Page 47 of 67 FirstFirst ... 37394041424344454647484950515253545557 ... LastLast
Results 1,151 to 1,175 of 1664
  1. #1151
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590
    ^It is and good to know some are coming around. These hearings have been helpful.

    ___________




    The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone following public pleas for him to testify before the panel.

    “The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed evidence that Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on Jan. 6 and in the days that preceded,” Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney said in a statement.

    “While the Select Committee appreciates Mr. Cipollone’s earlier informal engagement with our investigation, the committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations.”

    “Any concerns Mr. Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony,” they added.

    The subpoena follows testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, that Cipollone raised legal concerns over former President Trump’s plans to march to the Capitol and that he repeatedly insisted the White House do more as the violent attack was unfolding on Jan. 6.

    Cipollone met with the committee’s investigators in April but did not sit for a formal recorded deposition.

    Cipollone would be the second former White House official to testify publicly and is also uniquely positioned to weigh in on the former president’s state of mind and his personal awareness of various schemes to keep him in power.

    It’s a detail the panel notes in its subpoena, which references plots to send fake election certificates to Congress and to replace Justice Department leadership in favor of a DOJ attorney willing to forward an investigation into Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.


    Cipollone was among those present in a Jan. 3 meeting in which he and others talked Trump off the idea. His office also pushed back against the false elector scheme as being not legally sound, Hutchinson indicated in a previously released deposition.

    “The select committee has continued to obtain evidence about which you are uniquely positioned to testify; unfortunately, however, you have declined to cooperate further,” the panel stated in its subpoena.

    “We are left with no choice but to issues you this subpoena.”

    Cipollone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Cheney reasserted her public call for his testimony under oath as recently as Wednesday morning with a tweet, which followed a plea at a hearing last week for the White House lawyer to appear.

    Still, the committee may have little recourse if he refuses to comply.

    Other Trump aides like Meadows sued the committee, citing executive privilege. While the committee and the House voted to hold him in contempt, the Justice Department has indicated it does not plan to act on the recommendation.

    Hutchinson indicated in a quickly-scheduled hearing on Tuesday that Cipollone had major concern about Trump’s plans to march alongside his supporters to the Capitol on Jan 6.

    He relayed it could appear Trump was trying to incite a riot, obstruct justice or defraud the electoral count.

    “Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy,” Hutchinson said, relaying Cipollone’s message to her that morning. “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.”

    Cipollone also burst into Meadows’s office shortly after rioters entered the Capitol, determined to get some kind of response from Trump.

    “Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your effing hands,” Cipollone responded, according to Hutchinson’s testimony.

    _______

    Pat Cipollone related....25th Amendment fears helped persuade Trump to make Jan. 7 speech, aide says





    __________


    • "Mr. [Pat] Cipollone said something to the effect of, 'please make sure that we don't go up to the Capitol, Cassidy, keep in touch with me,'" Hutchinson told the January 6 Select Committee of a conversation she had with Cipollone on January 6. "We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen."


    Hutchinson testified earlier to the committee that Cipollone, who was then the White House counsel, was concerned that Trump could be charged with obstructing justice or the Electoral College count if Trump went to the Capitol on January 6.

    "He was also worried that it would look like we were inciting a riot or encouraging a riot to happen up at the Capitol," Hutchinson told the panel during one of four videotaped depositions she previously conducted with the panel.
    Last edited by S Landreth; 30-06-2022 at 09:15 AM.
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  2. #1152
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590


    John Eastman, an architect of Donald Trump’s last-ditch bid to subvert the 2020 election, has dropped a lawsuit aimed at blocking the Jan. 6 select committee from obtaining his phone records.

    In a late Tuesday filing, Eastman voluntarily dismissed the suit, claiming that he’d been assured the committee was only seeking his call logs — not the content of any messages held by his carrier, Verizon. The select committee has long contended that it lacks the authority to obtain message content.

    Eastman’s move comes, however, as the legal threats he’s facing have begun to mount. Last week, FBI agents seized Eastman’s phone as part of a Justice Department inspector general investigation related to the 2020 election. Earlier this month, a federal judge forced Eastman to turn over hundreds of Trump-related emails to the Jan. 6 select committee, rejecting many of his claims of attorney-client privilege. That judge, David Carter, had already determined that Eastman and Trump “likely” entered into a criminal conspiracy to obstruct Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Carter’s ruling — which characterized Eastman’s and Trump’s efforts as “a coup in search of a legal theory” — has been a centerpiece of the Jan. 6 select committee’s public hearings. The panel has described Eastman as a key driver of Trump’s fringe effort to overturn the 2020 election when Congress convened on Jan. 6 to count electoral votes.

    Eastman, working with other attorneys, developed a strategy to lean on then-Vice President Mike Pence to single-handedly reverse the election that day, as he presided over the counting ceremony. The select committee showed evidence suggesting White House lawyers, Pence and campaign officials raised grave legal doubts about Eastman’s plan.

    Eastman filed a motion in federal court last week to force the FBI to return his phone. His case has been assigned to Judge Robert Brack, a George W. Bush appointee who took senior status in 2018.

    The select committee has issued dozens of subpoenas to phone companies like Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T for witnesses’ phone logs. More than a dozen witnesses have sued to block the committee from obtaining those records, and many of those suits are still pending.

    ___________

    Meanwhile........


    • Liz Cheney receives standing ovation at Reagan Library



  3. #1153
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Last Online
    Today @ 05:29 AM
    Location
    Roiet
    Posts
    34,869
    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    Liz Cheney receives standing ovation at Reagan Library
    Are we looking at the 1st female President of the US of A here?

  4. #1154
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,541
    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    Are we looking at the 1st female President of the US of A here?
    Well it ain't gonna be Kamala.

    Right-wing domestic terrorists-290183061_10160659428097518_7018586763899469399_n-jpg

  5. #1155
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    47,989
    ^ Made me laugh.

  6. #1156
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590
    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    Are we looking at the 1st female President of the US of A here?
    As of today, she has yet to make the list of batshit crazy candidates.

  7. #1157
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Last Online
    Today @ 05:29 AM
    Location
    Roiet
    Posts
    34,869
    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    As of today, she has yet to make the list of batshit crazy candidates.
    Nov 2024 is an eternity in politics. By then she might be the front runner. As it always is, the economy is no 1 issue so unless Joe get's devine intervention we can kiss his ass goodbye.

  8. #1158
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    Are we looking at the 1st female President of the US of A here?
    If she were on the Dem ticket, maybe. She's part of the 'fucked-in-the-head' party, so - No.


