House Select Committee on 1/6

[LFC]

Dec 17, 2021 15:43:08 GMT Traveler said:

Surprised there isn't a dedicated thread for the 1/6 insurrection.

It's part of the Right-wing Domestic Terrorism thread. There are too many actors and organizers who are intertwined with terrorists groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

[LFC]

They're calling up another fascist who was a major proponent of The Big Lie.

Phil Waldron, one of the primary conspiracy theorists to push the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, received a subpoena on Thursday from the Jan. 6 Committee.

Waldron gained notoriety recently after a PowerPoint presentation surfaced that Waldron had helped to create. The slideshow advanced a theory of how Republican members of Congress could throw out Joe Biden’s electoral votes. That presentation found its way into the hands of then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, the committee has said.

According to the subpoena, Waldron claimed to have met with Meadows “6-8 times” before the Capitol insurrection.

The panel has been examining the PowerPoint as it bears down on Meadows’ role in the insurrection and in promoting the Big Lie.

The committee released texts this week from various Fox News hosts and members of Congress to Meadows. The Fox News hosts asked Meadows to tell Trump to call off the insurgents who had taken over the Capitol; the members of Congress appeared to be giving Meadows advice on how best to overturn the result and, in one case, apologizing for failing to do so.

Waldron, a retired army colonel, reportedly attended an Oval Office meeting with Trump on Nov. 25, along with several Pennsylvania state lawmakers.

The subpoena demands that Waldron appear for a Jan. 17 deposition, and that he hand over records about his activities related to the insurrection and Big Lie by Jan. 10.

And this tidbit about Waldron from TPM's Morning Memo.

Note: Earlier this week, Waldron was an invited speaker at an official meeting of the state commission charged with revamping Louisiana’s voting system.

[LFC]

More witnesses are being called who may have had a front row seat to Trump's coup attempt.

The Jan. 6 committee reportedly interviewed current and former staffers of Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger’s office on Wednesday about former President Trump’s unsuccessful attempts to subvert the battleground state’s election results, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting.

At least two officials who worked in Raffensperger’s office during Trump’s attempt to change the state’s 2020 results spoke for hours with members of the Jan. 6 committee on Wednesday, GPB reported.

Raffensperger himself was interviewed by the committee for hours late last month.

According to GPB, the panel has now also interviewed Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager who spoke out forcefully about the impact of Trump’s election fraud falsehoods. Among the topics covered in Sterling’s interview were the conspiracy theories surrounding Fulton County’s tabulation center as well as Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s unfounded claims to state lawmakers in several hearings regarding election results in the state’s most populous county.

The committee also spoke with Frances Watson, who at the time of Trump’s effort was a top investigator for Raffensperger’s office and who spoke with Trump herself for six minutes in late December. The Wall Street Journal later obtained a recording of the call, in which the former president could be heard pressuring Watson to investigate bogus claims of fraud. “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised,” he said.

[LFC]

So what is Moscow Mitch up to? Experience tells us it's nothing good for America.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has apparently had a change of heart about the Jan. 6 committee, saying Thursday that “the public needs to know” its findings on the “horrendous event.”

“I think the fact-finding is interesting,” he added during an interview with Spectrum News that aired Thursday. “We’re all going to be watching it.”

McConnell’s newfound eagerness is a markedly different tone than he struck during the creation of the committee. Back in May, he said that an investigation under Democratic leadership would be “slanted and unbalanced.” His position turned some of his members — who had initially expressed support for the idea — against the creation of a commission.

[pnwguy]

Dec 17, 2021 20:25:29 GMT LFC said:

So what is Moscow Mitch up to? Experience tells us it's nothing good for America.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has apparently had a change of heart about the Jan. 6 committee, saying Thursday that “the public needs to know” its findings on the “horrendous event.”

“I think the fact-finding is interesting,” he added during an interview with Spectrum News that aired Thursday. “We’re all going to be watching it.”

McConnell’s newfound eagerness is a markedly different tone than he struck during the creation of the committee. Back in May, he said that an investigation under Democratic leadership would be “slanted and unbalanced.” His position turned some of his members — who had initially expressed support for the idea — against the creation of a commission.

