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January 6 Hearings Live


:thumbsup:

Well, that's good news, the wheels of justice slowly turn. I did not know they would need a grand jury to indict in a case like this, but given that one was empaneled, this actually seems like a relatively quick result.
 
This TYT video is from three weeks ago and the content has probably already been mentioned in this thread, but it still shocked me.

Apparently Congressman Gosar met with the J6 organizers and, before they'd even committed a crime, promised them Presidential pardons. This violates several laws. Other Congressmen committed similar crimes. Let's get some more indictments!
 
The Wyoming Republican Party has purged Liz Cheney.

Wyoming GOP votes to no longer recognize Rep. Cheney as a Republican | 307 Politics | trib.com
Wyoming Republican leaders voted this weekend to no longer recognize Rep. Liz Cheney as a member of their party.

The resolution, which does not strip Cheney of any tangible power, passed the Wyoming GOP Central Committee by a vote of 31-29 during a Saturday meeting Buffalo.

...
“Previously mentioned in the resolution of censure, Representative Liz Cheney ‘cast her vote in favor of impeachment without any quantifiable evidence of High Crimes or Misdemeanors,” the resolution stated. “As to date, no quantifiable and or undisputed evidence has been offered Representative Liz Cheney to defend her questionable decision.”

...
“To further her own personal political agenda, Representative Liz Cheney has not only caused massive disruption, distraction and division within the House Republican Conference, but has also willingly, happily, and energetically joined forced with and proudly pledged allegiance to democrat Speaker of the House Pelosi, as a means of serving her own personal interests while ignoring the interests, needs and expectations of Wyoming Republicans,” the resolution passed stated.
Last February, she was censured by that party for voting to impeach Trump: Liz Cheney becomes latest House Republican to be censured by state party for her vote to impeach Trump - CNNPolitics, and last May, she was removed from the party's leadership: Liz Cheney Removed From GOP Post Over Trump Criticism : NPR.

Liz Cheney is still in her committees, however. There are some House Republicans talking about removing from their committees the fellow Republicans who voted for the recent infrastructure bill, and such a purge may not stop there.

From her side,
“It’s laughable to suggest Liz is anything but a committed conservative Republican,” said Jeremy Adler, a Cheney spokesperson. “She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly, a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle, and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man.”

...
“The president incited the mob,” she said in an television interview that day. “The president addressed the mob. He lit the flame.”
As to her voting record, govtrack.us gives her an ideology score of 0.68 in 2020 and 2018. That makes her moderately liberal by Republican standards and moderately conservative overall.
During Trump’s term, Cheney voted with him on policy 93% of the time. That’s a higher percentage than Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and a number of other lawmakers who are seen as staunch Trump allies. Cheney has also received solid grades from prominent conservative groups, including the Susan B. Anthony List and the National Rifle Association.
 
She's just as conservative as ever, but they are kind of right to kick her out because she's not a Trumpist, and the GOP has turned into a Trump cult.
 
Trump allies pressed Defense Department to help overturn election, new book says - ABC News
From journalist Jonathan Karl's book "Betrayal".
In "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show," scheduled to be released today, Karl reports that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump attorney Sidney Powell tried to enlist a Pentagon official to help overturn the election.

...
"Flynn told him to cut his trip short and get back to the United States immediately because there were big things about to happen," according to the book. Karl writes that Flynn told Cohen, "We need you," and told the DoD official that "there was going to be an epic showdown over the election results."

Flynn, according to the book, urged Cohen that "he needed to get orders signed, that ballots needed to be seized, and that extraordinary measures needed to be taken to stop Democrats from stealing the election."
That's Ezra Cohen.
"Betrayal" also reports that Sydney Powell, Flynn's former lawyer who was then advising President Trump, called Cohen shortly after the Flynn conversation and tried to enlist his help with one the most far-fetched claims about the election, involving then-CIA Director Gina Haspel.

"Gina Haspel has been hurt and taken into custody in Germany," Powell told Cohen, pushing a false conspiracy theory that had been gaining steam among QAnon followers, according to the book. "You need to launch a special operations mission to get her," Powell said.
That was a QAnon conspiracy theory, and the CIA had to issue a statement that GH is alive and well.
 