    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    As it always is, the economy is no 1 issue
    Yet is hasn't been and it won't be. How was Trump running on anything even remotely economy-based? He wasn't, it was - and is - personality politics. Obama? Personality.

    Sorry, but the US population is as fucked up as the Filipinos. I can even see it in my friends/acquaintances in the US, from both sides - though I don't have many on the right, to be honest.

    Social issues and personality . . .

  9. #1159
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,410
    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    If she were on the Dem ticket, maybe.
    No way that would ever happen. She is still a Republican and still very conservative. She is Dick Cheney's daughter, FFS.

  10. #1160
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Last Online
    Today @ 05:29 AM
    Location
    Roiet
    Posts
    34,869
    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Yet is hasn't been and it won't be.
    Just one of many polls.

    What is the most important issue that will determine your vote in this year’s elections for Senate, Congress, and other offices? Women Men
    Rising prices 32% 31%
    Health care and prescription drugs 13% 8%
    Taxes 9% 14%
    Abortion 9% 3%
    Ukraine and Russia 8% 11%

    New All In Together Polling Finds the Economy is the Number One Issue for 2022 - All In Together

    Excuse the formatting above but ok at link.

    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Social issues and personality . . .
    You bet to be successful you must address these issues but to win you better appeal to middle and monied America.

    "It’s the economy, stupid." as said by James Carville back in 1992.
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,"

  11. #1161
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,541
    Just imagine if you had 70 million trumpanzees voting for Marjorie Jewish Space Lasers...

  12. #1162
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Last Online
    Today @ 05:33 AM
    Posts
    1,523
    Gavin Newsom going after Ron DeSantis, in his own backyard.



    Newsom v DeSantis 2024?

  13. #1163
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590


    Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Sunday that there is a possibility the Jan. 6 committee may make multiple criminal referrals.

    The big picture: The committee's sixth and latest public hearing provided the most damning evidence to date of former President Donald Trump's role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

    Driving the news: While the Justice Department will ultimately decide whether or not to prosecute the former president, Cheney told ABC's "This Week" that the committee could make a criminal referral — or multiple criminal referrals.


    • Cheney, who serves as the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, also noted that the Justice Department does not have to wait for the committee to make a criminal referral to take action.
    • Schiff, a fellow Jan. 6 committee member, told CBS's "Face the Nation" that he agrees that there could be multiple criminal referrals.


    What they're saying: "I think there's evidence the former president engaged in multiple violations of the law and that should be investigated," Schiff said.


    • "For four years the Justice Department took the position that you can't indict a sitting president," he added. "If the department were now to take the position that you can't investigate or indict a former president, then a president becomes above the law. That's a very dangerous idea that the Founders would have never subscribed to."
    • "What kind of man knows that a mob is armed and sends the mob to attack the Capitol and further incites that mob when his own vice president is under threat, when the Congress is under threat?" Cheney said.


    More details: While both said they understood the political optics of criminal referrals against a former president, Cheney and Schiff said it was more important to hold people accountable for the Jan. 6 riot.


    • "I have greater concern about what it would mean if people weren't held accountable for what's happened here," Cheney said. "I think it's a much graver constitutional threat if a president can engage in these kinds of activities and the majority of the president's party looks away or we as a country decide, you know, we're not actually going to take our constitutional obligation seriously."
    • "It's certainly not a step to be taken lightly at all," Schiff said of criminal referrals. "At the same time, immunizing a former president who has engaged in wrongdoing, I would agree with our vice chair I think is more dangerous than anything else."
    • He added: "The decision not to move forward with an investigation or not to move forward with the prosecution because of someone's political status or political influence or because they have a following, to me, that is a far more dangerous thing to our Constitution than following the evidence wherever it leads, including when it leads to a former president."


    _____________

    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    Nov 2024 is an eternity in politics. By then she might be the front runner.
    I think her chances of winning the nomination are slim to none. She not batshit crazy enough to compete with the three front-runners.

    • Liz Cheney: "I haven't made a decision" about 2024 presidential run


    Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) acknowledged the possibility of a presidential run in 2024 in an interview with ABC News on Sunday, but said she hasn't "made a decision about that yet."

    Why it matters: If she chooses to run, Cheney would join a 2024 Republican field rapidly shaping up, dominated by former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence.




    What they're saying: "I'll make a decision about ’24 down the road," Cheney said.


    • "I think about it less in terms of a decision about running for office, and more in terms of, you know, as an American – and as somebody who's in a position of public trust now, how do I make sure that I'm doing everything I can to do the right thing; to do what I know is right for the country, and, and to protect our Constitution," she added.


    The big picture: For the time being, Cheney said she remains focused on winning her upcoming Wyoming primary and her work on the Jan. 6 committee.


    • "The single most important thing is protecting the nation from Donald Trump. And I think that that matters to us as Americans more than anything else, and that's why my work on the committee is so important," she said.
    • Cheney argued that the Republican party "can't survive" if Trump is the Republican nominee in 2024.
    • "Those of us who believe in Republican principles and ideals have a responsibility to try to lead the party back to what it can be, and to reject...so much of the toxin and the vitriol."

  14. #1164
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    47,989
    Jan. 6 inquiry thrusts Secret Service back into center of controversy



    WASHINGTON - A drumbeat of revelations from the House Jan. 6 committee has revealed two dueling identities of the Secret Service under former president Donald Trump - gutsy heroes who blocked the president from a dangerous plan to accompany rioters at the Capitol and political yes-men who were willing to enable his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.


    The new depiction of the Secret Service - which has endured a decade of controversy from a prostitution scandal and White House security missteps during the Obama years to allegations of politicization under Trump - has cast new doubt on the independence and credibility of the legendary presidential protective agency.


    On one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Trump unsuccessfully cajoled his agents to drive him to Capitol Hill, where he would have joined a mob of his supporters descending violently on the grand symbol of democracy. Some 45 minutes later on the other end, former vice president Mike Pence refused a request of his security detail to get into an armored car - concerned, according to testimony, that his protectors would take him away from the Capitol and prevent him from carrying out his duty to oversee the final count of electoral college votes.


    Earlier that day, according to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump had complained that the Secret Service's "mags," used to screen people for weapons, were preventing armed supporters from entering his "Stop the Steal" rally on the Ellipse.