I think he's smart enough to realize that with high profile "RINOS" like Cheney and Kinsinger often taking the lead as the face of the committee, the GOP can't completely escape culpability.  And most of the traitorous ones are in the House, not the Senate, so MM has less to lose in his quest for Senate control.  Gerrymandering alone will get much of the House in GOP hands, but Senate races are state-wide.  If the GOP appears to be too involved in a cover-up, it threatens a lot of independent voters in red states that could scuttle some vulnerable GOP Senate seats.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 17, 2021 20:34:18 GMT pnwguy said:

Dec 17, 2021 20:25:29 GMT LFC said:

So what is Moscow Mitch up to? Experience tells us it's nothing good for America.

I think he's smart enough to realize that with high profile "RINOS" like Cheney and Kinsinger often taking the lead as the face of the committee, the GOP can't completely escape culpability.  And most of the traitorous ones are in the House, not the Senate, so MM has less to lose in his quest for Senate control.  Gerrymandering alone will get much of the House in GOP hands, but Senate races are state-wide.  If the GOP appears to be too involved in a cover-up, it threatens a lot of independent voters in red states that could scuttle some vulnerable GOP Senate seats.

But Mitch is still saying we should focus on the future, not the past in that same interview.  He's trying to have it both ways.  

[AnBr]

I think that he simply sees that his goals now require tRump to go away. It is to his benefit for the Dems to take him down. He can then blame them for what they did to poor tRump. Win-win.

[AnBr]

Jan. 6 Committee Weighs Possibility of Criminal Referrals

The House panel is examining whether there is enough evidence to recommend that the Justice Department pursue cases against Donald J. Trump and others.

...

At a hearing this month, Ms. Cheney suggested that the committee could subpoena Mr. Trump to answer questions and that criminal penalties would hang over his head if he lied.

“Any communication Mr. Trump has with this committee will be under oath,” she said. “And if he persists in lying then, he will be accountable under the laws of this great nation and subject to criminal penalties for every false word he speaks.”

Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and a member of the committee, said it was “certainly possible” that the panel would make criminal referrals before the investigation concluded.

“Most of the criminal referrals that I’m aware of, judging from experience in the Russian and Ukrainian investigations, were perjury-related or witness intimidation-related,” he said. “But it’s not unprecedented for Congress to make referrals when we are aware of evidence that people engage in other criminal activity. I wouldn’t exclude that possibility.”

One option being examined by the committee, as Ms. Cheney revealed, is whether there is evidence to make a referral of Mr. Trump or others based on an obscure obstruction charge that federal prosecutors have been using to pursue rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6: the disruption of Congress’s duty to certify the final stage of a presidential election.

That charge, which has been used in lieu of more overtly political counts like sedition or insurrection, has been brought against more than 200 rioters.

[LFC]

When do the Trumpies just go full metal Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer anything? Pennsylvania already has one fascist supporter in the House who is calling the committee "illegitimate" and refuses to be interviewed. I'm sure he'll try to run out the clock but if forced I could just see him responding to every question with that "defense." His words are gag inducing.

Rep. Scott Perry said Tuesday he would not cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee's investigation, a move that forces the panel to grapple with how it will extract information it seeks from a sitting member of Congress.

“I stand with immense respect for our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Americans I represent who know that this entity is illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives,” Perry said in a statement. “I decline this entity’s request and will continue to fight the failures of the radical Left who desperately seek distraction from their abject failures of crushing inflation, a humiliating surrender in Afghanistan, and the horrendous crisis they created and refuse to address at our southern border.”

[LFC]

To quote Republicans, "if you haven't done anything wrong then what are you afraid of?" Here's a list of those who have already sued to block investigation.

Flynn is latest to sue
Trump and several key people around him at the end of his presidential tenure are also putting up a fight against the committee's subpoenas.

Those who have gone to court are:

• Trump, challenging House requests to the National Archives for government records from his presidency;
• Mark Meadows, former Trump chief of staff, challenging a subpoena for his testimony and a subpoena for his Verizon phone records;
• Cleta Mitchell, election lawyer for Trump, challenging a subpoena of her AT&T phone records;
• Alex Jones, far-right-wing media figure, challenging subpoenas for testimony, documents and phone records;
• Ali Alexander, "Stop the Steal" organizer, challenging a subpoena of his Verizon phone records;
• John Eastman, conservative lawyer, challenging a subpoena of his Verizon phone records;
• Amy Harris, freelance photographer, challenging a subpoena of her Verizon phone records.

The bulk of the cases attack the committee's pursuits as overly broad or outside its authority.