On the other side,
Mnuchin, Pompeo mulled plan to remove Trump after Jan. 6: book | TheHill
ABC News’s Jonathan Karl writes in “Betrayal” that then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spoke with other Cabinet members including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about attempting to remove Trump from office through the 25th Amendment, according to excerpts published by MSNBC.

Karl, during an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” early Monday, said Pompeo “asked for a legal analysis of the 25th Amendment and how it would work,” but the idea was “quickly jettisoned” the next day once the officials recognized how difficult the path for such an effort would be, namely as then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and then-Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao were resigning.

“It would not be quick enough and it would be subject to legal challenges,” Karl said on MSNBC.

“But in the hours after the riot, there were high-level conversations about this,” he emphasized.

Karl attributes the reporting to “a source familiar with the conversations” and told the MSNBC hosts that his story is “rock solid.”
Jonathan Karl: Trump Showed Bitterness Toward Rep. McCarthy In Interview - YouTube

I wish that they were more successful, because it would have gotten Trump out of office under very unfavorable conditions.
 
More and more.
New January 6 committee subpoenas issued for 5 Trump allies including Roger Stone and Alex Jones - CNNPolitics
Also subpoenaed by the committee Monday: Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence, key players in the "Stop the Steal" movement after the election, who the committee noted are engaged to each other.

Stockton was one of the administrators of a "Stop the Steal" Facebook group that amassed hundreds of thousands of followers before it was shut down by the social media company on November 5 -- the day after it was launched. According to the committee's subpoena letter, Stockton helped organize a series of rallies after the November 2020 election up to the rally held at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, on January 6, aimed at supporting then-President Trump and his claims of election fraud.

Taylor Budowich, who is currently the primary political spokesperson for the former President and serves as communications director for the Save America PAC, was the final individual subpoenaed Monday.

Alex Jones, Roger Stone and other Trump allies subpoenaed by House Jan. 6 panel : NPR
With this latest wave, the panel has now issued 40 subpoenas in its probe.

...
All the new witnesses were told they are due to turn over documents and testify by mid-December.

...
So far, the committee has met with about 200 unnamed witnesses, who spoke voluntarily, received 25,000 pages of documents and has gotten more than 200 tips through a hotline, said California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the panel.
 
So far, the committee has met with about 200 unnamed witnesses, who spoke voluntarily, received 25,000 pages of documents and has gotten more than 200 tips through a hotline, said California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the panel.
We only ever hear about the ones who run and hide, not the 200 who came forward.
 
So far, the committee has met with about 200 unnamed witnesses, who spoke voluntarily, received 25,000 pages of documents and has gotten more than 200 tips through a hotline, said California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the panel.
We only ever hear about the ones who run and hide, not the 200 who came forward.
Steve Bannon is an important figure in the MAGA movement, and that made big news out of him not going along.

House Jan. 6 committee issues subpoenas to Proud Boys, Oath Keepers - The Washington Post
Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, Oath Keeper founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, and 1st Amendment Praetorian co-founder Robert Patrick Lewis are the targets of the inquiry’s latest tranche of subpoenas. The committee is seeking depositions and documents from the three, along with requests for documents and records from the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.
Enrique Tarrio was an activist in the group Latinos for Trump.
 
Capitol riot suspect’s court hearing turns to potential criminal charge for Trump - POLITICO
Could former President Donald Trump be charged with a crime for urging then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the electoral vote tally?

That appeared to be the thrust of a question U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols posed on Monday at a court hearing for one of the hundreds of Americans charged in the Capitol riot.

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "👀 Its just tourist Republicans supporting law enforcement at the Capitol on January 6th." / Twitter
noting
Scott MacFarlane on Twitter: "Video court exhibit released by US Justice Dept shows what happens as police tried to protect a closing door at US Capitol complex on Jan 6 ===> (vid link)" / Twitter
showing some cops trying to block some attackers with a closing door, but failing. The door is a metal-slat door that comes down from the ceiling, and that automatically goes back up if it senses that it cannot continue. The attackers first blocked it with a garbage can, the pushed it up, then stuck it open with a flag.
 
Mitch & Kyrsten =🪛🚮 on Twitter: "@MacFarlaneNews Sinema was absent for vote over investigation. She lied as to why. (pic link)" / Twitter - with a picture of the QAnon Shaman and some other attackers in a room in the Congress building, with a picture of KS in a pink beret overlaid. She wears pink-frame glasses and a ring that says "Fuck Off".