    "Here you have the Service thrown into a day that was crazy Banana Republic stuff," said Bill Gage, a former counterassault agent in the Secret Service who protected presidents George W. Bush and Obama. "My God. What would have happened if the agents had let Trump go to the Capitol?"


    At the center of the current storm is one key agent - Tony Ornato - who held a highly unusual role in Trump's orbit. The onetime head of the president's security detail temporarily left his Secret Service job to work as deputy White House chief of staff. The political assignment was unprecedented in the Secret Service, as Ornato effectively crossed over from civil servant to become a key part of Trump's effort to get reelected.


    Through an agency spokesperson, Ornato has denied Hutchinson's blockbuster claims given under oath Tuesday that he told her that Trump had lunged at the steering wheel of the Secret Service vehicle carrying the president away from his Jan. 6 rally and that he had reached toward the head of his detail, Robert Engel, in a fit of rage over not being taken to the Capitol.


    Ornato and Engel were previously questioned by the committee about that day, and both had confirmed that Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol and was furious about being told they would not do so, according to people familiar with their testimony. Neither had been asked about Trump's alleged physical altercation in the car, according to two people briefed on their testimony.


    But the aftershocks of Hutchinson's appearance have continued.

    Lawmakers on the committee said Ornato had said in his initial testimony that he was unable to recall other actions and statements by Trump on Jan. 6 that other witnesses had described in great detail. Both have told their superiors they would be willing to deliver sworn testimony to the committee, and people with knowledge of the committee's deliberations said they expect the agents to be called soon.


    As Ornato and Engel watched Hutchinson's testimony Tuesday, they immediately disputed to agency officials that Trump had lunged at the steering wheel and Engel, and Ornato insisted he had not told Hutchinson this, according to two law enforcement officials. The Secret Service prepared a line-by-line public statement that afternoon to counter specific points, the officials said, and also note that the committee never asked Ornato and Engel about this allegation.


    But on Tuesday evening, officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Secret Service, instructed the Service not to issue a public statement and to instead offer the agents as witnesses to give testimony under oath, according to three people familiar with the decision.


    DHS officials did not respond Friday to a request for comment.


    Ornato and Engel did not respond to requests for comment. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said agents performed their job on a day under unprecedented challenges, and yet none of the nation's leaders were harmed.


    "The sworn and professional men and women of the Secret Service execute our mission in an exceptional manner with the highest levels of distinction," Guglielmi said. "This was no exception on Jan. 6, 2021."


    Former Secret Service agents and national security officials emphasized the even more horrible events that could have unfolded on Jan. 6 if either Pence's or Trump's detail leaders had made different choices. They described the unimaginable scenario in which the president and vice president set out on a violent collision course at the Capitol, two leaders with opposing goals meeting up, accompanied by their dueling security guards and Trump's chaotic army of protesters. Trump, after all, had been pressuring Pence to refuse to go along with the final count of electors, and some rioters were chanting, "Hang Mike Pence!"


    Agents who had sworn to protect the president's and vice president's lives with their own made choices on the fly that day - refusing a direct order from Trump and acceding to the vice president's wishes. Together, the agents' game-day decisions helped keep democracy on the rails, several former agents said.


    "Bobby Engel did the right thing and says, `No sir, this is a dangerous situation, we're not taking you to the Capitol'," said Jim Helminski, a retired Secret Service official and former head of Biden's security detail when he was vice president. "If they had [taken him], there would have undoubtedly been a potentially dangerous confrontation between the vice president and the president."


    "If the president finds Pence and they get into an argument - it really is scary," Helminski added. "Does the vice president's detail now protect the vice president from the presidential detail?"


    People briefed on the two detail leaders' accounts of Jan. 6 to the congressional committee said both Trump's and Pence's detail leaders were making decisions in a myopic vacuum: They were solely focused on the immediate security risks to the national leader they were charged with protecting, and yet their choices aided a peaceful transfer of power.


    "Our history would be so changed if things had happened differently," Gage said. "What if Engel said, `We can make this happen for you Mr. President?'"


    Yet the Secret Service's claim of being politically independent - illustrated by the familiar agents' maxim "the people elect 'em, we protect 'em" - was tested by Trump's tenure in the White House.


    Trump had relied on Ornato to carry out plans that many agents complained put them, the public and the president in danger, according to interviews with more than a dozen Secret Service employees and administration officials and internal records. That included using the Secret Service staff to travel to massive campaign rallies as deadly coronavirus cases surged in the summer of 2020, and to forcibly clear peaceful crowds from Lafayette Square in June 2020 so Trump could appear tough on Black Lives Matter protesters for a photo op.


    On Jan. 6, Trump's ability to make Secret Service leadership bend to his will had created significant doubt for several Trump administration officials about the motives of senior Secret Service agents, according to committee testimony and Washington Post interviews with officials.


    With an hour-long speech on the Ellipse that ended just after 1 p.m., Trump had fomented a mob-like march to the Capitol that he hoped would help him block the certification of Biden's victory. Before he had finished speaking, a small band of protesters had already begun breaking down outer barricades at the Capitol and marching up the steps toward the halls of Congress.


    Pence and his team worried his own Secret Service agents might block him from his goals. Despite an armed mob breaking through the windows of the Capitol, the vice president insisted on remaining in the Capitol so he could finish the job of formally approving the results of the presidential election. As rioters stormed through the hallways, Pence's detail leader insisted on taking a reluctant Pence from a hidden office to the Capitol basement. But Pence refused his top agent's recommendation to climb into his armored limousine, for fear agents might drive him away from the building.


    Keith Kellogg, a Trump aide who then was working as Pence's national security adviser, had stressed to Ornato that the vice president intended on staying inside the Capitol to finish the job, according to the book "I Alone Can Fix It." He told Ornato the Secret Service detail had better not try to forcibly remove Pence from the building.


    "I know you guys too well," Kellogg said. "You'll fly him to Alaska if you have a chance. Don't do it."


    Ornato, through a Secret Service spokesperson, has previously denied that this conversation took place.


    If Ornato and Engel testify before the Jan. 6 committee, they could face a wide range of questions not only about Trump's behavior that day but more broadly concerning the extent to which they served the interests of the presidency - or the man who was president.


    Two former Trump White House aides took to Twitter Wednesday to say Ornato has a pattern of denying conversations that they know took place.


    "Tony Ornato lied about me too," tweeted Alyssa Farah, former White House communications director. She said that she spoke with Ornato and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows before the forcible clearing of Lafayette Square in June 2020, in which they refused to warn reporters who were staged at the park that they needed to move.


