Stephen Miller showing his ass again

 

Justice is on hiatus - maybe gone forever

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Peter Navarro's unsurprising verdict

Does this affect ALL Jan 6 defendants?

Kevin McCarthy gave all the footage to Tucker Carlson.  I can only imagine Carlson will cut and air anything that helps his narrative around the insurrection.  But why wouldn't it also be applicable to every single case the DOJ has been prosecuting against the insurrectionsts?  How many appeals will there be?

What a nightmare.  But I think surely every defendant has a right to see it all.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 03/04/2023:  And so it begins.

Jan 6 Final Hearing

As expected, the Committee has made criminal referrals to the DOJ in its final hearing on the January 6 capitol attack.

The referrals, unlike the committee’s contempt of Congress recommendations, do not need the approval of the full House. Like the contempt referrals, they cannot force prosecutors to charge or even start an investigation against anyone. Publicly known subpoenas and witness appearances, though, suggest that Trump and anyone else likely to be referred by the committee are already under active criminal investigation.

[...]

The committee’s last act is likely to be the release of its final report this week, possibly on Wednesday. It plans to release an executive summary of the report Monday, following the hearing.

   MSN

Four criminal referral counts against "Trump and others."

The House Jan. 6 committee has decided to recommend the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, including obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiring to make false statements, and insurrection.

  MSNBC

A live-blog report is at that MSNBC link.

The Committee also made referrals to the House Ethics Committee of Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs, and Kevin McCarthy for refusing to comply with subpoenas. I don't think there's enough time for that committee to do anything, however, as the Republicans take over the House on January 3, and I expect them to dismiss the referrals.

John Eastman, Trump's skeezy lawyer, was criminally referred to the DOJ for obstruction of an official government proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. I don't know yet, but I think Jeffrey Clark may be referred for some of the crimes as well. The hearing did not give names other than Trump. They merely said, "and others."

The new evidence offered in this last hearing consisted of a couple of clips of Trump adviser Hope Hicks testifying before the committee. Her testimony came after the last hearing in October (seems like so much longer ago), as I'm sure she decided it was time to come clean before ending up in the grinder herself. She - or at least her attorneys - can read handwriting on the wall. All they showed us, however, was that she claims she tried to convince Trump before January 6 to put out word the people coming to the capitol should remain peaceful. At least she said she told then-Trump attorney Eric Herschmann, and he said he'd already tried and Trump refused.

Live updates as the hearing was happening can also be read here at NBC News. 

The 154-page (includes 50 pages of footnotes) executive summary was out ahead of the hearing.

The one thing I feel fairly certain about is action by the DOJ on the count of inciting or assisting an insurrection, since they've already tried and convicted people on the charge of seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government and of obstructing an official proceeding, and Trump very obviously incited AND assisted (if only by refusing to do anything about it).  And, incidentally, that is the provision of the Constitution that prevents someone from holding office if found guilty.

That's what makes me think it's the one charge the DOJ will take up, assuming people would be willing to prevent him from holding office even if they're not willing to send him to jail.  I don't think this country is ready (or maybe ever will be) to send a president to jail.  That would be like admitting we're no better than a third world country.  And, by God, we're THE USA!

Kind of cool that the room in which they held the hearing was recently renamed...

I wonder if the asshole Republicans will try to change that when they take over the House in January.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  And so begins the riling up of "his" people again.

Getting out ahead of today's hearing

Dec 19

Dec 18

Dec 17

With darkness comes light?  How does that work exactly?

Jan 6 Committee wrap-up

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is planning to release its final report and hold a "formal presentation," which could include a hearing, the week of Dec. 19. Specifically, members are eyeing the date of Dec. 21, according to sources familiar with the panel's proceedings.

[...]

The report is expected to include information that hasn't been made public during the previous hearings, and the committee also plans to share hundreds of transcripts of the over 1,000 witnesses it interviewed.

