Flashback: Jan 5, 2021

Donald Trump has privately acknowledged he lost the presidency. He knows Joe Biden will replace him. He recognizes Congress will formally certify the results on Wednesday.

To one person, Trump even confided he was “just disappointed we lost.”

Trump’s acceptance has taken shape in recent weeks, according to three people who have spoken to Trump in that time span, with one conversation occurring a week ago. Trump admits his defeat, but still maintains he would have won a fair election, they said, despite no concrete evidence emerging of widespread voter fraud. He has even discussed his exit plans from Washington with staff, debating when to move to his South Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, according to one of the people.

Sometimes, Trump does still lapse back into the belief that maybe, just maybe, he could somehow eke out a win, most often when listening to his small group of lawyers, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Chapman University law professor John Eastman.

But mostly, he is continuing his fight to subvert the election for a Trumpian reason: to keep the attention on himself and give his supporters what they want, according to the people who have spoken with him.

[...]

Those around Trump compared the president’s attitude to someone who knows he lost a game, but believe it’s only because the referee made a bad call. “He’s come to terms with the election results,” said one of the three people. “He accepts them, but he doesn’t believe them.”

  Politico

Supreme Court leak investigation update

The May leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion signaling the overturning of Roe v. Wade quashed an attempt by Chief Justice John Roberts to persuade his Republican-appointed colleague, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to vote to preserve abortion rights.

Roberts's attempts at swaying Kavanaugh persisted throughout the spring high court term and into the final week of the session, according to a new CNN report. However, the May 2 leaked draft opinion of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which was ultimately handed down in a 6-3 ruling on June 24 that gave states the ability to restrict or limit abortion access significantly, severely hampered Roberts's abilities when Kavanaugh's intention to strike down Roe became public record.

  Washington Examiner

The Supreme Court won't say whether it's still investigating.

The court also won't say whether the leaker has been identified or whether anyone has been disciplined.

Or whether an outside law firm or the FBI has been called in.

Or whether the court will ever offer an accounting of what transpired.

Or whether it has taken steps to try to prevent a repeat.

To these and other emailed questions, Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said by email: “The Court has no comment.”

  MSN

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

The DOJ investigating Trump

Finally, leaks are coming out.

Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury — including two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence — have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won.

[...]

Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, and lawyer, Greg Jacob, appeared before the grand jury in downtown Washington in recent days, according to the people familiar with the investigation.

[...]

The Washington Post and other news organizations have previously written that the Justice Department is examining the conduct of Eastman, Giuliani and others in Trump’s orbit. But the degree of prosecutors’ interest in Trump’s actions has not been previously reported, nor has the review of senior Trump aides’ phone records.

[...]

Some of the questions focused directly on the extent of Trump’s involvement in the fake-elector effort led by his outside lawyers, including John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani.

[...]

In trying to understand how and why Trump partisans and lawyers sought to change the outcome of the election, one person familiar with the probe said, investigators also want to understand, at a minimum, what Trump told his lawyers and senior officials to do. Any investigation surrounding the effort to undo the results of the election must navigate complex issues of First Amendment-protected political activity and when or whether a person’s speech could become part of an alleged conspiracy in support of a coup.

[...]

There are two principal tracks of the investigation that could ultimately lead to additional scrutiny of Trump.

[...]

The first centers on seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct a government proceeding, the type of charges already filed against individuals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and on two leaders of far-right groups, Stewart Rhodes and Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who did not breach the Capitol but were allegedly involved in planning the day’s events.

The second involves potential fraud associated with the false-electors scheme or with pressure Trump and his allies allegedly put on the Justice Department and others to falsely claim that the election was rigged and votes were fraudulently cast.

[...]

[Attorney General Merrick] Garland told NBC News in a Tuesday interview that the department pursues justice “without fear or favor. We intend to hold everyone, anyone, who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding January 6th, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable — that’s what we do. We don’t pay any attention to other issues with respect to that.”

  WaPo

Also, on the recent Brian Lehrer podcast, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg revealed that, contrary to speculation, his office has not dropped the previous DA's investigation into Trump's financial crimes, and that the trial of Trump Organization's CFO, Allen Weisselberg, on a 15-count indictment, will be held this fall.  Don't expect him to flip on Trump if he didn't do it before being charged.  But, according to Bragg, they are still investigating Trump himself.

2nd 5-year sentence for Capitol riot

“He did so with no intent to do anything but add his voice to the vocal protests over the injustice he perceived had happened in the election,” the lawyer added. “Unfortunately, he got caught up in the riotous atmosphere of the crowd and erroneously perceived the police as standing in the way of the crowd’s desire to protest the election results.”

  alJazeera

And, as you do when you "get caught up":

The prison sentences for Ponder and Palmer may not be the lengthiest for much longer. Prosecutors are seeking a 15-year prison sentence for Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who was convicted of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun. US District Judge Dabney Friedrich is scheduled to sentence Reffitt on Monday.

There's no way!

I think we all know the answer.  Herschel Walker can't afford to debate ANYBODY. Not even a five-year-old.