A ninth potential witness, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, is in court as a criminal defendant after he opted not to comply with committee subpoenas. He had not sued.

[LFC]

Next up, somebody who is almost guaranteed to refuse to talk despite being somebody who clearly loves the sound of his own voice no matter how stupid the words are that he's babbling. Ladies and gentlemen, Gym Jordan!

The House Jan. 6 Committee asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to provide information about the Capitol insurrection in a Wednesday letter — the second demand to a sitting member of Congress this week.

The panel wants to learn about conversations that Jordan had with President Trump on Jan. 6.

Jordan has gone back and forth on whether he had any conversations with Trump on the day of the insurrection and, if he did, when they occurred and how many times they occurred.

“We understand that you had at least one and possibly multiple communications with President Trump on January 6th,” the committee wrote in its letter. “We would like to discuss each such communication with you in detail.”

The panel also wants to know about any other comms that Jordan had with Trump, his legal team, “or others involved in organizing or planning the actions and strategies for January 6th.”

Jordan is the second member of Congress to receive an information request — not a subpoena — from the committee, which asked Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) to help with its investigation on Monday. Perry, who purportedly helped with Trump’s scheme to install Jeff Clark as acting attorney general in a bid to have the DOJ intervene in the election outcome, said he would not comply.

In the letter, the panel also said that it wants to learn from Jordan about his role in the period from November 2020 to January 2021, when Trump groped frantically for a way to subvert the election results while sowing doubt about the fairness of the election.

But most intriguingly, the panel wants to know about whether Trump held out pardons in connection with Jan. 6th – truly, an example of the art of the deal.

That, the committee says, includes “discussions involving the possibility of presidential pardons for individuals involved in any aspect of January 6th or the planning for January 6th.”

It was Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), another member in good standing of the insurrection caucus along with Jordan, who, Rolling Stone reported, dangled a “blanket pardon” to potential rally organizers.

[pnwguy]

Dec 22, 2021 21:33:05 GMT LFC said:

Next up, somebody who is almost guaranteed to refuse to talk despite being somebody who clearly loves the sound of his own voice no matter how stupid the words are that he's babbling. Ladies and gentlemen, Gym Jordan!

I'd love to see Liz Cheney hang Gym Jordan by his jock strap.

[LFC]

This is a paywalled article (this link should allow you to get there) from TPM on Gym Jordan's super clear responses to being asked if he spoke to Trump on the day of the Jan 6 Republican Insurrection. This was a beautiful quote and just one example of many in the article. He's sure no Kellyanne when it comes to smooth, slick lying and misdirection.

The question was soon put to him again, by a reporter for Spectrum News. His response was a sweaty word salad:

SPECTRUM’S TAYLOR POPIELARZ: Yes or no, did you speak with President Trump on January 6th?

JORDAN: Yeah I mean I speak … I spoke with the President last week. I speak with the President all the time. I spoke with him on January 6th. I mean I talk with President Trump all the time. And that’s, that’s … I don’t think that’s unusual. I would expect members of Congress to talk with the President of the United States when they’re trying to get done the things they told the voters in their district to do. I’m actually kind of amazed sometimes that people keep asking this question. Of course … I talk to the President all the time. I talked … like I said, I talked with him last week.

POPIELARZ: On January 6th did you speak with him before, during or after the Capitol was attacked?

JORDAN: Ahhh I’d have to go … I’d I I … I spoke with him that day after? … I think after? … I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know. I’d have to go back and …. I mean I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know … ahhh … that … when those conversations happened. But what I know is that I spoke with him all the time.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 23, 2021 14:21:50 GMT LFC said:

This is a paywalled article (this link should allow you to get there) from TPM on Gym Jordan's super clear responses to being asked if he spoke to Trump on the day of the Jan 6 Republican Insurrection. This was a beautiful quote and just one example of many in the article. He's sure no Kellyanne when it comes to smooth, slick lying and misdirection.

The question was soon put to him again, by a reporter for Spectrum News. His response was a sweaty word salad:

It's going to be hard to cross examine Jordan with the standard "were you lying then, or are you lying now?" because he's probably lying both times.  And there are probably many more times he lied to other people about discussions with Trump or Meadows or any of the folks that brought Trump the various versions of election fraud lies.

[jackd]

His ultimate response is likely to be, "I don't remember".