  NPR

UPDATE:

Kinzinger on the near future

Adam Kinzinger on the Bullwark podcast says the January 6th Committee may have one more hearing.

I hope so.

He also says the report will come out as late as possible, probably mid to late December.

The last J6 hearing?

Check out this excellent panel discussion on the last J6 hearing (even in you watched it) in which Zoe Lofgren (of the J6 Committee) reveals she and Liz Cheney had to "throw a major hissy fit" to get the Department of Homeland Security to release Secret Service material, and then they "dumped" over a million documnts on them.  She also says both Secret Service and the DOJ told agents to save all their messages from that time, and yet they risked criminal prosecution by deleting them anyway. What was worth that risk?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

PS:  Talking Feds is a superior podcast always.  It's worth subscribing.   (Free, and free of annoying ads!)

January 6 hearing, October 13, 2022 - 9th hearing

The possibly (probably) final public hearing today was essentially a recap.  No witnesses.  The information provided from Secret Service emails wasn't new, but of course, so many of the phones - those that could have been useful - were wiped.  I'd like to think those people responsible will pay a price for that, but I very much doubt it.  

Congressman Adam Schiff did say that they are still investigating previous testimony by people at the White House and Secret Service that they had no prior intelligence about the intention of violence against any of the "protectees".  Obvious bullshit.  

In the second hour, there was new video of senators trying to get help on the phone while the Capitol was under attack, and that was worth watching.  During his time at the mic, it was obvious Jamie Raskin is still incensed, and rightly so.

The hearing ended with a vote from Committee members to subpoena Donald Trump for records and testimony, to which he will no doubt file objections and various delays, hoping to hold out for an eventual Republican takeover in November that will see the subpoena withdrawn.  Or perhaps he'll just outright refuse to answer any subpoena.*

No date was given for the Committee's report, but I assume it will come before the end of the year.  Unless the Dems hold the House in November, and then, who knows?  According to Liz Cheney, it will contain referrals to the DOJ for criminal charges against several people.  I'll be interested to see that list.  I expect it will include Roger Stone, Mike Flynn, and John Eastman, at least, all of whom appeared before the Committee but refused to answer any questions, based on their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.  

Steve Bannon has already been charged, tried and found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify at all.  His sentencing is scheduled for October 21.  He has other problems.

Nancy Pelosi is getting a lot of good mileage out of this for her poise and command during the rioting.**  Here's just one article from The Guardian.  Conversely, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy can't be too thrilled at having this hearing remind people of their immediate stands against Trump and his army of insurrectionists when they're doing their best to be well thought of by the same people after reversing their positions and going all in with Trump.

You can watch the entire hearing here at CSPAN.

Previous hearing.

FINAL HEARING: 12/19/22

UPDATE:

And, of course, we're dying to know who gave that advice.  I, for one, would be happy for another hearing.

*UPDATE:  I heard a reasonable idea for why the Committee would subpoena Trump even knowing they'd not likely get anything out of him.  Remember how he and his allies complained loudly in the impeachment process that he wasn't given a chance to personally appear and defend himself against the charges?  Well, now he can't use THAT complaint about this investigation.  They're giving him a chance.

**  Ha.  They left this part out of the hearing:

In a separate part of the recording obtained by CNN, Pelosi’s chief of staff tells her that the Secret Service have dissuaded Trump from coming to the Capitol. Pelosi responds by saying, “if he comes, I’m going to punch him out.”

  Guardian

UPDATE:  Trump responded to the hearing with a long letter to Chair Bennie Thompson.

“This memo is being written to express our anger, disappointment, and complaint that with all of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on what many consider to be a Charade and Witch Hunt, and despite strong and powerful requests, you have not spent even a short moment on examining the massive Election Fraud that took place during the 2020 Presidential Election, and have targeted only those who were, as concerned American Citizens, protesting the Fraud itself,” Trump wrote in the letter, which is dated Oct. 13.

