Homeland Security Committee Report on Jan. 6, 2020: Reply to M. Meadows, D.C., M. Thompson, R.R.M. Thompson
The committee, which saw its mission as essential to saving US democracy, will hold a last public meeting and is expected to call on the Justice Department to charge Trump and potentially some allies over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election in one of the darkest periods in modern politics.
Armed with new witness interviews and unreleased footage of the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, the panel is planning to argue that Mr. Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud inspired far-right extremists and election deniers who present a continuing threat to American democracy.
Mark Meadows had refused to testify based on executive privilege. The committee’s litigation with him continues. Mr. Chairman, at some point the Department of Justice may well unearth the facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing. But our duty today is to our country and our children and our Constitution.
The committee is bound to find answers from the man who put this all in motion. And every American is entitled to the answers, so we can act now to protect our republic.”
The chairman of the committee on homeland security is a Democrat from Mississippi named Bennie G. Thompson. His own views are expressed in this commentary. You can also give your opinion on CNN.
News from Fort McNair: Exclusive Footage of the January 6 Democrat Infamy and Whitewashing During the Goliath
The panel is expected to be wiped out next month by an incoming Republican House majority featuring scores of lawmakers who voted not to certify the last presidential election and who still whitewash that day of infamy nearly two years later.
CNN has obtained additional footage from Fort McNair that wasn’t shown by the committee. The exclusive footage will be aired during Anderson Cooper’s special edition on CNN on Thursday night. There was footage that shows congressional leaders after they fled the Capitol trying to figure out what was happening at the capitol, and begging for help in their haste to quell the insurrection.
As the president watched the bloody attack unfold on Fox News from his dining room, members of Congress and other government officials stepped into the gigantic leadership void created by the president’s chilling and studied passivity that day. You’re going to be seeing previously unseen video of Congressional leaders and Republicans being taken to a secure location during the riot.
The footage showed two phone calls between Pelosi and then-vice president Mike Pence, who together coordinated the emergency response on January 6.
Schumer was shown dressed down by the acting Attorney General. During their heated phone call, Schumer urged Rosen to intervene with Trump and warn him against the mob. The pro-Trump rioters were breaking the law at the instigation of the president of the United States, Pelosi was told during the call.
Since then, we’ve spoken to many more top officials, including the Trump envoy to Northern Ireland and former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney who resigned in protest of the president’s actions.
Hutchinson’s Day in Court: Report of the January 6, 2007 Incriminating General Reported Crime against the U.S. President
I think about this country a lot. I believe in a peaceful transfer of power. I believe in the rule of the law. And so I was a — it was a decision that I made on my own. [End videotape]
During the summer hearings, Hutchinson gave detailed accounts of the activities of Trump on January 6, a day that was the most incriminating against him.
I remember looking at Mark. I said that Mark can’t think we’re going to pull it off. That call was crazy. And he looks at me and just started shaking his head. He was like, no, you know, he knows it’s over. He knows he lost, but we will keep trying. There are some good options out there.
Trump was angry that the Supreme Court had rejected the lawsuit, according to Hutchinson, who said she witnessed the discussion between the two men.
The President told me I don’t want people to know we lost. This is terrible. Figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don’t want people to know that we lost. The end of the videotape.
Committee Report on the Investigation of Associated Violence in Washington D.C., Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 (Jan. 5), at 7:00 PM, PDT
The committee will recall witnesses and conduct further depositions using the additional Secret Service communication from January 5th and January 6th. Following that activity, we will provide even greater detail in our final report.
“With so many weapons found so far, you wonder how many are unknown,” one agent wrote at 12:36 PM, “Maybe sporty after dark.” At 12:47 PM, the agent said “No doubt”. The people at the Ellipse said they were moving after the president’s speech. As the documents we’ve received make clear, the Secret Service was aware of weapons possessed by those gathered at rallies in DC as early as the evening before.
The Joint Committee on Trade and Elections (CEN): Comments on ‘Fake News’ and “What Happened to the Vice President after the 2016 General Election”
There were comments on the website about the joint session of Congress. Take a look at some of those comments. “Gallows don’t require electricity.” “If the filthy commie maggots try to push their fraud through, there will be hell to pay.” “Our lawmakers in Congress can leave one of two ways; one, in a body bag, two, after rightfully certifying Trump the winner.” Mr. Miller claimed that he had no idea about the hundreds of comments like these in the link that he sent to Mark Meadows.
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 Secret Services Intelligence Division immediately warned that POTUS was going to be bad for Pence after he posted about him.
The plans were discussed before the election and Trump held a press conference after the election. He declared victory as the votes were still being counted. During the Thursday’s meeting, Cheney said that Trump had a plan to declare the election fraudulent before election day.
The committee said that it obtained a memo from the National Archives that it presented for the first time on Thursday.
“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,” the memo reads.
Tom Fitton sent two emails to two Trump advisers just a few days before the election. One email contains a draft statement for Trump to declare victory on Election Night.
The last hearing of the committee before the election did not include a testimony by Ginni Thomas, who was interviewed last month.
Her absence was notable because the panel did use testimony from other prominent witnesses who had been interviewed since the committee’s most recent hearing.
But as the panel wrapped up what was likely the last of its evidentiary hearings on Thursday, it was not at all clear that it had persuaded the jury. Americans who already blamed the rampage on Mr. Trump came away from four months of sensational and at times jaw-dropping hearings with more evidence for their belief, while those who started out in his camp largely remained there.
After the hearings opened in June, there was a small movement in the public’s opinion but it was not enough to make a big difference. Many voters have been locked into their opinions. Mr. Trump’s loyalists have been steadfast in their support, despite the congressional investigation that he claims is a partisan exercise.
The completion of the committee’s work marks a shift in history when Americans faced a choice about how to respond to the unprecedented effort by a president to overrule the will of the people and the chain of peaceful protest.
Below, read the full transcript from the Oct. 13 hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The transcript was made by a non profit organization.
Good afternoon, and may God bless the United States of America. We started presenting our findings to the American people four months ago. From the beginning, we understood that some people watching those proceedings would wrongly assume that the committee’s investigation was a partisan exercise.
I asked the people who were skeptical to just listen, to listen to evidence, and to listen to testimony with an open mind since they had to decide if the work was worth it. Evidence has pointed to a plan led by the former President Donald Trump to defeat the election in 2020.
Donald Trump did not win reelection. As shown from the testimony of some of the president’s closest allies and advisers, Donald Trump knew he lost. Despite this knowledge, Donald Trump went to court to contest the 2020 election, and he lost in court. Donald Trump continued to pull out all the stops in his attempt to stay in power even after he was declared the winner by the Electoral College.
What Donald Trump proceeded to do after the 2020 election is something no president has done before in our country. Donald Trump betrayed his oath by trying to attack a pillar of our democracy. It’s still hard to believe, but the facts and testimony are clear, consistent, and undisputed.
How do we know that? How have we been able to present such a clear picture of what took place? We’ve presented to you through these proceedings, and we’ve gathered a lot of documentary evidence and made it available to you, the American people.
