury and the best outcome you end up with is deadlock.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 21, 2022 15:37:53 GMT LFC said:

Jun 18, 2022 22:25:36 GMT An Old Pal Dropping By said:

I can't believe Trump is going to get away again because he can claim he believed whole-heartedly that he won the election and somehow he's been wronged.

I'm wondering if you could ever get Trump convicted for anything in virtually any court in America. His followers have already proven they don't care about reality, decency, democracy, or morality. All it would take is one quiet MAGAt (i.e. without a big online profile of their crazy) on a jury and the best outcome you end up with is deadlock.

This is a man who lives entirely within his own head.  Everything is about him so occasionally he'll note something that has an impact on him and his view of himself.  But if anything goes wrong, he's ready with "plausible" deniability.  For example "I didn't call Pence a wimp (or a pussy).  I said he was weak."  "Eastman?  Don't really know him" "Manafort? Maybe he worked for me briefly at one time."

If people focus only on whether he believes his own words and ignore all the circumstantial evidence around his actions or inactions, he will be acquitted.

[goldenvalley]

When you get a chance, watch video of Speaker of Arizona House Rusty Bowers' testimony.  The Select Committee has been very smart in the witnesses they chose to put on tv.

[indy]

Jun 21, 2022 18:15:13 GMT goldenvalley said:

When you get a chance, watch video of Speaker of Arizona House Rusty Bowers' testimony.  The Select Committee has been very smart in the witnesses they chose to put on tv.

Yeah, I saw that. He was being asked to decertify the results of the election because Giuliani had some theories that Trump won. No evidence, just theories. On one hand, the election just barely survived and, on the other hand, none of the people responsible for destabilizing elections for the foreseeable future will receive anything more severe than jokes at their expense on social media.

As Yakov Smirnoff might say: What a Country!

[goldenvalley]

The hearing was revelatory.  Secy of State of Georgia debunked all the claims Trump made in his "just find me 11,000+ votes" call. Trump said there were 5000 dead people voting...Secy of State said there were 4. And the Secy of State dude is one that's probably pretty happy to purge voter rolls without giving people a chance to respond to a postcard saying are you still there.

And then there was the election office worker who was called out by name by Trump and who was hounded for weeks.  She and her mother were actually hidden for 2 months with the help of the FBI.  Hideous...

[LFC]

Jun 21, 2022 21:02:56 GMT goldenvalley said:

And then there was the election office worker who was called out by name by Trump and who was hounded for weeks.  She and her mother were actually hidden for 2 months with the help of the FBI.  Hideous...

Hair Fuhrer points to his enemies and the plaid shirts are more than happy to attack. This is American conservatism. It's always been a big part of American conservatism. The numbers don't lie. In the past less insane and violent conservatives managed to use them and keep them in check. Now the tiger they were riding has now eaten them or caused them to cast aside their spines.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 21, 2022 21:36:18 GMT LFC said:

Now the tiger they were riding has now eaten them or caused them to cast aside their spines.

I wish I could feel victory at the spinelessness of this jerks but I know the rest of us are getting the worst of everything.  Pick on the black ladies who work in elections offices, the Pride events, shrug at mass shootings...we are screwed.

[LFC]

‘Team Normal’ Just Looked The Other Way While Alternate Elector Scheme Unfolded

The January 6 Committee laid out new details in the fake elector scheme at its Tuesday hearing, providing a look at how senior Trump officials tried to limit their own involvement in the plan while allowing it to go forward.

In November 2020, Trump was searching for a way to stay in office.

His efforts, the committee showed on Tuesday, coalesced around a plan to swear in alternate slates of pro-Trump electors in states that Joe Biden had won. GOP-controlled state legislatures could then declare the election invalid and approve the pro-Trump electors by January 6, at which point Vice President Mike Pence would reject the legitimate, Biden votes. Or that was the plan.

It’s a wild scheme, and the committee showed on Tuesday two things: that senior Trump officials knew it was insane, and possibly illegal — and that they did nothing to stop it.

Expect a steady stream of rehabilitation efforts to get underway but nothing will offset the fact that they KNEW and they did NOTHING. That's aid and comfort to America's enemies.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 22, 2022 14:25:07 GMT LFC said:

‘Team Normal’ Just Looked The Other Way While Alternate Elector Scheme Unfolded

The January 6 Committee laid out new details in the fake elector scheme at its Tuesday hearing, providing a look at how senior Trump officials tried to limit their own involvement in the plan while allowing it to go forward.

In November 2020, Trump was searching for a way to stay in office.