    "Tony later lied & said the exchange never happened," Farah wrote.


    Olivia Troye, a former senior national security aide to Pence, took to Twitter as well to express her views of Ornato.


    "Those of us who worked w/ Tony know where his loyalties lie," she wrote. "He should testify under oath."

    Jan. 6 inquiry thrusts Secret Service back into center of controversy | Stars and Stripes

  15. #1165
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590
    The Sleeper ‘Wire Fraud’ Scheme That Could Nail Trumpworld

    On Nov. 7, 2020—the day television networks called the election for Joe Biden—then-President Donald Trump’s campaign manager was trying his best to break through to his deluded boss: The election was over.

    Specifically, as Bill Stepien, the Trump campaign manager, later said in his testimony to the Jan. 6 Committee, Trump’s chances had dwindled since the election to the point where they were “very, very, very bleak.” The campaign hadn’t been able to verify any claims of voter fraud, and Stepien placed little hope in any “realistic legal challenges.”

    That same day, the Trump campaign sent a fundraising email claiming that “President Trump will easily WIN the Presidency of the United States with only legal votes cast.” The solicitation called on supporters to donate any dollar amount and join something called the “Election Defense Task Force.” The campaign, it said, was “counting on members to help [Trump] fight back and secure FOUR MORE YEARS.”

    While the Jan. 6 hearings have delivered explosive testimony and evidence suggesting that a number of former administration officials may face criminal liability related to the attack on the Capitol—possibly all the way up to Trump—there’s another potential criminal liability that has largely been lost in the news.

    That would be the sprawling wire fraud conspiracy which the Jan. 6 special select committee alleged in its second hearing, on June 13, a scheme which legal experts say contains the ingredients for possible federal charges against officials with the campaign and the Republican National Committee—as well as Trump himself.

    The fundamentals of that case may have been lost under the hearing’s success—the instantly viral revelation that Trump had raised $250 million on the Big Lie, much of it for a legal fund that didn’t exist.

    But the case they laid out that day is as simple as it is compelling:


    • Campaign officials and lawyers eagerly testified that they had told Trump they didn’t believe the claims of fraud
    • The campaign team then continued to blast out hundreds of emails raising money off claims that officials, by their own admission, knew to be false


    On top of that, many of those emails told supporters that their money would go to a legal fund that didn’t exist

    Former U.S. attorney Barb McQuade, who teaches at the University of Michigan School of Law, called wire fraud prosecutions “bread and butter cases for federal prosecutors.”

    “If it can be shown that Trump or others sent an email asking for money for one purpose, and then used it for another, that could constitute fraud, regardless of whether it can be proved that they knew the election had not been stolen,” she said.

    Natalie Adams, a partner at Bradley LLP who prosecuted wire fraud cases as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, told The Daily Beast that “the committee’s definitely got something.”

    “You don’t get to say things you know to be false,” Adams said, and the testimony of campaign officials copping to their true beliefs could trip the federal wire fraud statute.

    “It’s not whether you know something absolutely for sure,” she explained. “It’s if it’s ‘reasonably foreseeable’ to you that people will believe promises and statements that you either know aren’t true, or are reckless or deceptive, which you are trying to use to get something of value.”

    As far as what these top campaign officials knew at the time, they were not only quick to say they didn’t believe the claims of fraud, but told Trump repeatedly he had lost fair and square—while the campaign was sending the emails otherwise.

    In one video, former top Trump adviser Jason Miller recalled that, not long after the election, the campaign’s head of data told Trump “in pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose.”

    The campaign’s former general counsel, Matt Morgan, recalled that a group of advisers delivered the same message in the White House. “I think everyone’s assessment in the room, at least amongst the staff . . . was that [the alleged fraud] was not sufficient to be outcome-determinative,” Morgan said.

    Another campaign lawyer, Alex Cannon—whom the campaign had specifically tasked with assessing election fraud—testified that he told Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in mid-to-late November that the campaign hadn’t found “anything sufficient to change the results in any of the key states.” Cannon also recounted telling another Trump aide, Peter Navarro, that the “election was secure,” citing a Homeland Security assessment Cannon had read.

    The panel played clips of Stepien, the former campaign manager, describing his efforts to get Trump to see the writing on the wall.

    “What was happening was not necessarily honest nor professional, and that sort of led to me stepping away” from the campaign, he said.

    The committee also presented recorded testimony from the campaign’s then head of digital strategy, Gary Coby, admitting that the “Official Election Defense Fund” at the center of dozens of fundraising emails was a “marketing trick” and did not, in fact, exist.

    Yet in this same period, the Trump campaign continued to barrage small-dollar donors with fundraising emails. They sent as many as 25 a day, most of them perpetuating the Big Lie.

    For instance, on Nov. 7, the same day Stepien offered his “bleak” outlook, the campaign bombed supporters with 23 fundraising emails—from Trump, three of his adult children, the chair of the RNC, Vice President Mike Pence, and a number of vague “funds” that don’t appear associated with any real entity.

    The emails claimed the campaign was “counting on members to help [Trump] fight back and secure FOUR MORE YEARS,” and that Democrats were “trying to mess with the results” and “rip a TRUMP-PENCE VICTORY away from you.” They all asked for money.

    (A researcher archived these solicitations in real time and has made them available in an open document.)

    In a Nov. 10 fundraising email, Trump claimed that—contrary to Stepien’s testimony—his early lead on election night had disappeared “miraculously.” A missive the next day bemoaned “voter fraud” and “interference” from “Big Media and Big Tech,” followed by a money request under the subject, “Proof of election fraud.”

    On Nov. 13, Team Trump scaremongered a laundry list of (at best unsubstantiated, and at worst disproven) fraud allegations in Antrim County, Michigan. A week later it was “illegal activity in Wisconsin.”

    The deception wasn’t just in the body of the emails, either. There were incorrect subject lines and eye-catching headers. Fourteen included the phrase “voter fraud.” Another 14 undermined confidence in ballots—“Mail-in ballot HOAX!” (Nov. 10) and “221,000 ballots were COMPROMISED” (Dec. 2)—with five targeting “illegal ballots” specifically. A dozen headers and subject lines played on defending “election integrity,” and 29 called on donors to “defend the election.”

    This continued for weeks. The campaign even begged for alms on the morning of Jan. 6, citing “voting irregularities and potential fraud.”

    But while the mendacity of those emails is clear, the blame is still somewhat foggy. Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance said the committee is “telling us the story of what happened,” without the constraints that limit prosecutors.