Evidence of the extensive contact between Roger Stone, and militant right-wing Extremist groups, including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, was revealed by the committee. There had been extensive intelligence and Secret Service warnings about the serious threat of violence against the Capitol.
Who has that been? Aides who’ve worked loyally for Donald Trump for years, Republican state officials and legislators, Republican electors, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, political professionals who worked at the highest levels of the Trump campaign, Trump appointees who served in the most senior positions in the Justice Department, President Trump’s staff and closest advisers in the White House, members of the — President Trump’s family, his own White House counsel.
Bringing Back the Phantom Evidence to the Investigatio-Medical Committee: The Mueller Investigation of the December 6, 2016 November 13th Associated with a Republican Senator
Evidence strongly suggests that this testimony is not credible, and the committee is reviewing additional material from the Secret Service and other sources. The results of this effort were being shared and received by the Secret Service. They’d shared intelligence from social media and other sources about the joint session of Congress.
There’s one more difference about today. Pursuant to the notice circulated prior to today’s proceedings, we are convened today not as a hearing but as a formal committee business meeting so that, in addition to presenting evidence, we can potentially hold a committee vote on further investigative action based upon that evidence.
And according to public reporting, the Department of Justice has been very active in pursuing many of the issues identified in our prior hearings. Our committee may ultimately decide to make a series of criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, but we recognize that our role is not to make decisions regarding prosecution.
The preamble to our Constitution recites among its purposes, to “establish justice.” The US Department of Justice has that responsibility as well. 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 would amend the Electoral Count Act in order to prevent future attempts to change the outcome of an election.
Today we will see new evidence but, as the chairman said, we will also synthesize evidence you’ve seen before. The evidence presented thus far shows that Donald Trump was the primary cause of the January 6th event. None of this would have happened without him.
The President was trying to change the result of the election by using the Department of Justice. He was told that there was no evidence to support his claims of fraud, but he didn’t care. As he told them, just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.
Many of those who stepped forward to help, including Rudy Giuliani, knew they never had real evidence sufficient to change the election results. They admitted on the night of January 5th that they were still trying to find that phantom evidence. Of course, as a result of making intentionally false claims of election fraud, Mr. Giuliani’s license to practice law has now been suspended.
The Effect of the Judgment and the State of Law on the U.S. President Donald Trump’s Decay to the Capitol
President Trump may not have gone to the Capitol on January 6th, but what he did from the White House cannot be justified. While Congressional leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, worked with Vice President Pence to try and address the violence, President Trump refused urgent pleas for help from nearly everyone around him.
Some of the people who played a role in defeating President Trump’s attempt to overturn the election were the Department of Justice, White House staff, State Republican officials and Bill Barr.
All of them had a hand in stopping Donald Trump. This leads us to a key question. The American people assume our republic and the Constitution are invulnerable to another attack. Why would we assume that those institutions will not falter next time? A key lesson of this investigation is this.
Good faith makes our institutions hold even if the political cost is high. We don’t know if the men and women will be in place next time. Any future president inclined to attempt what Donald Trump did in 2020 has now learned not to install people who could stand in the way.
Please consider this as well. The citizens of our country pledge to honor and respect the rulings of our courts. Most importantly, our president, who has a constitutional obligation to faithfully execute the laws, swears to accept them. What happens when the president disregards the court’s rulings as illegitimate, when he disregards the rule of law?
Even though the courts rejected President Trump’s allegations, his Department of Justice appointees like Bill Barr, Jeffrey Rosen, and Richard Donoghue did the same. President Trump knew the truth. He heard what all his experts and senior staff were telling him. He knew he lost the election, but he decided to ignore the courts, the Justice Department, and his campaign team, in order to try to overturn the election.
I’m going to read from the judge’s statement at the sentencing hearing. “High ranking members of Congress and state officials, who know perfectly well the claim of fraud was and is untrue and that the election was legitimate, are so afraid of losing their power, they won’t say so. It has to be crystal clear that it is not patriotism, it is not standing up for America to stand up for one man who knows full well that he lost instead of the Constitution he was trying to subvert.” The nation cannot only punish the foot soldiers who invaded our Capitol, as the violence and lawlessness of January 6th was unjustifiable.
So, as we watch the evidence today, please consider where our nation is in its history. Consider whether we can survive for another 246 years. Most people on Earth have not been free. America is an exception, and America continues only because we bind ourselves to our founders’ principles, to our Constitution.
We recognize that some principles must be beyond politics, inviolate, and more important than any single American who has ever lived. Thank you for your kind words. I yield back.
Do mail in ballots really want to be counted? – Bill Stepien, Kevin McCarthy, and Jared Kushner, William L. McKinnon, U.S. Attorney General, Robert J.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very shortly after the election, oh — we begin this meeting by returning to election night, November 3rd, 2020. We presented testimony about what the election results were expected to be. Mail-in ballots cast before the polls close would not be counted after the polls close.
election results would not be known in a while. Although President Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, and Jared Kushner had advised Donald Trump to encourage mail in voting by Republicans, President Trump did not do so. The videotape can be started.
I just remember generally, you know, you had people arguing that we had a — a very, very robust get out the vote effort and that, you know, mail in ballots could be a good thing for us if we looked at it correctly.
I invited Kevin McCarthy to join the meeting, he being of like mind on — on the issue with me, in which we made our case for — for why we believed mail in balloting, mail in voting not to be a bad thing for his campaign, but, you know, the President’s mind was made up. [End 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.
Now on election night, Donald Trump’s advisers specifically told him he didn’t have a factual basis to declare victory, that he should wait for the remaining ballots to be counted. Here is campaign manager, Bill Stepien. Go to begin videotape.
It was too early to be making that kind of call. Ballots were still being counted. The votes were going to be counted for a while. It was premature to make that kind of declaration at this point. I believe my recommendation was to say that votes were still being counted. It’s too early to tell, too early to call the race.
This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were prepared to win the election. We did win the election. Applause. We want all voting to stop. [End videotape]
They made sure that Mr. Pence wouldn’t echo a false announcement from President Trump. Greg Jacob, Vice President’s Counsel, talked to us about his preparation for a meeting with the Vice President’s chief of staff. Start the videotape.
Marc had indicated to me that there was a possibility that there would be a declaration of victory within the White House that some might push for, and this is prior to the election results being known. He was trying to figure out a way to avoid the vice president being thrust into a position of needing to opine 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 stated that he had spoken to the President about the statement.
Just a few days before the election, a group of his associates from China heard something from the former White House strategist and member of President Trump’s team. Begin the video.
He’s going to say he’s a winner. It is going to be a fire when you wake up. If Trump is losing at night, it will be even crazier because he’s going to sit right there and say they stole it.
I told the Attorney General to shut ballot places down in all 50 states. He’s not going out easy. If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit. End videotape.