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

"The floodgates have opened"

I'm here for it.

Marc Short testified to Grand Jury

Marc Short, the former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, appeared before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Short confirmed to ABC News.

Short, in an interview Monday night with ABC News' Linsey Davis, said he was subpoenaed by a grand jury and complied with the subpoena, adding he "really can't comment further than that" upon the advice of his legal counsel.

[...]

"I think that having the Capitol ransacked the way that it was, I think did present liability and danger," he told Davis in the interview. "And I think the Secret Service did a phenomenal job that day. I think that the bigger risk and despite the way perhaps it was characterized in the hearings last week, candidly, is that if the mob had gotten closer to the vice president, I do think there would have been a massacre in the Capitol that day."

  ABC

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...

The war in Ukraine

“The agreement to unblock Odesa would have been impossible without HIMARS. It’s now very clear that the war will end earlier if we arm Ukraine faster,” Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on July 22, referring to Russia’s agreement to allow Ukrainian grain shipments through the Black Sea.

  alJazeera

"The war will end earlier if we arm Ukraine faster" Wow. Whoever could have guessed?

The M142 HIMARS, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems supplied to Ukraine by the United States, have become a symbol of Russian vulnerability.

[...]

Ukraine has reportedly damaged Russian ammunition depots, command posts and air defences using just eight HIMARS launchers.

[...]

These went into service in Ukraine on June 25.

[...]

The attacks have thrown a spanner in Russia’s strategy. Moscow’s main territorial gains in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk came thanks to a concentration of overwhelming superiority of firepower. Ukrainian troops who survived tactical retreats on those fronts spoke of an inability to do anything but take cover. Attacking Russian logistics hubs has allowed Ukraine to undermine the source of Russian power.

[...]

Australian retired major-general Mick Ryan believed that HIMARS have “changed the battlefield calculus in the fight for Ukraine”, allowing Ukrainians to pursue what he calls the “strategy of corrosion” of Russian capabilities and morale, which brought them victory in the battle for Kyiv.

Retired US army general Mark Hertling has called HIMARS a “game changer”, helping Ukraine gain the advantage.

Too bad they couldn't have had them in March.

Military commanders have warned that HIMARS are not a silver bullet given the small number of systems in play. On July 20, the US said it was sending four more, bringing the total up to 16, with an apparent goal of reaching 20.

[...]

Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, recently said Ukraine needs 100 HIMARS launchers to roll back Russia’s territorial gains.

Get a move on.  Twenty isn't going to cut it.

“If there’s a building you’re receiving fire from within the urban environment, you aim at that building from up to 80km (50 miles) away, and within a few minutes of receiving fire you land a rocket on the building in question.”

Yes, we saw that in the US shelling of a hotel in Iraq where journalists were housed.  Never mind, that was a tank.  Or so they said.

By July 16, Ukraine’s defence ministry said Kyiv had destroyed at least 30 logistics hubs deep behind enemy lines. A week later, US Pentagon sources were talking about 100 high-value targets having been hit.

[...]

The United States’s armed forces are to bring an even more advanced HIMARS-launched rocket, the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), with a 500km (310-mile) range, into the field next year. Should that be supplied to regional allies, they would be able to hit in the vicinity of Moscow.

[...]

Poland and the Baltic States have drawn the lesson that they are among the most effective weapons in stopping the Russian advance in Ukraine, and are ordering hundreds of launch systems at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

War is always good for US arms manufacturers. The US survives because of a "defense" economy.

Ukraine’s definition of victory is the complete removal of Russian forces from Crimea and the Donbas region, which broke away in 2014, as well as the territory seized since February 24 this year.

[...]

Given the effective use of HIMARS, some have questioned why Ukraine has not received more.

“We’re trying to be responsible,” a senior US military official recently told one reporter.

By slow rolling the delivery, we're being responsible for more destruction and Ukrainian loss of live.

“We also take a look … that we balance our readiness,” because the HIMARS systems being sent to Ukraine are drawn from US reserves.

In case of attack by Canada or Mexico?

The United Kingdom has announced it is sending an unspecified number of M270 multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine, each of which amounts to a pair of HIMARS.

Good. And they're more likely to need reserves than we are.

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

Not so, Joe

In virtual remarks Monday to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Biden – who was recovering from Covid-19 – said police officers defending the Capitol were “speared, sprayed, stomped on, brutalized” for hours by white nationalists and other Trump sycophants who bought his false claims that he’d been robbed of victory by electoral fraudsters.

“The defeated former president of the United States watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” Biden said, alluding to evidence and testimony staged by the congressional committee investigating the assault during a series of public hearings throughout the summer. “While he was doing that, brave law enforcement officers are subjected to the medieval hell for three hours … dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with a crazed mob that believed the lies of the defeated president.

“The police were heroes that day. Donald Trump lacked the courage to act.”

  The Guardian

Bullshit. We all know that he was encouraged and encouraging of the brutal riot. It's not that he lacked the courage. He lacked the will. He lacked the desire. He lacked the patriotism. He lacked the integrity.

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