    “The biggest question I see with a wire fraud case, based on publicly available information, is, who are the defendants?” Vance wondered. Justice Department prosecutors would need to know who exactly designed, approved, and disseminated the solicitations before they consider whether the scheme constitutes wire fraud—“although it looks like one!”

    The Jan. 6 committee has taken steps to figure that out. In February, the panel subpoenaed the RNC’s digital marketing vendor, Salesforce, for reams of internal data. The order would net information about email authors, project managers, and analytics such as open rates and targeting, all of which would help flesh out the scheme. The RNC is still fighting the subpoena in court.

    A Trump representative did not reply to The Daily Beast’s emailed questions. In response to a detailed request for comment, RNC spokesperson Emma Vaughn provided a statement that attacked Democrats but did not address any of the allegations.

    “This is nonsense—[House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s committee is partisan and illegitimate,” the statement said. “Americans want Congress to focus on the most pressing crises created by Biden and Democrats—record gas prices, the worst inflation in 40 years, empty shelves, and rising crime—not conduct a political circus in prime time.”

    The committee, and possibly prosecutors, might start their search with the officials who had authority over email fundraising operations. That would include advisers quoted above—digital lead Gary Coby (his “unquestioned domain”), along with top strategist Jason Miller, and campaign manager Stepien, all of whom exercised direct oversight, according to a former senior campaign official.

    Adams, the former AUSA in Florida, said prosecutors could build out a conspiracy to commit wire fraud—and that might reach Trump.

    “With conspiracy, you don’t necessarily have to commit an overt act. And jury instructions don’t require proof of a formal agreement, because criminal actors avoid doing that,” Adams pointed out. “But if people work together and profit from it, it’s helpful to show who had the access and opportunity to review those communications, and who would be likely to know by virtue of their job what is ‘reasonably foreseeable’ to occur, who are charged with vetting the truth of statements, and so on.”

    With Trump specifically, she said, it seems he was in a position where it would be “foreseeable that people around you will carry out your instructions and carry out your intent.” She also noted that as a fact-checker for a former president, she “triple-checked” every claim that went out. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sl...ittee?ref=home

  16. #1166
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,211
    Reach-around was truly ahead of his time


  17. #1167
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,410
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    Reach-around was truly ahead of his time
    You really need to get a life, you pathetic shitgibbon.

  18. #1168
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590


    A former Washington, D.C., police officer said that the public has seen “ample probable cause” indicating former President Trump committed crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

    Michael Fanone, who was beaten by rioters and suffered a heart attack during the insurrection while working for the city’s Metropolitan Police Department, told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Saturday that in order to “restore the credibility of the Department of Justice” the country needs to return to the rule of law, which he said means that no one is above the law, including Trump.

    “If there’s probable cause to suggest that he committed these crimes, which I think we’ve seen ample probable cause, he should be arrested. The case should be put before a grand jury, and if they indict him, he should be tried,” Fanone said.

    Fanone’s comments come amid a series of public hearings being held by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot in which the panel is making the case Trump was at the center of an effort to retain power that led directly to the violence that day.

    In the most recent hearing earlier this week, Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked as a top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave testimony detailing some of Trump’s actions on the day of the attack.

    Hutchinson testified, among other things, that Trump knew members of the crowd that gathered for his rally at the Ellipse before the riot were armed and requested that attendees be allowed to skip going through magnetometers. Trump has denied those allegations.

    Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a member of the panel, claimed at the end of the hearing that Trump allies sent messages to two witnesses testifying to the committee in an apparent attempt to intimidate them.

    Fanone said he does not have “the highest of hopes” that Attorney General Merrick Garland will bring charges against Trump because he believes Garland desired political accountability for Trump without a trial, which would be “ugly” for the country.

    “But I don’t think that’s enough,” Fanone said. “It’s not enough for me, and I don’t think it’s enough for most Americans.”

    ____________




    A man arrested near the Las Vegas Strip in January of last year for his role on Jan 6. is working with the federal government on its investigations into the insurrection, federal documents revealed Wednesday.

    Nathaniel “Nate” DeGrave, 32, of Las Vegas agreed to plead guilty Monday to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

    DeGrave, who is originally from Pennsylvania, spoke exclusively with the 8 News Now I-Team in October.

    “I’ve lost a lot since I’ve been in here,” DeGrave told the I-Team’s David Charns.

    Documents released last year revealed investigators received an anonymous tip that led them to DeGrave. On his Instagram, DeGrave says he is the CEO of a celebrity event planner and adult model management company.

    On the day of the riot, DeGrave, Ronald “Ronnie” Sandlin, and a third man, Josiah Colt, of Idaho, met in a hotel room in Maryland and recorded videos for social media, prosecutors said. Colt took a deal to work with investigators last year. Sandlin remains incarcerated pending trial.

    As part of his plea agreement, DeGrave will continue to work with the government on its work to hold others accountable.

    Federal documents indicate DeGrave has spoken with the FBI, Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations about Jan. 6 and “unrelated matters.” A footnote in the document said those matters can be relayed to the judge under seal.

    “He has volunteered information that law enforcement officials have verified as true as well as supplied information that has advanced government investigations regarding the events of January 6 and other unrelated matters,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

    Prosecutors are advocating for DeGrave to be released and returned to Las Vegas, saying he is not a flight risk. He has been incarcerated since his arrest. At the time, the judge was concerned that DeGrave could try to obstruct the investigation.

    As DeGrave told the 8 News Now I-Team in October, he and his group filmed the events on Jan. 6. Prosecutors said they agree DeGrave’s actions “were motivated by bravado, machismo, and a desire to gain notoriety and profit by video-recording the events on January 6th and disseminating the footage through social media, in addition to his misguided beliefs about the 2020 presidential election.”

    DeGrave faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison.

  19. #1169
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590


    Maybe Tuesday, July 12 at 10 a.m. EST

    Sarah Matthews, who served as deputy press secretary in the Trump White House until resigning shortly after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, has been subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the insurrection and has agreed to testify at an upcoming hearing, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.

    Matthews has been subpoenaed to testify at a public hearing as early as next week, sources tell CNN.

    Matthews resigned the night of January 6, 2021, saying in a statement that she was honored to serve in then-President Donald Trump's administration but "was deeply disturbed by what I saw." She added: "Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power."

    After another former Trump White house aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, publicly testified before the committee last week, Matthews tweeted: "Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson's role or her access in the West Wing either doesn't understand how the Trump (White House) worked or is attempting to discredit her because they're scared of how damning this testimony is."