The document includes numerous photos meant to demonstrate the crowd size at his Jan. 6 rally, as well as a state-by-state breakdown renewing baseless claims of election fraud in five states Trump lost to President Biden.

  The Hill

Again, not what the Committee was formed to do. That job was up to Trump-appointed John Durham, and after all this time, he still has found no fraud to show that the election would have come out any other way.

Trump’s letter rehashes many of the same claims he’s made in the more than 18 months since the riot. He claimed he had authorized thousands of National Guard troops to defend the Capitol, a claim that his former acting Defense secretary has refuted in testimony to the committee.

And he repeated his claims that election results in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were all dubious because of reports of irregularities or suspicion about movement of ballots. But in each state, officials certified the results after audits and recounts. Testimony from Justice Department officials to the committee laid out how the department looked into each of Trump’s claims and was able to debunk or explain each of them.

[...]

Trump closed his letter to Thompson by defending the rioters as “great American patriots” who questioned the election results, even as the Justice Department has prosecuted numerous members of the mob for their actions that day.

“The people of this Country will not stand for unequal justice under the law, or Liberty and Justice for some. Election Day is coming. We demand answers on the Crime of the Century,” Trump wrote.

Well, that's rich.

UPDATE:

FINAL HEARING: 12/19/22

It's official

Noon Central.

New tentative J6 hearing date

Postponed

It's official

I would have preferred a prime-time hearing, but maybe this means they have at least one more to air.

Mark your calendar.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hearing alert

The House Jan. 6 Committee is considering holding a public hearing this month as part of its investigation into the Capitol attack, Punchbowl reports.

The committee is reportedly looking at Sept. 28 as a possible date for the hearing.

  TPM

"The floodgates have opened"

I'm here for it.

The altered speech

On January 7, Trump was convinced to make a public speech after being threatened with the 25th Amendment removal from office by some in his cabinet.  

The Committee has released a copy of how he amended that speech.

He crossed out being "sickened" by the violence.  He crossed out that he was directing the DOJ "to ensure all lawbreakers are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law...We must send a clear message - not with mercy but with JUSTICE. Legal consequences must be swift and firm." He crossed out "I want to be very clear you do not represent me.  You do not represent our movement."  And he crossed out that if they broke the law, they "belong in jail" and replaced that with they "will pay."

Very telling of his mindset.

Here's how he ultimately worked it over...

An afterthought

The last January 6 insurrection hearing brought out the point that, while the mob was attacking police and breaking into the capitol looking for someone to hang, Trump was in the White House watching it on TV and calling congressmen telling them to delay or deflect so the electoral count could not proceed.  In other words...he was essentially holding them hostage.  They knew he was the only one who could call off the mob, and he was essentially telling them, "I want you to do me a favor, though."

If that's not a crime, it ought to be.

John Dean was right

August is going to be a long, dry month in more ways than one. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

January 6 hearing - 8th hearing

The prime time hearing tonight was almost 3 hours long.  For some reason, Liz Cheney kept calling it the ninth hearing.  It's actually the eighth.

The focus was on Trump's dereliction of duty on January 6.

Fox News didn't cover it.  Aaron Rupar, as always, did.  His clips begin here:

My favorite bit:

My second favorite bit:

Kinzinger and Cheney gave excellent closing speeches.

You can watch the full thing here:

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Previous hearing.

UPDATE:

The reaction was not shown on CSPAN.  I love it.

There was no use in this hearing for the clip of Josh Hawley except to shit on Josh Hawley.  Heard on "Pod Save America":  If you want to shoot somebody in the face, send in a Cheney.

And that may be a large part of the texts they deleted.  I thought they were probably texts that showed them conspiring with Trump, but they may also be desperate texts to family in fear of their lives they don't want us to see.

UPDATE:

UPDATE 7/26:  Update on the altered January 7 speech.

UPDATE 10/13/22:  Next hearing