[LFC]

Cheney steps out swinging.

Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS), both of whom chair the Jan. 6 committee, on Sunday said that the panel has heard testimony that offers insight into the communications to former President Trump on the day his supporters breached the Capitol.

Appearing on ABC News, Cheney, who serves as vice chair of the committee, said that the committee has “firsthand testimony” that Trump was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching TV as the deadly Capitol insurrection unfolded.

After saying that Trump could’ve easily have walked over to the White House briefing room to urge his supporters to halt the attack on the Capitol, Cheney also said that “firsthand testimony” detailed pleas by Trump’s daughter Ivanka and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for the then-President to put a stop to the deadly attack.

“I think it’s also important for the American people to understand how dangerous Donald Trump was. We know as he was sitting there in the dining room next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with him to go on television, to tell people to stop. We know Leader McCarthy was pleading with him to do that,” Cheney said.

“We know members of his family, we know his daughter. We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence,” Cheney continued, before adding that Trump’s provocation of a violent assault on the Capitol to stop the counting of Joe Biden’s electoral victory shows that the former president “can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”

She may have defended daddy's war crimes and doesn't recognize that he was an important step toward the imperial Executive Branch but even she realizes where we stand today.

Cheney, one of two Republicans on the congressional panel probing Jan. 6, said Sunday that "the Republican Party has to make a choice. We can either be loyal to our Constitution or loyal to Donald Trump, but we cannot be both."

[LFC]

McCarthy continues to be a fascist, lying, deflecting sycophant. He just said the committee that's turning up more and more evidence of the attempted coup that had him begging Trump for protection during the insurrection is "divisive." What a sniveling little tool.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has complained—without any apparent irony—that Democrats are using the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection to “divide our country.” McCarthy, who helped former President Donald Trump sow false election-fraud claims ahead of the riot and has been of interest to House investigators over his phone call with Trump during the insurrection, made his comments in a letter to his GOP colleagues Sunday, according to The Hill. In the letter, he condemned the riot as “lawless and as wrong as wrong can be,” before revealing his true target—the House Democrats who are investigating Jan. 6. “Unfortunately, one year later, the majority party seems no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again,” he wrote. “Instead, they are using it as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country.”

A clearly bogus "investigation" into Hillary Clinton? No problem! Holding insurrectionists and those who aided and abetted them to account? Divisive! Partisan!

[goldenvalley]

Jan 3, 2022 21:20:13 GMT LFC said:

McCarthy continues to be a fascist, lying, deflecting sycophant. He just said the committee that's turning up more and more evidence of the attempted coup that had him begging Trump for protection during the insurrection is "divisive." What a sniveling little tool.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has complained—without any apparent irony—that Democrats are using the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection to “divide our country.” McCarthy, who helped former President Donald Trump sow false election-fraud claims ahead of the riot and has been of interest to House investigators over his phone call with Trump during the insurrection, made his comments in a letter to his GOP colleagues Sunday, according to The Hill. In the letter, he condemned the riot as “lawless and as wrong as wrong can be,” before revealing his true target—the House Democrats who are investigating Jan. 6. “Unfortunately, one year later, the majority party seems no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again,” he wrote. “Instead, they are using it as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country.”

A clearly bogus "investigation" into Hillary Clinton? No problem! Holding insurrectionists and those who aided and abetted them to account? Divisive! Partisan!

I have to remind myself that these people do not appear to be interested in consistent ideology or principles.  All that matters is opposition and conflict as a means to get and keep power.  Win by any means that work...that's the only consistency I see.

[LFC]

I'd say the assessment of "utter incompetence" is about right but we can't count on that to save us from the next Republican coup.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol obtained a 22-page document from Rudy Giuliani associate Bernie Kerik.

Titled, "Strategic Communications Plan — Giuliani Presidential Legal Defense Team" which described a 10-day effort to pressure Republicans to overturn the election in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The document discussed daily talking points and pre-written tweets. And it discussed how it would spread its message via conservative influencers like Ron Watkins, who is suspected to be the mysterious Q behind the Q Anon conspiracy theory.

In the "big names" section of the document are Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Dave Ruben, and "The Majority Report (Sam Seder)."

Seder, a progressive, first started airing the show with then-co-host Janeane Garofalo in 2004 on the progressive Air America radio network. It has continued to broadcast online following the network's demise.

As his name looked extremely out-of-place, Raw Story reached out to Seder for comment.