    The committee declined to comment on the Matthews subpoena.

    The last two hearings are expected to focus on the assembly of a violent mob in Washington, DC, that Trump directed to march to the US Capitol and on Trump ignoring pleas for assistance and failing to take immediate action to try to stop the violence.

  20. #1170
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590


    Former President Trump's White House counsel Pat Cipollone will testify Friday in a closed-door, videotaped interview with the Jan. 6 committee, a source familiar with his plans told Axios.

    Why it matters: Cipollone — a crucial witness to what unfolded inside the West Wing on Jan. 6 — was subpoenaed by the committee following former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's blockbuster testimony late last month.


    • Hutchinson revealed during the committee's last hearing that Cipollone repeatedly tried to prevent Trump from encouraging his supporters to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
    • She testified that Cipollone had warned in the days leading up to the attack that the former president and his aides could be charged with "every crime imaginable" if Trump joined protesters at the Capitol.
    • While the attack was happening, Hutchinson testified that Cipollone demanded to see the president while rioters were chanting for former Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged, but then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told him Trump "doesn't want to do anything" and "thinks Mike deserves it."


    Driving the news: Cipollone's subpoena has been extended to Friday, the source briefed on the deal told Axios, so he is still in compliance with it.


    • Cipollone has spoken to the committee on an informal basis, but his interview was not transcribed or recorded. His Friday interview will be.
    • The Jan. 6 committee did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.


    _______________




    A top Capitol Police officer warned a federal court Tuesday that requests by a Jan. 6 defendant to take measurements in non-public areas of the Capitol could compromise the building and expose some of the newer undisclosed efforts to protect Congress since the insurrection.

    “Permitting him to measure distances from wall to wall, from wall to door and vice versa, would provide a wealth of information to an adversary who might wish to calculate blast distances, the ability to fly a drone within the building or how large of a group could quickly pass through the hallways, to name but a few security risks,” said Sean Gallagher, the head of the Capitol Police’s Uniformed Service Division, in an affidavit filed to U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper.

    Gallagher, in his filing, noted that the Capitol building was bombed in 1983, was the subject of a planned drone attack in 2011 and was infiltrated by members of the Oath Keepers during the Jan. 6 attack who moved in a “stack” formation throughout the corridors.

    Gallagher’s filing accompanied a Justice Department brief opposing a request by Jan. 6 defendant Daniel Egtvedt to permit his attorneys to measure and photograph nonpublic areas of the Capitol. Many Jan. 6 defendants have been provided Capitol Police-led tours as part of efforts to build their defenses. The department offered 10 such tours over the last year.

    But Gallagher said offering a greater level of access to Egtvedt would risk revealing “many secret and highly sensitive security features embedded in the physical structure of the U.S. Capitol.”

    “Some existed on January 6th and some are new, having needed to be changed after January 6 because the USCP must continue to protect the U.S. Capitol (and those who work there, including Members of Congress) and address future operational security vulnerabilities,” he said.

    Egtvedt is accused of breaching the building and then assaulting Capitol Police officers who attempted to get him to leave the building. Prosecutors say Egtvedt entered the Capitol after he had already been sprayed with some kind of chemical irritant and then milled around with the crowd before his confrontation with officers.

    In his filing, Gallagher noted that the Capitol Police had provided all 7,000 hours of relevant surveillance footage to each of the more than 840 Jan. 6 defendants. And while the department had initially sought extensive protections on that footage, which it considers extremely sensitive, Gallagher noted that courts had removed some of the restrictions.

    “However, the USCP continues to consider any interior footage of the U.S. Capitol to be highly sensitive information, and that access to it should be strictly limited,” he wrote.

    “There are additional security features in the doors, windows, and within the U.S. Capitol that are extremely sensitive and cannot be discussed in this document,” he added.

    Gallagher and prosecutors also worried that if they granted Egtvedt special access to measure and photograph non-public areas of the Capitol, they would receive hundreds of requests from other defendants to do the same. Gallagher described it as “a virtually impossible task that would significantly tie up valuable USCP resources for ‘one-off’ visits that are otherwise required for the protection, security, and safety of the U.S. Capitol.”

  21. #1171
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590
    Today.


    • Cipollone will testify behind closed doors to the Jan. 6 committee on Friday


    Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, a critical figure in the final days of the Trump White House, will testify before the House select committee behind closed doors on Friday, according to sources familiar with the committee's work.

    The committee issued a subpoena to Cipollone last month after publicly pleading with him to appear. It has spoken to Cipollone in an informal interview already.

    "Our evidence shows that Mr. Cipollone and his office tried to do what was right. They tried to stop a number of President Trump's plans for January 6th," Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney said in a hearing last month.

    A committee aide declined to comment on the Friday meeting.

    In a letter to Cipollone regarding the subpoena, Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, wrote that the committee would like to speak with him about a number of issues, including Trump's efforts to subvert the election, a scheme to submit fake electoral ballots, the attempted replacement of Justice Dept. leadership and attempts to directly interfere with Congress' activities on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Testimony in the hearings so far has shown Cipollone present at key points in the lead-up to Jan. 6 and on the day of the attack:

    Former Department of Justice officials said he worked to intervene and stop Trump from replacing the department's leadership with Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who proposed sending out a letter falsely claiming fraud in the election that Cipollone referred to as a "murder-suicide pact," according to former DOJ official Steven Engel.

    Former Trump campaign aide Jason Miller testified that Cipollone confronted lawyer John Eastman over his theory that Vice President Mike Pence could unilaterally stop the electoral count.

    In an explosive hearing featuring former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Cipollone was described as trying to stop Trump from making a planned trip to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and pleading to get him to call off the riot once it got underway, calling the violence a life-or-death situation.

    Cipollone was a lead defender of Trump during his first impeachment trial. He earlier served in government during William Barr's first stint leading the Justice Department in the early 1990s. He has served along with Barr and conservative legal icon Leonard Leo as directors of the Catholic Information Center, affiliated with the conservative Opus Dei movement, as NPR reported at the time of the first impeachment trial. As White House counsel under Trump, he was also central to judicial nominations, including the Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett just before the 2020 election.

    The committee recently announced its next scheduled hearing will happen Tuesday. It will focus on the mob and rioters who stormed the Capitol, including far-right groups such as the Proud Boys. The hearing will be the seventh in the panel's series on its months-long investigation into the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and the events that led up to it.