All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. It’s all converging and now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack, right, the point of attack tomorrow. It’s not going to happen the way you think it will. Ok. It is going to be very different. And all I can say is strap in. You have made this happen and tomorrow it’s game day.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Roger Stone with the Oath Keepers: Interacting with the President and the Committee on Ethics – The case of Christopher Gilbranson, an Associate of Donald Trump
Another close associate of Donald Trump apparently knew of Mr. Trump’s intentions as well. Roger Stone is a political operative with a reputation for dirty tricks. In November 2019, he was convicted of lying to Congress and other crimes and sentenced to more than three years in prison. He was in communication with the president throughout the year. On December 23, 2020 Roger Stone was pardoned by Mr. Trump. 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. When that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory. Possession is 9/10 of the law.
Although we don’t yet have all the relevant records of Roger Stone’s communications, even Stone’s own social media posts acknowledge that he spoke with Donald Trump on December 27th as preparations for January 6th were underway. In this post, you can see how Roger Stone talked about his conversations with President Trump.
He said that he told the President how he could make sure those trying to steal the 2020 election were charged and convicted, as well as ensuring that Donald Trump was re-elected. 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, to oppose the lawful authority of the United States. Multiple associates of Roger Stone from both the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been charged with this crime. Close associates of Roger Stone, including Joshua James, have pled guilty to this crime.
This is Roger Stone with Oath Keepers at the Willard Hotel on the morning of January 6th, and here is Mr. Stone testifying before our committee. Begin videotape.
Video evidence shows the connection between Roger Stone and the Proud Boys, with phone records obtained by the Select Committee. Tarrio and other Proud Boys have been charged with a variety of crimes for their involvement in the attack on January 6th. During the attack, Tarrio sent a message to other Proud Boys claiming, we did that.
Intentionality: The committee demonstrated that January 6 was not some sort of one-off, unintended day of chaos where events unexpectedly spun out of control. It was premeditated.
When the networks called it, the President was informed about the decision. Around 4 pm that afternoon I went to the President with a few other people and said that there was very little chance of us prevailing in legal challenges.
So we’re in the Oval and there’s a discussion going on. The president said words to the effect of we lost. We need to let the next guy handle it, meaning President Biden.
After the election I went in the Oval to see how the President was doing, to give him the attention he wanted. He looked at the TV and said, can you believe that I lost?
Deciding to withdraw US troops from Somalia before the Biden inauguration in Jan. 6: Johnny McEntee meets Douglas Macgregor
Knowing that he only had 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.
Knowing he was leaving office, he acted immediately and signed this order on November 11th, which would have required the immediate withdrawal of troops from Somalia and Afghanistan, all to be complete before the Biden inauguration on January 20th. As you watch these clips, you will learn that general klatch was the national security adviser to the VP and had been the chief of staff to the NSC.
Are you familiar with a memo that the President reportedly signed on November 11, 2020, ordering that troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan and Somalia?
So I think you might have seen some things where there’s a memo or something from Johnny McEntee to Douglas Macgregor. It says, here’s your task, to get US forces out of out of Somalia, get 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?
DOD leadership was not going to take any of those steps without an order after he responded back to you on the same day.
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.
Well, I sketched on a piece of paper for him some key statements. The President has the power to direct. 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. Kash Patel delivers it to me.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Order to Leave Afghanistan (and the PPO’s Order to Take Down the Manifolds That Are) Supposed to Be Unreasonable
And I proceeded to tell the PPO and proceeded to tell Macgregor that If I ever saw anything like that, I would do something physical. Because I thought what that was then was a tremendous disservice to the nation. And by the way, that was a very contested issue. There were people who did not agree with getting out of Afghanistan.
I appreciate their concerns. That memo stated that an immediate departure would be catastrophic. It’s the same thing what President Biden went through. It would have been a debacle. [End videotape]
Keep in mind the order was for an 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 the Judges ruled in the Donald Trump Campaign and the Final State of the U.S. Supreme Court Case had to Do with Election Frauds and Maladministration
I remember a call with Mr. Meadows, where Mr. Meadows was asking me what I was finding and if I was finding anything. And I remember sharing with him that we weren’t finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states.
It would be our job to find the person who made the allegation and make sure it wasn’t true. And we’d have to, you know, relay the news that, yeah, that that — that tip that your — someone told you about those — those votes or that fraud or, you know, nothing came of it. That will be our job as — as, you know, the truth-telling squad and, you know, not a fun job to be — you know, it’s — it’s an easier job to be telling the President about, you know, wild allegations.
The topic of whether the fraud, maladministration, abuse or irregularity if aggregated and read most favorably to the campaign, would determine outcome determinative. The staff, including myself, and Greg Jacob, thought it wasn’t enough to be outcome determinant. The end of videotape.
The claims were not supported by any sufficient evidence of fraud or irregularities. In fact, they were baseless as judges repeatedly recognized. No case in these 62 existed in which the President was able to overturn the results of the election. In those hearings, we shared with you the words used by judges around the country in rejecting the Trump campaign’s claims.
It’s critical of the lack of evidence to back up election fraud claims in those lawsuits. A federal appeals court in Pennsylvania said charges need to contain 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.
A judge in Michigan thought the claims were just speculation that votes for President Trump could have been swapped for 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.
The lawsuit that Trump’s allies lost in the US Supreme Court was the last chance for them to win in the courts. A newly obtained Secret Service message shows how angry President Trump was about the outcome. POTUS is pissed. The Supreme Court denied his lawsuit.
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.
The case was rejected by the Supreme Court. We were at a Christmas reception at the White House. We walked back from the Christmas reception from the Rose Garden, after the President left the Oval Office.
The President was fired up about the Supreme Court decision. And so I was standing next to Mr. Meadows, but I had stepped back. So I was probably two or three feet catty-cornered, diagonal from him. The President was angry about how it was wrong, why we didn’t make more calls, and just about every other aspect of the decision.
On December 14th, the states certified their votes and sent them to Congress. In my opinion, that was the end of the matter. I didn’t see it coming and I thought that it would lead to a new administration.
I told him that my personal viewpoint was that the Electoral College had met, which is the system that our country is — is set under to elect a president and vice president, and I believed at that point that the means for him to pursue litigation was probably closed.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Mid-December a Turning Point in the Democratic Process: A Call to the President to Reconstruct the Voting Machines of the Dominion
Secretary of Labor Gene Scalia, the son of late Justice Scalia, visited President Trump in mid-December and explained the situation clearly. [Begin videotape]
I had made a call to the president. I might have called on Friday the 13th. I told the man that it was time for him to recognize that President Biden won the election, according to my recollection. When a legal process is over and a vote is taken, that’s when the president needs to expect that outcome.
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. The end of videotape.
I would like to thank the Chairman. Mid-December was a turning point. President Trump made a decision, a choice, to ignore the courts and his advisers and to push forward to overturn the election. The plans to overturn the election were part of a long-term plan to keep him in power.
I was disturbed by the allegations about the voting machines from the Dominion, as I saw absolutely zero basis for them. 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. With the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you could press a button for Trump and the vote goes to Biden. What type of system is this?