His efforts, the committee showed on Tuesday, coalesced around a plan to swear in alternate slates of pro-Trump electors in states that Joe Biden had won. GOP-controlled state legislatures could then declare the election invalid and approve the pro-Trump electors by January 6, at which point Vice President Mike Pence would reject the legitimate, Biden votes. Or that was the plan.

It’s a wild scheme, and the committee showed on Tuesday two things: that senior Trump officials knew it was insane, and possibly illegal — and that they did nothing to stop it.

Expect a steady stream of rehabilitation efforts to get underway but nothing will offset the fact that they KNEW and they did NOTHING. That's aid and comfort to America's enemies.

They saved themselves from active involvement in the plots, but what is the legal status of someone who has knowledge of the corrupt plot even though they weren't active in it?  Are they still conspirators if they don't contact the authorities or blow a whistle on it?

[goldenvalley]

I'll put this here from Tom Nichols who is perhaps a conservative, not sure where he stands on "culture" war but is usually pretty analytical and measured.

We know from studies (and from experience as human beings) that being wrong makes us feel uncomfortable. It’s an actual physiological sensation, and when compounded by humiliation, it becomes intolerable. The ego cries out for either silence or assent. In the modern media environment, this fear expresses itself as a demand for the comfort of massive doses of self-justifying rage delivered through the Fox or Newsmax or OAN electronic EpiPen that stills the allergic reaction to truth and reason.

These outlets are eager to oblige. It’s not you, the hosts assure the viewers. It’s them. You made the right decisions years ago and no matter how much it now seems that you were fooled and conned, you are on the side of right and justice.

This therapy works for as long as the patient is glued to the television or computer screen. The moment someone like Bowers or Kinzinger or Liz Cheney appears and attacks the lie, the anxiety and embarrassment rise like reflux in the throat, and it must be stopped, even if it means threatening to kill the messenger.

No one who truly believes they are right threatens to hurt anyone for expressing a contrary view. The snarling threat of violence never comes from people who calmly believe they are in the right. It is always the instant resort of the bully who feels the hot flush of shame rising in the cheeks and the cold rock of fear dropping in the pit of the stomach.

In the film adaptation of the Cold War epic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John le Carré’s fictional British intelligence officer George Smiley describes his opposite number, the Soviet spymaster Karla. Smiley knows Karla can be beaten, he says, because Karla “is a fanatic. And the fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt.”

What this means, I regret to say, is that there will be more threats, and more violence, because there will be more truth. It’s going to be a long summer.

[indy]

I would say Nichols is to the right of Frum but nonetheless quite sane and objective. He has left the republican party and is now an 'independent', which I guess is saying something as well, though not that much. I read him probably as much as anyone.

[goldenvalley]

While I was somewhat admiring of the Arizona Speaker after yesterday's hearing I have changed my mind and now put him in the Pence category of a guy just doing his job.

And yet in an interview with the Associated Press published yesterday, Bowers also said he would back Trump if he runs for president in 2024. “If he is the nominee, if he was up against Biden, I’d vote for him again,” Bowers said. “Simply because what he did the first time, before COVID, was so good for the country. In my view it was great.”

So if Trump asked/ordered this guy Bowers to pay off a porn star that Trump had been sleeping with, would he say that was bad and he wouldn't personally carry it out, but he'd still vote for the guy on the next election?  

And he's not alone according to this Atlantic article. 

Another of the witnesses yesterday was Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state. Raffensperger’s testimony was less personally compelling—it largely focused on procedural details—but Trump arguably treated him much worse. He not only importuned Raffensperger to commit crimes in service of his fraudulent claims, but he also threatened him with prosecution if he didn’t. After Raffensperger refused, Trump launched a campaign to defeat him in a primary, though that failed. Yet Raffensperger last year also refused to rule out supporting Trump in 2024.

Apparently no matter how badly a Republican behaves, a Democrat will never get the vote of anyone who claims to be a Republican.  So much for a resurgence of the non crazy Republicans.

[pnwguy]

Jun 23, 2022 1:01:52 GMT goldenvalley said:

Apparently no matter how badly a Republican behaves, a Democrat will never get the vote of anyone who claims to be a Republican.  So much for a resurgence of the non crazy Republicans.

We have "defined deviancy down" when it comes to GOP behavior. If they aren't quite at the point of opening AR-15 fire on random people of color or gays, we laud them for being "normal Republicans".  They will be the equivalent of 1940's Good Germans, who nevertheless worked in the death camps and kept the trains full of victims.