    _______________




    Trump ignored the advice of aides in prematurely claiming victory

    Some in Trump’s orbit, including Ivanka, “accepted” there was no voter fraud

    Giuliani acknowledged lack of “evidence”

    Legal architect acknowledged basis to unwind election was bankrupt

    The Trump team saw a benefit to working with outsiders

    Trump knew there were weapons in the crowd on Jan. 6

    White House lawyers worried about legal exposure of Trump’s speech, march plans

    Trump thought Pence ‘deserved it,’ didn’t want to take action on Jan. 6

    Numerous lawmakers and Trump associates asked for pardons in connection with Jan. 6

    Witnesses received messages apparently seeking to influence their testimony

    ___________




    Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, brought in the largest live audience of the five daytime Jan. 6 hearings thus far, the AP reported.

    The big picture: Hutchinson testified in a surprise hearing last week, providing new information about former President Trump's role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

    By the numbers: Hutchinson's testimony brought in 13.17 million live viewers, a 28% increase from the last daytime hearing, per the AP which cited the Nielsen company.


    • This was also a 23% increase over the average viewership of the other daytime hearings, the AP reported.
    • However, Hutchinson's hearing did not have as much draw as the first primetime hearing, which brought in 19.4 million people.
    • The AP also noted that more people likely saw Hutchinson's testimony than encompassed in the live audience numbers since many will have heard parts of the testimony online or in news reports.


    __________

    • Florida man gets 3 years' probation for sending Rep. Omar death threat


    A federal judge sentenced a Florida man on Wednesday to three years of probation for sending a death threat to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), according to the Tampa Bay Times.

    The big picture: David Hannon, 67, sent an email to Omar in July 2019 threatening to shoot the congresswoman. He pleaded guilty in April to threatening a federal official.

    Driving the news: Hannon is also required to pay a $7,000 fine, undergo mental health and substance abuse treatment and have no contact with Omar, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

    https://www.axios.com/2022/07/07/flo...r-death-threat

  22. #1172
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590


    Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said that a “friend” who was in the White House during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot told him that Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows was experiencing “a little bit of both” incompetence and a “nervous breakdown” as the event unfolded.

    During an interview with CBS Friday, Mulvaney said that he trusts testimony that Meadows’s former top aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave to the House committee investigating the attack. Hutchinson described Meadows to lawmakers as disengaged.

    He said he was texting with a friend who was in the West Wing on Jan. 6 as Hutchinson was testifying.

    “I said, if I listen to Cassidy closely, it sounds like Mark was either completely incompetent at the job or having a nervous breakdown, and the person texted back it was a little bit of both,” Mulvaney said.

    He said the position of chief of staff was “critical” in a moment like the insurrection, but Meadows seems to have “checked out entirely.”

    Mulvaney said he defended former President Trump for more than a year, arguing that his actions on that day were not criminal, but Hutchinson’s testimony changed his view of the situation.

    Hutchinson testified at a last-minute hearing late last month that was scheduled after the committee had announced a planned break from public hearings until July.

    During the hearing, she told the committee that Trump was aware that some rally attendees at the Ellipse before the insurrection were armed and that Trump insisted on going to the Capitol along with his supporters.

    She claimed that the former president tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle to change course.

    Mulvaney said Friday he knows Hutchinson and she has “no reason to lie.”

    Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the committee, also showed text messages toward the end of the hearing that indicated Trump may have engaged in witness intimidation.

    Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone received a subpoena from the committee in the aftermath of Hutchinson’s testimony and spoke to the committee Friday.

    Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer after the meeting that Cipollone did not contradict anything that other witnesses said but added that “not contradicting is not the same as confirming.”

    The Hill has reached out to Meadows for comment through America First Legal, a nonprofit organization led by former Trump administration officials. Meadows serves as a board member of the organization.

    ___________




    Engineer for Rhode Island’s Only Nuclear Reactor Facility Charged with Jan. 6 Felony and Misdemeanors

    A Rhode Island nuclear facility engineer who allegedly engaged in multiple assaults against police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been charged with multiple crimes, including a felony.

    Bernard Joseph Sirr, 41, was arrested Wednesday, according to a DOJ press release. He is accused of illegally entering Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, as scores of Donald Trump supporters sought to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.

    Sirr was allegedly among the crowd shouting “heave, ho!” as the riotous crowd locked horns with police at the tunnel on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol. Prosecutors say that YouTube videos show Sirr repeatedly engaging “in a violent assault against multiple law enforcement officers in the tunnel.”

    He was also reportedly seen marching toward the Capitol as part of a “stack” formation — a tactic allegedly used by members of the Oath Keepers extremist militia group, some of whom are charged with seditious conspiracy. A YouTube video appears to show Sirr “marching with a group of other individuals” with his left hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him, according to prosecutors.

    According to the Statement of Facts in support of the criminal complaint, Sirr was seen entering the tunnel on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol building at around 3:08 p.m. and making his way toward the front of the police line that was trying to hold back the crowd.

    Prosecutors say he pushed against the police line multiple times. At one point, he is seen on video “pushing against rioters who are assaulting police officers,” the Statement of Facts says.

    That same video apparently shows Sirr “holding onto and pushing the individual in front of him in a brown shirt with long brown hair, later identified as Patrick McCaughey III, while McCaughey is pushing into the police line,” the document says.

    McCaughey has been charged in a multi-defendant case with participating in the assault against Capitol Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who was seen on video being crushed by rioters who were using a riot shield to pin Hodges to a door.

    Hodges can be heard screaming in pain as the physical pressure intensified. He has said he thought that he was going to die during that encounter.

    Sirr allegedly stayed inside the tunnel for less than 10 minutes, during which time he joined the mob in a direct effort to overwhelm law enforcement, prosecutors say. While Sirr is seen on video participating in the assault, the crowd of rioters can be heard shouting “Heave! Ho!” according to the DOJ.

    Sirr left the tunnel at around 3:14 p.m., prosecutors say, but he wasn’t done.

    About one hour later, he is reportedly seen on surveillance footage returning to the Lower West Terrace doorway, where he once again pushes other rioters who appear to be pushing against the police.

    Around 10 minutes after that, police body-worn camera footage appears to show Sirr being ejected from the tunnel.

    Sirr has been charged with obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He has also been charged with four related misdemeanors, including engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds and impeding passage through the Capitol grounds or buildings.

    Local news reports say the defendant is the same Sirr listed as a facility engineer at the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center, which operates the Ocean State’s only nuclear reactor. State records show that he has an annual salary of around $82,000.