"I would imagine it's a function of the utter incompetence which was on display throughout the Trump Presidency," Seder said.

[LFC]

From the Department of Because Of Course They Are.

On Tuesday, MSNBC reported that House Republicans are discussing plans to draft an alternative "report" on the January 6 Capitol insurrection, to try to discredit the work being done by the Select Committee investigating the matter.

"It was in mid-July when McCarthy declared that House Republicans would 'pursue our own investigation of the facts' surrounding the deadly violence. At a Capitol Hill press conference, the GOP leader added, 'We will make sure we get to the real answers,'" reported Steve Benen. "As we discussed in September, there was little to suggest House Republicans were, in fact, conducting their own probe."

However, there are now reportedly signs the GOP is taking more concrete steps, through Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN).

"According to Axios' reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, Banks intends to update his Republican colleagues today on the interviews that GOP leadership staff has conducted as part of their unofficial, parallel probe," said the report. "The Indiana congressman, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, also expects to produce some kind of partisan report on the GOP leadership's findings."

This comes after Republicans sabotaged their own voice in the official investigation.

[LFC]

Paging Mr. Hannity. Paging Mr. Gorka.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 5, 2022 19:11:25 GMT LFC said:

Paging Mr. Hannity. Paging Mr. Gorka.

Looks like Hannity had access to the legal plans...that blows any attorney client privilege stuff for Trump.  

[LFC]

What a shock. Social media companies are putting their own interests ahead of the nation's. Even a violent insurrection and clearly documented plan to implement a coup isn't enough to budge the sociopaths in charge.

Four of the country’s major social media firms are slow-walking information requests from the Jan. 6 Committee, the panel said on Thursday in a series of subpoenas to the firms.

The panel issued subpoenas to Alphabet, YouTube and Google’s parent company, Meta, Facebook’s corporate parent, and Twitter and Reddit.

The subpoenas say that each of the firms has delayed cooperating with the investigation in different ways. The Jan. 6 Committee sent a wave of requests to the companies in August 2021 asking for information regarding the attack on the Capitol.

Soon after, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) directed the firms not to comply, saying that a Republican majority would “not forget.” The panel asked McCarthy for help in the investigation on Wednesday, a request that he swiftly denied.

The Meta subpoena, addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, says that the company has failed to “commit to a deadline for producing or even identifying” requested materials, despite letters sent in August, September, and October.

“Meta has failed to provide critical internal and external analyses conducted by the company regarding misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation relating to the 2020 election, efforts to challenge or overturn the election, and the use of Meta by domestic violent extremists to affect the 2020 election,” the subpoena reads.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 13, 2022 21:56:37 GMT LFC said:

What a shock. Social media companies are putting their own interests ahead of the nation's. Even a violent insurrection and clearly documented plan to implement a coup isn't enough to budge the sociopaths in charge.

Four of the country’s major social media firms are slow-walking information requests from the Jan. 6 Committee, the panel said on Thursday in a series of subpoenas to the firms.

The panel issued subpoenas to Alphabet, YouTube and Google’s parent company, Meta, Facebook’s corporate parent, and Twitter and Reddit.

The subpoenas say that each of the firms has delayed cooperating with the investigation in different ways. The Jan. 6 Committee sent a wave of requests to the companies in August 2021 asking for information regarding the attack on the Capitol.

Soon after, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) directed the firms not to comply, saying that a Republican majority would “not forget.” The panel asked McCarthy for help in the investigation on Wednesday, a request that he swiftly denied.

The Meta subpoena, addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, says that the company has failed to “commit to a deadline for producing or even identifying” requested materials, despite letters sent in August, September, and October.

“Meta has failed to provide critical internal and external analyses conducted by the company regarding misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation relating to the 2020 election, efforts to challenge or overturn the election, and the use of Meta by domestic violent extremists to affect the 2020 election,” the subpoena reads.

Ain't this capitalism...the railroads and oil companies did the same thing back in the day.  Understanding that led to the creation of a regulatory scheme that is being dismantled.  The party that is dismantling really has no room to complain about big tech but hypocrisy is not a charge that they care about no matter how often they aim that word at the other party.

[jackd]

The committee needs to send one letter and upon non compliance, immediately, without further conversation, issue a subpoena and when not complied with refer it to the DOJ. They need to understand that they're running out of time.