The Big Vote Dump in Detroit: An Example of How Donald Trump Healed, and What the Laws Tell Us About Elections And Voting Systems
We definitely talked about Antrim County again. That was done at that time because the hand recount had been done. We cited it again to say this is an example of what people are telling you and why the court filing is not backed 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 would tell him how crazy some of these allegations were, and how ridiculous they were. And I’m talking about some of the ones like, you know, more votes — more absentee votes were cast in Pennsylvania than there were absentee ballots request — you know, stuff like that was just easy to blow up. There was never an indication that anyone cared about what the actual facts were.
There were more votes than there were voters. Think of that. You had more votes than you had voters. That’s an easy one to figure, and it’s by the 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. And I said, Mr. President, there are 630 precincts in Detroit. They decided toCentralized the counting process so that they aren’t counted in each precinct.
With regard to Georgia, we looked at the tape. We interviewed the witnesses. There is no suitcase. The suitcase is said to have fraudulent ballots and the president kept suggesting that it was rolled out from under the table. And I said, no, sir, there is no suitcase. You can watch that video over and over.
There is no suitcase. They put the ballots in a wheeled bin and then move them around the facility. There’s no reason to be 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]
This happened over and over again, and our committee’s report will document it all, the lies made public directly at odds with what Donald Trump knew, as well as the investigations of his own campaign. Donald Trump repeated this nonsense to a lot of people.
His intent was to deceive. President Trump tried to change the election outcome in the states he lost. He reached out to many state officials and pressured them to change the results of the election. These actions, taken directly by the president himself, made it clear what his intentions were; to prevent the orderly transfer of power.
This call and other related activity is now the focus of an ongoing criminal investigation in Fulton County, Georgia. In other states, President Trump attempted to encourage state officials to change the results. He also attempted to press — pressure state officials in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Michigan to change the results in those states as well.
Now I want to do this. I wish to find 11,780 more votes because we won the state. Look, we need only 11,000 votes. We have more than that, as of now. We’ll have more and more. So, what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes.
I just want to get 11,780 votes. The president’s demand was extraordinary, because he already knew that the Justice Department wasn’t going to grant it. No one could think it would be legal for the secretary of state to simply find the votes the president needed in order to win.
Is President Trump Really Just Trying to Win reelection? The Fake Electors Plan to Imply the President’s Power to Make His Choice
That’s what it is. That is a criminal offense. And — and, you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s — that’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a big risk. Continue videotape.
We know from our investigation that President Trump offered Jeff Clark the position of acting attorney general and that Jeff Clark had decided to accept it. The only reason this ultimately did not happen is that the White House counsel and a number of Justice Department officials confronted the president in the Oval Office and threatened mass resignation.
It’s why the two men who were appointed by the president, Richard Donoghue and Jeff Segal, forcefully rejected Mr. Clark’s proposal. Start with a videotape.
It’s nothing less than the United States Justice Department getting involved in the outcome of a Presidential election if you’re suggesting something like that. This was not based on fact. This was actually contrary to the facts as developed by department investigations over the last several weeks and months.
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, please yield back.
When I received the call, I didn’t remember the exact date, but it was from the White House switchboard and it was President Trump who contacted me.
And then essentially, he turned the call over to Mr. Eastman who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors, in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result of any of the states. [End videotape]
The fake electors plan was tied to a campaign to force Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count certain electoral votes if Donald Trump were to win reelection. Here is what Vice President Pence has said about this scheme.
President Trump thinks that he has the right to overturn the election. I had no right to change the outcome of the election. The American people are the sole owners of the presidency. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American President.
In writing, Dr. Eastman confirmed this. Did you tell the President that the Vice President doesn’t have power to make his own decisions, as he was asked in the email on January 6? Dr. Eastman replied, he’s been so advised.
President Trump’s own White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, was aware of the plan that was illegal. Mr. Cipollone gave testimony. [Begin videotape]
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Secret Service tells us that the day of January 6 is coming to Washington armed, because the Capitol is armed and the most violent thing in the world
I apologize for being rude, but do you remember the part about her father calling the Vice President?
You will see more about Vice President Pence and his actions later, but he didn’t abandon himself even when his life was in danger by the rioters at the Capitol. The evidence suggested that the president’s campaign against the VP probably violated multiple criminal statutes.
On December 19th, President Trump first told his supporters to come to Washington. In this and numerous other tweets, he fraudulently and repeatedly promoted January 6 as the day Americans could come in and change the election outcome. For weeks, President Trump worked with others to plan a rally that would send angry supporters to the Capitol after he spoke on the Ellipse. We obtained a text message that one rally organizer sent on January 4th. It says that the president intends to have us march at the Capitol.
Days before January 6, the President’s senior advisers at the Department of Justice and FBI, for example, received an intelligence summary that included material indicating that certain people traveling to Washington were making plans to attack the Capitol. This summary includes calls to occupy federal buildings and a plan to arm themselves and engage in political violence at the event.
He was almost like a psychic during these calls. Norquist says the greatest threat is a direct assault on the Capitol. I will never forget it. [End videotape]
In this report received on December 26th, the Secret Service field office relayed a tip that had been received by the FBI. According to the source of the tip, the Proud Boys plan to march armed into DC. They think that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed, the source reported, and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped.
The intelligence reports said that supporters of President Trump proposed a movement to occupy Capitol Hill. They found spikes in the violent phrases “We are the Storm” and “Occupy Capitols”. On January 5th, a Secret Service open source unit flagged a social media account that threatened to bring a gun to a rally. The user posted a picture of a gun and a rifle with the caption “Sunday Gun Day Providing, January 6th Will be Wild”.
The FBI told the Secret Service that right-wing groups were preparing to deploy armed Quick Reaction Force on January 6th. Groups like the Oath Keepers were standing by at the ready should POTUS request assistance by invoking the Insurrection Act, agents were informed.
One agent emailed, possibly because they have stuff that couldn’t come through would probably be an issue with this crowd. Just a thought. The agents reported at least 25,000 people outside the rally site. The Secret Service reported that a crowd at the mall was not waiting 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 passed that information along to Tony Ornato who worked for Mark Meadows in the chief of staff’s office. The documents we obtained from the Secret Service make clear that the crowd outside the magnetometers was armed and the agents knew it. Look at what they see and hear on the ground.
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. Another from 9:30 a.m. said that there were possibly OC spray, meaning pepper spray, and/or plastic riot shields. There were two people reported by agents, one with a rifle and the other with a glock.
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.
In the middle of President Trump’s speech, the Federal Protective Service, an agency tasked with protecting federal buildings, was informed about the arrest of a protester with a gun. Weapons related arrests continued during the speech. At 12:13 PM, United States Park Police arrested a man with a rifle in front of the World War II Memorial. The agents speculated that the situation could get worse because of the number of weapons that had been seized.
If I had seen something like that, I probably would have flipped it to someone at the White — or if I had seen something of that nature, I would have said we gotta flag this for Secret Service or something of that nature.” This is the final videotape.
The same day as Miller sent his message, agents received reports of activity on another platform called Parler. This was December 30th. In this email, an agent received a report noting a lot of violent rhetoric on Parler directed at government people and entities, including Secret Service protectees.