    A representative from the facility did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment. However, according to The Providence Journal, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Administration confirmed that Sirr was now on paid administrative leave.

    Citing its own archives, the newspaper further reported that Sirr “was serving with the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Light Infantry at Fort Drum, New York, at the time of his wedding in 1999.” He was reportedly part of a “quick-reaction force” in Bosnia in 1998 “whose role it was to protect the United Nations peacekeepers,” the newspaper added.

    Statement of Facts

  23. #1173
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590
    I don’t trust him to tell the truth under oath




    Former President Trump said he has waived executive privilege to allow former adviser Steve Bannon to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, according to a letter sent by Trump to Bannon on Saturday.

    Why it matters: Last November, a federal grand jury indicted Bannon on two counts of contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the Jan. 6 panel.

    The big picture: In the letter, Trump recounted how he had invoked executive privilege when Bannon first received his subpoena from the committee.

    However, he said he decided to reverse his stance after watching "how unfairly" Bannon and others had been treated, "having to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees, and all of the trauma you must be going through for the love of your Country."

    If a time and place could be agreed upon for testimony, Trump wrote that he would waive executive privilege, "which allows for you to go in and testify truthfully and fairly, as per the request of the Unselect Committee of political Thugs and Hacks."
    In a letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the Jan. 6 committee, a lawyer for Bannon wrote that his client would be willing to testify and would prefer to do so at a public hearing.

    "Mr. Bannon has not had a change of posture or of heart," Robert Costello wrote, but he noted that "circumstances have now changed," in reference to Trump's decision to waive executive privilege.
    State of play: Damning testimony from the Jan. 6 committee has been drawing in millions of viewers and seeking to emphasize the direct ties between Trump and the violence on Jan. 6.

    _____________




    Members of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol laid out their plans for hearings this week, which will focus on testimony from former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, plotting by far-right extremist groups and discussions about using the military to seize voting machines.

    The House panel has confirmed it will hold a hearing on Tuesday morning and is planning to hold a prime time hearing on Thursday, a source told Reuters.

    And in a major development on Sunday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) confirmed former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has offered to testify before the committee after former President Trump waived executive privilege.

    Among the key issues the committee will present about is unfounded claims from Trump and his allies that federally authorized voting machines turned votes for Trump into votes for Biden.

    Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told CBS “Face the Nation” guest moderator Robert Costa on Sunday that the American public will learn about a meeting on Dec. 18, 2021, in which Trump, attorney Sidney Powell, former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and others discussed using the military to seize the machines.

    “On that day, the group of outside lawyers who’ve been denominated ‘Team Crazy’ by people in and around the White House, came in to try to urge several new courses of action, including the seizure of voting machines around the country,” Raskin said.

    Powell and Trump’s legal team took aim at Dominion and Smartmatic voting machines, accusing them without evidence of switching votes illegally to swing the election for Biden.

    Both Smartmatic and Dominion have taken legal action against those who spread falsehoods about their machines on Fox News and other conservative outlets such as Newsmax.

    The House panel this week will also present new testimony from Cipollone, who was a key figure on Trump’s legal team on Jan. 6.

    Cipollone testified behind closed doors on Friday, following an explosive hearing late last month in which former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson revealed Trump had knowingly encouraged armed rioters to march on the U.S. Capitol.

    Hutchinson also testified Trump lunged for the steering wheel to direct his Secret Service vehicle toward the Capitol so he could join the protesters, though Secret Service agents have reportedly privately disputed that account.

    Hutchinson said Cipollone warned that “we’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable” if Trump marched on the Capitol.

    Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” that Cipollone’s testimony did not contradict other witnesses, though its unclear if he substantiated Hutchinson’s testimony.

    Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), another member of the committee, said Cipollone pushed back against theories that then-Vice President Mike Pence could declare Trump the president, and opposed pressuring the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of voter fraud.

    Trump’s pressure on the DOJ and on Pence to declare the election in his favor were the focus of two hearings held last month. The House panel also heard testimony from state election officials who described an attempt by Trump to pressure them to appoint electors in his favor.

    “The overall message that we have been gathering out of all of these witnesses is that the president knew he had lost the election, or that his advisers had told him he had lost the election,” Murphy told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

    “And that he was casting about for ways in which he could retain power and remain the president, despite the fact that the democratic will of the American people was to have President Biden be the next elected,” she added.

    Tuesday’s hearing will also shine a light on the far-right extremist groups who mobilized at the U.S. Capitol, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

    The panel revealed in documentary footage last month that Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes — both of whom have been hit with the rarely used charge of seditious conspiracy — met in private before convening on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

    Raskin has said that when he leads the questioning on Tuesday, he will focus in part more on what those groups were plotting.

    Kinzinger told ABC’s “This Week” that Tuesday’s hearing will also show what Trump was doing while the rioting was occurring at the Capitol, up to the moment he finally tweeted for the rioters to go home.

    “The rest of the country knew that there was an insurrection. The president obviously had to have known there was an insurrection. So where was he? What was he doing?” Kinzinger asked. “It goes to the heart of what is the oath of a leader. You have an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, you can’t selectively pick what parts of the Constitution you defend or what branches of government, and you certainly can’t be gleeful during it.”

    Trump has pushed back against the allegations made against him in the public hearings, sometimes in real time, and few elected GOP officials have offered any public criticism of the former president despite the damning testimony from within their party.

    Still, Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.), a moderate who has long been critical of Trump, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd that Trump’s influence on the GOP was diminishing.

    “I’ve been talking about this for years now, and I felt like I was on a lifeboat all by myself. But now we need a bigger boat because more and more people are speaking out every day,” Hogan said on Sunday.

    “I said Trump’s influence on the party was going to diminish over time. It hasn’t happened rapidly, but it has diminished dramatically.”

  24. #1174
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,541
    I said Trump’s influence on the party was going to diminish over time.
    While this might be true, the toxic culture of lies and divisiveness he has engendered into it will remain.

    While it was there to an extent before he arrived, he's left it far, far worse, with the likes of Marjorie space lasers and Brett "I like beer and fucking over women" Kavanaugh.
    The next post may be brought to you by my little bitch Spamdreth

  25. #1175
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590
    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    No way that would ever happen. She is still a Republican and still very conservative. She is Dick Cheney's daughter, FFS.
    She’s toast. Cheney will not even win her Wyoming Republican primary.

Page 47 of 67 FirstFirst ... 37394041424344454647484950515253545557 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •