This afternoon’s episode will look at how Trump pressured the Justice Department to help him overturn the election. This is the episode that was postponed from an earlier date, it says here.
Luke Broadwater reports for the New York Times:
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol plans to unveil new evidence on Thursday about how President Donald J. Trump tried to manipulate the Justice Department to help him cling to power after he lost the 2020 election, aides said on Wednesday.
At its fifth public hearing this month, scheduled for 3 p.m. on Thursday, the panel plans to hear testimony from three former top Justice Department officials who are expected to lay out the ways in which Mr. Trump tried to misuse the attorney general’s office to overturn his defeat, an extraordinary instance of a president interfering with the nation’s law enforcement apparatus for his own personal ends.
Do pass the popcorn. I understand the remaining episodes are postponed until July, because the committee has been swamped with tons of new evidence they need to review.
Also, too, in a big reversal from his previous position, Mo Brooks wants to testify. Publicly. Chair Bennie Thompson says a subpoena is in the works.
In related news, since Tuesday’s hearing the Justice Department is showing more interest in the fake electors scheme.
Federal agents investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday dropped subpoenas on people in multiple locations, widening the probe of how political activists supporting President Donald Trump tried to use invalid electors to thwart Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Agents conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity Wednesday morning at different locations, FBI officials confirmed to The Washington Post. One was the home of Brad Carver, a Georgia lawyer who allegedly signed a document claiming to be a Trump elector. The other was the Virginia home of Thomas Lane, who worked on the Trump campaign’s efforts in Arizona and New Mexico. The FBI officials did not identify the people associated with those addresses, but public records list each of the locations as the home addresses of the men.
Among those who received a subpoena Wednesday was David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, who served as a Trump elector in that state, people familiar with the investigation said. Shafer’s lawyer declined to comment.
Separately, at least some of the would-be Trump electors in Michigan received subpoenas, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. But it was not immediately clear whether that activity was related to a federal probe or a state-level criminal inquiry.
See also the next post, Oh, Bleep, SCOTUS sides with the NRA. This is seriously bad news.
The January 6 'Rally' (where tRump, Brooks, et. al. gave speeches to incite the masses who gathered to worship his holy orange-ness) always reminded me of old Western movies where the town leader and/or town bully incited the assembled citizens to go remove the killer waiting trial from the jail and give him 'justice'.
Brooks could be an interesting witness. He is stupid enough to testify truthfully and proudly to all he has been a part of.
To build on the concept of mob justice that you are describing I noticed the same dynamic during the siege of the Capitol where one of the Proud Boys with a bullhorn was leading the mob in a chant to surrender Mike Pense to the mob. He was calling out through his bullhorn, Bring out Mike Pence. We want Pense, he is a traitor. Bring him out!
What struck me about that was that I had once read an account of a lynching that occurred in Tennessee at the turn of the 20th century. In that account the dialog was almost verbatim to the callout of the Proud Boys. The dialog in the account I'm referring to went like this, Bring out the nigger, Sheriff. We want the nigger. Bring him out! Unfortunately for that poor black man the Sheriff acquiesced to the call for mob justice.
From NPR online:
In Alabama, the key runoff was for U.S. Senate, where Katie Britt topped Rep. Mo Brooks in the Republican race. Former President Donald Drumpf endorsed Britt in the runoff, after he rescinded his endorsement of Brooks in March.
Maha wrote: Also, too, in a big reversal from his previous position, Mo Brooks wants to testify. Publicly.
I wonder if there could be any connection?
In these hearings, we've seen government people who are ethical and honest, and who stick to the rules.
These are the kind of folks that came to our imagination when we were learning about our government – in Civics classes, which are no longer taught in junior or senior high schools. Sad… And with terrible, tragic, consequences.
If tRUMP wins the presidency in 2024, we won't see any people like these in important government positions.
Instead, tRUMP will populate our government with yes-men, idiots, fools, charlatans, fellow grifters, schooks, crooks, thieves, and all sorts of other undesirable riff-raff, flotsam and jetsam.
He cannot be allowed to win.
Do your part in making sure tRUMP can't win by hook and by crook in 2024: Make sure you vote THIS November!
One of the things that surprised me was the fact that Matt Gaetz was seeking a presidential pardon for his role in subverting our democracy through a conspiracy to defraud the United States. I assumed he was seeking a pardon for his violation of the Mann Act. I Knew it wasn't for the child molestation accusations lodged against Gaetz because that is a state juristictional issue and he'd have to ask Ron Desantis for a pardon.
Some of the charges against Gaetz could be federal – transporting a minor across state lines for sex is a biggie. Gaetz was asking for a blanket pardon for everything way before J6, Governor Voldermort knows that if all federal charges were blocked with a pardon for Gaetz, then DeSantis has Gaetz by the orbs.
Trump blamed everyone else for J6 failing so he gave pardons to no one who had been part of that scheme. (My opinion.)
Glad to hear opinions here, but J6 has caused a bunch of folks to move away from Trump. (Dr. Oz is changing his website to delete references to Trump's endorsement.) IMO, if J6 does cut into Trump, then (assuming Trump doesn't decide to fade into retirement) Trump has to assert himself early in a presidential bid. He can't enter late if he's seriously weakened and DeSantis has established himself as the frontrunner. BUT, in 2023, if more and more Republicans demand to look forward rather than base their campaign on Trump's Big Lie, I think Trump will threaten to form his own party and split the GOP down the middle. I think Trump's ego is that huge. If Trump can't dominate the GOP and own everyone in the Republican party when Trump runs, he'll bring down the entire GOP.
Of all the hearings so far, this was the most dramatic. (To me.) Two A/Gs (Barr nd Rosen) described the lane they felt DOJ could legitimately occupy, relative to the presidential election. They were almost out of that lane in investigating the accusations but Barr and Rosen desired a peaceful transfer of power.
(IMO, Barr wasn't interested in breaking the law for Trump. I think Barr saw that an attempted coup by someone as stupid as Trump would turn out badly for everyone involved. So Barr decided not to be involved when he could see what was developing.)
Rosen and the others don't strike me as the toad that Barr is. Up until Trump decided to replace Rosen with Clark, the DOJ leadership seemed to be trying to talk Trump down from what he was attempting to do through DOj. (I am not clear if DOJ was aware of the slates of electors scheme that Trump and Rudy were advancing – and the role they wanted Pence to play.)
The quote that made the hearing was the prediction that Clark – if Trump installed Clark as acting A/G – would be administering a graveyard because all the senior leadership at DOJ had already committed to quit if Clark was in the top spot. Pat Ciplionne (White House Cousel) also promised to resign if Trump followed through.
The mutiny was arranged on a very crowded timetable after Clark was offered the job, and before Trump made it official. The meeting in the Oval Office was arranged in such haste that Rosen's right-hand guy was there in jeans and muddy boots – in the Oval Office.
They pounded coffin nails in the hearing by naming who and providing testimony – who had and hadn't requested pardons after the coup failed.
Well, it's finally happened.
Down goes Roe.
What a sad and tragic day for America.
Now, we take rights away, instead of creating new rights for people.
This is what happens when religious ideologues are put in positions that can affect the lives of millions of non-believers and people of other religions.
Fuck the SCOTUS!
But even more so, fuck religion.
People need to free themselves from idiotic Bronze Age superstitions and beliefs.