On the evening of January 5th, President Trump gathered a few of his communications staffers in the Oval Office. The door was open, allowing the president and others assembled there to hear the sounds of the crowd gathered at Freedom Plaza, just a few blocks from the White House. President Trump could tell that his supporters were riled up. Judd Deere is the deputy White House press secretary.
Just that they were — they were fired up. They were angry. They feel like the election was rigged, and so he talked about it for a bit. [End videotape]
According to the evidence from prior hearings, this information was known to the president. But despite awareness of the potential for violence and weapons among the crowd, the Ellipse event nevertheless went forward, and Donald Trump instructed the angry crowd, some of whom were armed, to march to the Capitol.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Senator of the House of Representatives to the House Speaker’s Select Committee on Ellipse-Rallying in Washington, D.C., 2002
The gentleman has something in his hand. We’ll take a brief break in our meeting at this point. Pursuant to the order of the committee of today, the chair declares the committee in recess for a period of approximately 10 minutes. [In recess] The man was recognized by the chair for his opening statement.
Get to the Capitol. Keep your guns 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. The president had said something to the effect of, you know, I don’t care that they have weapons.
They’re not here to hurt me. Take the mags away from you. Let my people in. They can march to the capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the mags away. [End videotape]
We want to thank you and the police, for their assistance, I would love to have that many people. 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?
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Reply to the Jan 6th Committee on Hearing the President’s Improper Behavior in Mr. Engel’s U.S. Senate Vehicle
As that professional told us, they remember hearing in the days after January 6th how angry the president was when he was in the limo that afternoon. 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.
I will also note this. The testimony about potential obstruction is one of the things that is being reviewed by the committee. We will address this matter in our report.
We were all very shocked to be honest. Because 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. This would change from a normal democratic 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. The documents show that the president was going to be taken to the Capitol later that afternoon. Agents were instructed to don their protective gear and prepare for a movement.
The White House press secretary said that she had an exchange with the president as soon as he returned to the White House. [Begin videotape]
I recall him saying he wanted to walk and be a part of the march if he had to, but also that he would take the limo if he had to. The end of the videotape.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
The Secret Service Email and the President’s Inaction Against the Capitol Insurrection: Kevin McCarthy’s Conversation with Kevin [England]
The Select Committee has obtained new evidence from the Secret Service. The Secret Service must have been very frantic this hour as they tried to get the president to back down from his foolish decision that put a lot of people in danger.
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. leadership from the Secret Service warned Bobby Engel, the lead agent for the presidential detail, that they were concerned about an off the record movement to the Capitol.
Thousands of rioters were in the middle of a line on the west side of the Capitol within 10 minutes of the President’s statement. This was the first time in the history of the Metropolitan Police Department that a security line had ever been broken.
I can’t talk about conversations with the president, but I can tell you that people need to be told fast that they need to leave the Capitol.
Exactly 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 that didn’t want people to leave the Capitol when the violence started. I mean —
Oh, I’m sorry. I am. I apologize. I thought you said who on — who else on the staff. I can’t reveal communications, you know what I mean. [End videotape]
He had said something to the effect of, you know, you heard him, Pat. He doesn’t want to do anything more. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong. [End videotape]
A former White House employee with national security duties similarly recalled an exchange between Mr. Cipollone and Eric Herschmann about President Trump’s inaction against the mob assault underway at the Capitol. Mr. Herschmann said something to Mr. Cipollone. He seemed to relay that, you know, the president didn’t want anything done.
In the midst of this violent chaos. Kevin McCarthy implored Donald Trump to tell his supporters in the mob to leave the Capitol. And when that didn’t work, McCarthy called Trump’s adult children to try to get them to intercede with Trump to call off the insurrectionary violence. The description of McCarthy’s conversation with Trump in relation to the violence that broke out was shown during our previous hearings.
All of them made appeals to Donald Trump, which he rejected and he ignored. The people who were in the dining room with Donald Trump said to the Select Committee that he watched violent battles on television. He did not call his secretary of defense or the National Guard, the chief of the Capitol Police, or the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Was the president in that private dining room for the whole time the Capitol attack was happening, or went to the White House Situation Room, only to learn about it only from your knowledge?
Yeah. They didn’t say a thing when you were in the dining room. What do you recall? I think they were — everyone was watching the TV. He was talking to you on January 6th, do you know if he was watching TV in the dining room?
When you were in the dining room in these discussions, was that it — was the violence at the Capitol visible on the screen on the — in — on the television?
The key revelation was the never-before-seen footage showing Pelosi, Schumer and other legislative leaders scrambling to get more police and National Guard forces for Capitol Hill as they realized the threat of the rioters.
We’re starting to get surrounded. They’re taking the north front scaffolding. Unless we get more munitions, we are not going to be able to hold. The Capitol door has been broken and people are inside.
There has to be some way we can maintain the sense that people have that there is some security or some confidence that government can function and that we can elect the president of United States. Did we go back into session?
We did go back into session but now everyone on the floor is wearing masks to protect themselves from tear gas. I’m trying to get more information.
I can’t. We need a area for the House members. They’re all walking over now through the tunnel. Bring her out here. Hey, boys, we’re coming in if you don’t bring her out.
I’m going to call up the f’ing secretary of DOD. Some Senators are still in their hideaways. They need massive personnel now. Is it possible you can get the Maryland National Guard to come too?
I have something to say, Mr. Secretary. 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. This is Nancy. I don’t know if you’ve been approached about the Virginia National Guard. Mr. Hoyer was connect — speaking to Governor Hogan, but I still think you probably need the Ok of the federal government in order to come in to another jurisdiction. Thank you.
They said that a person 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. I would like to stay in touch if you don’t mind. Thank you. Thank you very much.
I just talked to the Governor, who said they sent 200 state police and a unit of the National Guard. They are breaking windows and going in, and runningsacking our offices. That’s nothing. We worry about personal harm.
Personal safety is — it just transcends everything. 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.
Mr. Attorney General, please tell the president to make a public statement and tell them to leave the Capitol.
The Capitol Building. Is it going to take days to get back to work? – A witness’s shocking account of how President Donald Trump supposedly got through to Kevin McCarthy
I don’t want the leadership that is responsible for executing the operation to know that I’m not speaking for them. Because they are meeting on the ground and they’re the experts Inaudible.
For a moment just pretend that it was the White House or the Pentagon that was under siege. Let me say you can logistically get people there as you make the plan. We’re trying to figure out how we can get this job done today. We talked to him about it. He’s not in the room right now, but he was with us earlier and said, you know, we want to expedite this and hopefully they could confine it to just one complaint, Arizona, and then we could vote and that would be — you know, then just move forward with the rest of the state.
The overriding wish is to do it at the Capitol. What we are being told very directly is it’s going to take days for the Capitol to be Ok again. We’ve received a bad report about the state of the House floor, as well as other things. I don’t think it is a difficult task to clean up, but I think it is more important that everyone is out of the building and how long that takes.
It may take days to get back, and it is possible that it could take more than one day to clean up the poo poo they are making all over the Capitol.
I’m at the Capitol building. I’m literally standing with the Chief of Police of — you know, the US Capitol Police. The Sergeant-at-Arms will inform you that they think the House and the Senate will be able to get back to work in roughly an hour.
It was obvious that only President Trump had the power to end this. He was the only one who could do things. Former aides publicly begged him to do so. Loyal allies went to call the administration. The president did not act quickly. He did not do his job. He didn’t take any action to see that the law was executed and order was restored.
Another witness, Mick Mulvaney, who was Trump’s former chief of staff, corroborates her shocking account. [Begin videotape]
You know, I asked Kevin McCarthy who’s the Republican leader about this and — and he said he called –he finally got through to Donald Trump He told you to get on TV. You’ve got to get on Twitter. You have to stop these people. You know what the President said to him? This is how it’s happening.
He said, well, Kevin, these aren’t my people. These are not ordinary objects, they are anti-fascists. Kevin said, “No, they’re your people.” They literally just came through my office windows, and my staff are running for cover. They’re running for their dear lives. You need to call them off. The response the President gave to Kevin was chilling.
He said that they’re more upset about the election than he is, so Kevin, I guess that’s why they’re upset. 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 — I had a conversation at some point in the day or week after the — the riot with Kevin McCarthy. Yeah. 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. And the President told him something along the lines of, Kevin, maybe these people are just more angry about this than you are, maybe more upset.
Investigating the alleged tweet of Wednesday’s attack on the vice president’s office by mob rioters, Anika Navaroli
The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have spoken out against the mob when he saw it. These facts require immediate action by President Trump. Accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest, and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.
But let me be very clear to all of you and I’ve been very clear to the President; he bears responsibilities for his words and actions, no ifs, ands or buts. I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me, he does have some responsibility for what happened and he need to acknowledge that.
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.
As the afternoon progressed, the company detected a surge in violent hashtags on the platform, including lines of lethal incitement like, execute Mike Pence. 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 it was fanned by many of Donald Trump’s tweets. It was people who were already constructing gallows who were willing to execute someone and looking 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.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Mike Pence messed with us. Why did President Trump resign on January 6, 2016? — The first time that President didn’t support Donald Trump
Mike Pence won’t support Donald Trump. Mike Pence traitor. If you haven’t heard, Mike Pence has messed us up. What happened? What happened? I hear that Mike Pence has messed with us. That’s the word I keep hearing reports that Mike Pence has screwed us. [End 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. In prior hearings, you’ve heard Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger and Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews explain why they felt compelled to resign on that day.
I was stunned by violence, and I was stunned by the President’s apparent indifference to the violence. And now is the time for the President to be 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. I mentioned in my statement that it was something that I couldn’t put aside. It was impossible for me to continue because of the events that happened at a certain point. I came as an immigrant to this country.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
A Day of Good Reason to Leave ”Everything’s Getting What We Are Trying To Say” [End Videotape]
The President’s message is being delivered by us. Everyone has been asked to leave by Donald Trump. That’s what we ordered. He says to leave and go home. [End videotape]
Remember this day forever, he wrote proudly, as if he were talking about D-Day or the Battle of Yorktown. Trump did nothing to stop the deadly violence for obvious reasons. He thought it was justified. He incited it and he supported it. Begin the videotape.
The whole game was given away because of these things. Trump told us that the Vice President, Congress, and all of the injured and wounded cops who are with us today got what was coming to us. According to Trump. January 6 should not be a day of shame or disgrace 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 it have been possible?
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Jan 6 Hearing of the First Hearing Committee on Insurrection and Repression: Officer Dunn, Deputy Sheriff, and Martha Hodges
Mr. Chairman, in numerous places, our Constitution strongly opposes insurrection and rebellion. Article I gives Congress the power to call forth the militia to suppress insurrections. Anyone who swears an oath to defend the Constitution but then engages in insurrection or rebellion is disqualified from holding federal and state office.
It was President Lincoln, at the start of the Civil War in 1861, who best explained why democracy rejects insurrection. His point was that insurrection is a war on the rights of the people. American democracy belongs to all the American people, not to a single man. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The gentleman yields back. The first hearing of the committee was in July last year and we heard from four police officers that helped repel the January 6th riots. We asked them what they hoped to see the committee accomplish over the course of our investigation. Officer Grinnell wanted to know why the rioters were made to believe that the election process was rigged.
We were asked to look into the actions and activities that happened during the day. 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 have worked hard for more than a year to get those answers. We’ve done more than a thousand interviews.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
Interaction of the President with the Committee on Investigating Corrupt Propaganda Practices in Washington, D.C. (Jan. 6)
There is precedent in American history for the testimony of a president. There’s also precedent for presidents to provide testimony and documentary evidence to Congressional investigators. A subpoena to a former president is a serious and extraordinary action.
That’s why we want to go in full view of the American people so that we can make an informed decision in regards to the subject matter at issue. I recognize the Vice Chair as Ms. Cheney of Wyoming.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, our committee now has sufficient information to answer many of the critical questions posed by Congress at the outset. There is enough information to consider criminal referrals for multiple individuals and to recommend a range of legislative proposals to protect against another January 6th.
We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player. More than 30 witnesses in our investigation have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and several of those did so specifically in response to questions about their dealings with Donald Trump directly. Here are a few examples.
This is General Michael Flynn walking with Oath Keepers on December 12, 2020, and here is General Flynn’s testimony before our 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. Later on this same day, Dr. Eastman acknowledged in writing that Donald Trump knew what he was attempting was illegal. John Eastman was speaking before the committee.
So is it your position that you can discuss in the media direct conversations you had with the President of the United States, but you will not discuss those same conversations with this committee.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125331584/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript
A resolution of the investigation of a high-profile political campaigner: Donald J. Trump is guilty of contempt of Congress and his prosecution of the same crime
Other witnesses have also gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with Donald Trump. A jury of his peers found him guilty of contempt of Congress. He is scheduled to be sentenced for this crime later this month. Criminal proceedings about Peter Navarro are still ongoing.
The resolution has been agreed to. There is a motion to reconsider on the table. The Chair requests that people remain in the hearing room until Capitol Police remove them from the room. The committee stood 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 and editor of 24 books, including the first historical assessment of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. Follow him on his verified social media accounts. His views are his own in this commentary. There is more opinion on CNN.
Dramatic Moments of January 6: The Case of Donald J. Bannon and the 2020 U.S. Presidential Campaign
During the past four months, a bipartisan panel has been holding pubic hearings to reveal the full context of what happened that day.
Unlike the Watergate scandal that cost Richard Nixon his Presidency in 1974, a large part of Trump’s campaign for the 2020 election happened in broad daylight.
Yet the committee managed to fill out the story in very important ways, providing shocking evidence and details as to how the events of those months were even more dangerous than we understood 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.