I fact-checked it, and while KS was indeed absent, I can't find anything on how she supposedly lied about her absence from a vote for something she called "critical".
 
Judge orders two lawyers who filed suit challenging 2020 election to pay hefty fees: ‘They need to take responsibility’ - The Washington Post
A federal judge has ordered two Colorado lawyers who filed a lawsuit late last year challenging the 2020 election results to pay nearly $187,000 to defray the legal fees of groups they sued, arguing that the hefty penalty was proper to deter others from using frivolous suits to undermine the democratic system.

“As officers of the Court, these attorneys have a higher duty and calling that requires meaningful investigation before prematurely repeating in court pleadings unverified and uninvestigated defamatory rumors that strike at the heart of our democratic system and were used by others to foment a violent insurrection that threatened our system of government,” Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter wrote.

“They are experienced lawyers who should have known better. They need to take responsibility for their misconduct,” he wrote.
Federal judge orders lawyers who brought election lawsuit to pay Dominion, Facebook, others - The Washington Post

These lawyers thus join Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell: Giuliani's Law License Is Suspended Over Trump Election Lies - The New York Times and Judge sanctions Sidney Powell and other attorneys who filed lawsuit challenging 2020 election - ABC News - August 25
A federal judge in Michigan has ordered sanctions against former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, attorney Lin Wood, and several other lawyers who brought a legal challenge seeking to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory in the state.

In her ruling Wednesday, Judge Linda Parker described the suit as an "historic and profound abuse of the judicial process."

"It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election," Parker wrote in a scathing 110-page filing. "It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here."

Parker ordered the group of nine attorneys involved in the lawsuit to pay all legal fees incurred by the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit's attorneys, and mandated that they take legal education courses.
Good to see these lawyers getting it for filing lawsuits with those baseless claims of huge electoral fraud.
 
Judge orders two lawyers who filed suit challenging 2020 election to pay hefty fees: ‘They need to take responsibility’ - The Washington Post
A federal judge has ordered two Colorado lawyers who filed a lawsuit late last year challenging the 2020 election results to pay nearly $187,000 to defray the legal fees of groups they sued, arguing that the hefty penalty was proper to deter others from using frivolous suits to undermine the democratic system.

“As officers of the Court, these attorneys have a higher duty and calling that requires meaningful investigation before prematurely repeating in court pleadings unverified and uninvestigated defamatory rumors that strike at the heart of our democratic system and were used by others to foment a violent insurrection that threatened our system of government,” Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter wrote.

“They are experienced lawyers who should have known better. They need to take responsibility for their misconduct,” he wrote.
Federal judge orders lawyers who brought election lawsuit to pay Dominion, Facebook, others - The Washington Post

These lawyers thus join Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell: Giuliani's Law License Is Suspended Over Trump Election Lies - The New York Times and Judge sanctions Sidney Powell and other attorneys who filed lawsuit challenging 2020 election - ABC News - August 25
A federal judge in Michigan has ordered sanctions against former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, attorney Lin Wood, and several other lawyers who brought a legal challenge seeking to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory in the state.

In her ruling Wednesday, Judge Linda Parker described the suit as an "historic and profound abuse of the judicial process."

"It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election," Parker wrote in a scathing 110-page filing. "It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here."

Parker ordered the group of nine attorneys involved in the lawsuit to pay all legal fees incurred by the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit's attorneys, and mandated that they take legal education courses.
Good to see these lawyers getting it for filing lawsuits with those baseless claims of huge electoral fraud.
But these are are small potatoes as far as fines and wider influence go.
 
Traditionally corporations and the GOP have been allies, while government institutions (at the state level especially) have often been allied with Democrats. But this is reversing as Rubio and other Trump-lickers take over the GOP. David Brooks makes this point beginning at about 5:30 in this interview. "The right doesn't control the media, doesn't control universities, doesn't control corporations. We only control the state." Thus the fervor to imitate dictators and use state power to influence media, schools, etc. Exactly the opposite of GOP traditions.

Brooks also describes the Trump-dominated GOP as interested only in culture wars, not in policy.
 
"The right doesn't control the media, doesn't control universities, doesn't control corporations. We only control the state." -- even though right-wingers claim to deplore all-controlling governments, and even though they claim to love capitalism.
 
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