Trump knew that the protesters were dangerous and he did not do anything to stop them. Indeed, he wanted to go to Capitol Hill but was only stopped because a Secret Service agent wouldn’t allow him to do so. The former president even lunged at a Secret Service agent and tried to steer the wheel of the car when he was told he couldn’t go, according to former aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
Trump and his attorneys, such as Rudy Giuliani, probed to see if various state officials would do their bidding. In November of 2020, Trump and Giuliani called on the speaker of the Arizona House to have the legislature invalidate the results of the election in his state. John Eastman, the president’s lawyer wrote a road map for their attempted election steal, pressured Pence’s aides to reject the results.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/opinions/dramatic-moments-january-6-hearing-zelizer/index.html
The 2022 November Night of Lee Zeldin: The End of the Dark Days for the U.S. Senator from the Rotunda and the Committee to Overturn the 2020 Election
Continuum: January 6 was just one piece of a much larger story. Although the panel is called the January 6 committee, it would be more accurate to call it a committee to investigate the campaign to overturn the 2020 election. Understand the months in between November 2020 and January 2021, using this reframing.
We have learned that Trump was very familiar with 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. Even advisers, lawyers such as Barr and conservative media figures such as Sean Hannity who publicly supported him were privately urging 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. The final hearing will show that there is a danger to the electoral system and democratic institutions. This is not an ancient history; it is a continuing threat. There are many levels of that continued threat. The rhetoric of election denialism has taken hold among many of Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.
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 is the favorite for the GOP nomination in four years.
The dark days that followed the election were well explained 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.
Representative Lee Zeldin of New York walked into the Rotunda, held up a shaky camera and broadcasted himself live on Fox News.
The comments — blaming Democrats and “rogue state actors,” not Mr. Trump, for undermining confidence in the election — drew little attention at the time. Soon after, Mr. Zeldin would join 146 other Republicans in seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in key states.
“This isn’t just about the president of the United States,” he said, referring to what prompted the riot that he condemned. “This is about people on the left and their double standards.”
A new period of political turmoil has started because of Donald Trump and his movement posing new challenges to accountability and free elections.
Trump dropped his clearest hint yet Saturday of a new White House run at a moment when he’s on a new collision course with the Biden administration, the courts and facts.
Trump never really went away after losing reelection in 2020, but a dizzying catalog of confrontations is vaulting him back into the center of US politics. It is likely to cause further division in a nation that is already deeply divided. And Trump’s return to the spotlight probably means next month’s midterm elections and the early stages of the 2024 presidential race will be rocked by his characteristic chaos.
Even though the ex-president’s claims of political persecution have yet to be proven, a potential 2020 presidential campaign could create more upheaval than he has had in four years in office.
And while fierce differences are emerging between Democrats and Republicans over policy on the economy, abortion, foreign policy and crime in the 2022 midterms – while concerns about democracy often rank lower for voters – there is every chance the coming political period revolves mostly around the ex-President’s past and future.
In a separate probe, the department is investigating whether Trump broke the law by hoarding highly classified information at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Any prosecutions of the ex-President and those around him would set off an extraordinary political conflagration especially if Trump – already the GOP frontrunner for 2024 – is by then a declared candidate for president.
The gubernatorial hopeful of Trump is running amok: Sen. Stefanik confronts her opponent, Rep. Nancy Mace, on the issue of impeachment
One of the ex- President’s favorite candidates, the GOP gubernatorial hopeful from Arizona, is once again raising doubts about the election system. Lake fears that it will be not be completely fair.
One of the most powerful pro-Trump Republicans, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the party’s number three leader in the House, told the New York Post last week that impeachment of Biden was “on the table.” On “State of the Union” Sunday, Nancy Mace said she wasn’t in favor of impeachment proceedings after Trump was again impeached. She said she was against the process being “weaponized.” She said that Biden had committed an impeachable offense, when asked if that was the case.
An already pro-Trump Republican presence in Washington is likely to expand after the midterms. More than 100 candidates who support Trump are running on a platform of election fraud, raising doubts if they will accept the results if they lose their races.
The ex-president has not yet been charged in either probe and there is so far no indication that he will be. But the sense that Trump is approaching a moment of maximum legal peril is being driven both by signs of an increasingly aggressive investigation by special counsel Jack Smith and the realities of a calendar that offers limited time for any potential prosecutions before the 2024 campaign is in full swing. Next week, the January 6 committee’s final report will be made public, along with possible criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, threatening Trump’s hopes of winning a national election.
The Importance of Investigating an Ex-President Whose Phenomenology is Torsional: The Case of Joe Biden
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.
Before the voters head to the polls, inflation and gas prices are far more important concerns, which could spell trouble for the party in power in Washington.
At a rally in Texas on Saturday, the ex-president said he might have to go for another White House bid.
“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.”
He will not have his first debate with Joe Biden, and the food fight that became, as well. This is a serious set of issues.
The prospect of video testimony over an intense period of days or hours is likely to be unappealing to the former President because it would be harder for him to dictate the terms of the exchanges and control how his testimony might be used.
If there is evidence a crime was committed, Garland would face a dilemma over whether the national interest lay in implementing the law to its full extent or whether the consequences of prosecuting a former commander in chief in a fractious political atmosphere could tear the country apart.
A decision to prosecute an ex-president for a second term of office would outrage the public. If he is spared from accountability if there is evidence of a crime it would be a terrible signal to future presidents.
The former President and Republican leaders were aware of the fact that the Mar-a-Lago search warrant would lead to violence. The former President said he does “not believe the people will stand for it” and said that if the temperature is not brought down in the country, which he has only dialed up, “terrible things are going to happen.” Extremist members of Congress have called for the FBI, the principal law enforcement agency of the United States, to be defunded.
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.
In January 2021, hours before the tragic January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Trump declared to his followers on the National Mall, “[I]f you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” GOP Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama told Trump supporters that “[t]oday is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass” while telling the crowd that “our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes and sometimes their lives,” before asking, “Are you willing to do the same?” And no one will forget GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri pumping his fist in solidarity as rioters assembled at the Capitol demanding 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.
This rise in domestic terrorism comes at a particularly dangerous moment for the country: A recent survey found that half of the country believes “in the next few years, there will be civil war in the United States,” and more than one in 10 Americans expressed their own willingness to commit political violence “to threaten or intimidate” others.
Violence has become a problem in our public spaces. Mass shootings, hostage taking and other violent plots have led to a reduction in state capitols, grocery stores, schools and houses of worship. Just last week, the federal government released a bulletin warning that there is a heightened threat to next week’s midterm elections by a rise in violent domestic extremism.
13 million Americans think force is justified to get Trump back to the White House, and 15 million support using force to prevent the former president from being indicted, according to experts at the University of Chicago. These startling numbers again underline that our safety and security – as well as the rule of law – are under attack.
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. According to the wide breadth of public reporting, the Department of Justice followed the law and all normal procedures after attempting to obtain the classified documents voluntarily. 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.
What has transpired has been predictable from the beginning. Twitter posts about “civil war” rose nearly 3,000% in a matter of hours after the search. Federal law enforcement had an increase in threats. A week later, an armed man attempted to breach an FBI office in Ohio before engaging in an hours-long standoff with police. The man was shot and killed by police after he pointed a gun at them.
Members of Congress have also been targeted, with one Democratic Congressman reporting that a caller to his office threatened to use a firearm to assassinate him. I have also received threats. Nancy Pelosi was the target of a right-wing conspiracy attempt last week when an armed man broke into her home.
Echoing the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the intruder shouted, “Where is Nancy?” before bludgeoning her 82-year-old husband Paul Pelosi with a hammer, sending him to the hospital with a fractured skull. Of course, rhetoric directed at the Speaker has been violent in nature for years – and pushed by members of Congress.
Multiple federal and state investigations are ongoing regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, his handling of sensitive government documents and his family business.
Trump and his company deny any wrongdoing or criminality in all matters, state and federal, and have aggressively maintained innocence. In two lawsuits brought by his niece and his former attorney, Donald Trump has won dismissals.
Mar-a-Lago documents: Did Trump mishandle classified material? The Justice Department is investigating whether documents from the White House were mishandled when they were brought to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. A federal grand jury in Washington has been empaneled and has interviewed potential witnesses to how Trump handled the documents. The National Archives has said that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, including some classified records.
Insights from Jack Smith after the January 6 attack: Insurrection, Warfare, and Democracy in the Post-Trump Era
But each sign that once slow burning efforts to work through the trauma of the post-election period are heating up brings a parallel warning that the future threat to truth and democracy remains acute. A Georgia Rep. who is expected to try to shut down or block investigations into Donald Trump is involved in another controversy over the insurrection.
The Georgia Republican said that if she had her way, the mob that smashed into the Capitol would have been armed. The White House objected to her comments, but she insisted she was joking. A week after the ex-president demanded the end of the Constitution in a sign of how his potential second term might unfold if he is re-elected, this happened.
CNN reported Sunday that Smith is speeding up investigations into the role that Trump played in disrupting the transfer of power in 2020 and his apparent lack of storage of classified documents at his Florida residence. It emerged Monday that Smith’s team subpoenaed Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was on the other end of the then-president’s phone call designed to convince him to “find” sufficient votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the Peach State in 2020. Smith has also issued a flurry of grand jury subpoenas since Thanksgiving, including to ex-Trump adviser Stephen Miller and two former White legal counsels.
“It’s been over 700 days since the Washington Post published the full hour audio … of that highly incriminating phone call – 700 days for the DOJ to finally get around to subpoena him. When does it happen? Under Jack Smith.”
Goodman also suggested that Trump’s legal team was guilty of wishful thinking if they believed that Smith’s appointment after a period spent abroad meant he was less likely to be influenced by the politicized aftermath of the January 6 attack and that a fresh mind would lean against indictments.
According to Bharara, the appointment and assembling of high-powered team of experienced prosecutors was bad news for Trump.
“I don’t think they would’ve left their former positions, both in government and private practice, unless there was a serious possibility that the Justice Department was on a path to charge. And I think it’ll happen in a month,” he said.
Attorney General Garland said that no one is above the law and that investigations will always lead to the best evidence. The legal process takes a long time to prepare and conduct trials. It’s so politically explosive that it’s best for the prosecution of a former president and a current president to take place before the White House race is over.
“We’re now coming up against a timeframe in which it is a challenge to finish either case, if it is brought, to finish it before the election,” said CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers on “Newsroom” on Monday.
“So, I think they will bring a case on the documents side, if they can, as soon as they can,” Rodgers said, adding that any case on January 6 would probably take more time.
While Smith is following legal procedures, the political context makes it even more important for the DOJ to demonstrate to Americans that they had no choice but to search the house of an ex-president.
The final report of the House January 6 committee is expected to paint a much harsher picture of the former president in the run up to next year, when the incoming Republican majority will likely wipe it off the record.
Yet the committee is not in control of the ultimate fate of its work. While referrals of Trump and allies would be a huge moment, the panel cannot compel the Justice Department to open a prosecution of a former president whose 2024 campaign guarantees the divisions sparked by January 6 will fester in another US election.
One consideration to bear in mind is that the committee’s highly choreographed televised hearings did not include any cross examination of witnesses, so it’s hard to tell how some of the most incriminating testimony about Trump’s behavior would hold up under the far higher evidentiary standard required in a court of law. Still, the report – and transcripts of its depositions expected to be sent to the DOJ – could be useful in fleshing out any criminal case by the special counsel, and in preparing the public for the possibility of any move by Smith to charge Trump.
It is possible that the turn of the year and the early months of 2023 will be a turning point for both Trump and those investigating him.
The January 6 move by the committee to formally ask the Department of Justice to prosecute former President Donald Trump over his part in the US Capitol insurrection will make history, even if charges are never brought.
A Capitol Police officer told how she had slipped on spilled blood during the melee caused when the ex-president’s mob smashed its way into the Capitol. A mother and daughter who worked as election workers in Georgia were the subject of racist threats after Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, accused them of vote stealing. The outgoing speaker of the Arizona state House testified that Trump’s calls to meddle in the election were not something he had ever heard of.
It was the Republicans who testified bravest about Trump’s assault on the Constitution, and many of them were with him in the West Wing. It was unpatriotic, according to the ex-aide to the White House chief of staff. It was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”
There is a person who tried to pressure state officials to find votes that didn’t exist. On CNN, Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence committee, said that someone tried to interfere with a joint session by inciting a mob to attack the Capitol. If that is not a crime, then I don’t know what it is.
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 hounded by any referrals nearly two years after he left office help rally Republicans to his misfiring 2024 campaign?
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?
Rep. Adam Kinzinger: Is he kidding? The congressional committee on January 6 reporting the Washington, D.C. Watergate hearings revisited
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who, like Cheney, served on the committee in defiance of his party and will not be returning to Congress, explained his actions in seeking to hold Trump to account in his retirement speech on the House floor last week.
The committee held public hearings in July and Cheney told them that every American had to think about it. “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?”
Many Republicans refuse to acknowledge the ex president’s conduct, which suggests that her sacrifice may be in vain. The Senate Watergate hearings in the 1970s helped lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, but there was not a sense that the public was as focused on accountability as it was. Today’s polarized times and the power of conservative media to distort what really happened on January 6 may help explain this dichotomy.
Despite the fact that many of Trump’s candidates were rejected by voters in swing state races due to their false claims of electoral fraud, it is possible that Americans want to protect their democracy.
It is impossible to quantify how the committee’s work affected voters in November. Even as Trump was launching a new campaign that was viewed as a way to get the probes into his conduct as politically motivated persecution, it continued to show evidence of his revolt 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.
The committee has done a massive investigation. The former prosecutor told Brown that there was huge amount of evidence and witnesses being identified.
The report and the detail that accompanies the referrals will give a plan to the Department of Justice. DOJ has been kind of late to this party and they are playing catch-up but that detail could be very helpful to them and will put a lot of pressure on them as well.”
If nothing else, future generations will be able to judge the determination of the panel members and the courage of the witnesses who testified.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/politics/jan-6-committee-investigation-final-session/index.html
A warning on the authoritarianism of the 2016 Illinois r-deputation conference: The legacy of the lie is yet another lie
Illinois Republican stated that democracy is being challenged by authoritarianism in a world where a lie isTrump’s truth.
I fear that the experiment will fall into the ash heap of history if we don’t search within ourselves for a way out.