Category: Capitol Insurrection

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Capitol Insurrection Crime Donald Trump GOP

Mark Meadows Just Testified Before Jack Smith’s Grand Jury – Trump May Be Charged For Jan. 6

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has testified before a grand jury impaneled by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, suggesting that failed ex-president Donald Trump may wind up being charged for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the New York Times.

One inquiry is focused on Mr. Trump’s efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election, culminating in the attack by a pro-Trump mob on the Capitol during congressional certification of the Electoral College results on Jan. 6, 2021. The other is an investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of hundreds of classified documents after he left office and whether he obstructed efforts to retrieve them.

It would certainly seem that Meadows is likely to have more information about what took place on Jan. 6 than what may have happened to classified documents the former president took with him to Mar-a-Lago in violation of federal law.

George Terwilliger, an attorney for Meadows, refused to confirm that his client had appeared before Smith’s grand jury.

“Without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows has testified before the grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.”

Meadows has already been instrumental in helping investigators understand what was taking place inside the White House during the final days of the Trump administration, the Times notes.

Mr. Meadows was around for pivotal moments leading up to and after the 2020 election, as Mr. Trump plotted to try to stay in office and thwart Joseph R. Biden Jr. from being sworn in to succeed him. Some of them were described in hundreds of text messages that Mr. Meadows turned over to the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol before he decided to stop cooperating. Those texts served as a road map for House investigators.

It remains unclear what exactly the special counsel might charge Trump with for his activities surrounding the Capitol insurrection. Recent guilty verdicts against members of the Proud Boys, a domestic terrorist organization, for seditious conspiracy, have led some to suggest that Smith might also seek to prosecute Trump on a similar criminal complaint.

 

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Capitol Insurrection Crime Donald Trump Elections January 6

Former White House Aides Subpoenaed By Jack Smith About Trump’s Ties To Jan. 6 Attack: Report

Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed former Trump administration aides who have knowledge of former president Donald Trump’s possible culpability for the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five people, according to the New York Times.

Smith’s team of prosecutors interviewed former DHS Cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs, whose life was threatened after he said the 2020 presidential election had been free of fraud or improprieties. Trump also fired Krebs for his comments.

The investigators appear focused on Mr. Trump’s state of mind around the firing of Mr. Krebs, as well as on establishing a timeline of events leading up to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021. The latest subpoenas, issued roughly two weeks ago, went to officials in the personnel office, according to the two people familiar with the matter.

Investigators working for the special counsel are also interested in determining if Trump and his allies attempted to evaluate the loyalty of federal officials who were working for the disgraced ex-president at the time of the 2020 election and its aftermath. John McEntee, a former Trump personal aide, who allegedly questioned the loyalty of Krebs and developed a “loyalty test” for administration officials, was “seen going into the grand jury in recent months.”

Sources also told the Times that Smith’s team of prosecutors are looking into how top Trump administration officials approached the Justice Department hoping to the DOJ to declare the results of the 2020 election invalid so that millions of ballots could be destroyed and a new election held in key battleground states that the failed one-term former president lost to Joe Biden.

 

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Capitol Insurrection Donald Trump January 6

Ex-Prosecutors: Proud Boy Guilty Verdicts Make It More Likely Trump Will Be Charged For Jan. 6

The convictions of four members of the domestic terrorist group the Proud Boys in federal court today on charges of seditious conspiracy is a major blow to a group that played a significant role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

But it’s also bad news for failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump according to two legal experts, and it likely means that Special Counsel Jack Smith will be including charges against the ex-president for his role in Jan. 6.

Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said Thursday on CNN, “First of all, these verdicts are a statement; they are proof of concept. Now for the third time we see that the DOJ is fully capable of charging seditious conspiracy and getting convictions.”

Honig added that the model prosecutors used against the Proud Boys could also be used against Trump.

“Also if you look at the way they didn’t have one smoking gun. Instead what they did, was they put together all the evidence, testimony, and documents showing that there was talk of revolution insurrection and that they had a plan to go to the Capitol and stay in coordination,” he noted. “So you can see how that model could be used against Donald Trump and others.”

Another federal prosecutor, Dennis Aftergut, echoed Honig in an op-ed he wrote for MSNBC.

The convictions add to the former president’s legal woes. Recall the first presidential debate in 2020, when Trump famously told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” The effect of that callout to the militants became visible to the nation on Jan. 6, and again to the jury here. At trial, the government introduced a message from one Proud Boy who wrote right after the debate that “Donald has given us a command.” Prosecutors also introduced the group’s messages suggesting that some coordination with the White House may have occurred before Jan. 6.

And that’s bad news for Donald., Aftergut concludes:

With these latest foot soldiers’ convictions, the baton now passes to special counsel Jack Smith and to Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis to complete the task by bringing accountability to the very top. History has been made. There is more to come.

Or, to use Trump’s own words, Stand back and stand by.

 

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Capitol Insurrection GOP January 6

‘Mighty Man’ Josh Hawley Thumps The Bible And Gets Reminded Of His Cowardice On January 6

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has a new book entitled Manhood on the shelves, and he’s trying to drum up sales by pitching it to American men, suggesting that they need to learn what truly makes a man in the 21st century.

Speaking to a conclave called the “Stronger Men’s Conference,” HuffPost reports, the Missouri Republican suggested that it’s important men learn to be a “mighty man of valor,” as it says in the Bible, by using the “strength and valor” given to them by God.

Strength and valor, huh? That’s more than a tad ironic coming from the same insurrection instigator and apologist who raised his fist at protesters on January 6, 2021 and then ran from them like a terrified bunny when he thought they might be a threat to him.

It didn’t take long before Twitter users lit Hawley up for his blatant hypocrisy and lingering cowardice, not exactly the ideal spokesperson for what it means to be a man.

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Capitol Insurrection GOP January 6

Iraq War Vet Humiliates Marjorie Taylor Greene For Visiting Jailed J6 Rioters

Earlier today, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) visited some of the January 6, 2021 rioters who attacked the Capitol and led to the death of five people on that horrific day.

Afterwards, Greene issued a statement in which she praised herself and tried to suggest that the J6 prisoners were somehow being treated unfairly, despite the fact that they participated in an insurrection against the U.S. government at the behest of failed former president Donald Trump.

“We toured the DC Jail today and held a press conference outside the jail after our tour. This man assaulted everyone there by blowing a whistle as loud in as he could in other’s ears and tried multiple times to assault me and other members. My staff and others like this very nice lady did their best to block him. He needs to be arrested and we tried to have him arrested. My staffer called 911 and reached an automated recording for several minutes before reaching a human. Reported the guy. She then asked the jail to send out an officer and they refused. This is just another example out of a million others that the left does repeatedly without accountability. Funny thing is the same guy was outside our press conference at the DOJ in 2021. Sounds like a direct threat, ‘Don’t touch! Touch you die!'”

Not long after Greene made her pilgrimage to the jail in Washington, D.C., Retired U.S. Army Sergeant, Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq War veteran, ripped the congresswoman apart on MSNBC.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and the rest of those far-right Republicans care about January 6 defendants exactly as much as they care about veterans.”

Goldsmith added:

“We are great photo ops for them; we are great fundraising tools for them. But I know from walking around Capitol Hill for years and trying to talk to Republicans about improving veterans’ healthcare, that they will not get involved in anything meaningful, like criminal justice reform. They’re going to send out a bunch of emails, they’re going there to get a bunch of donations from their rubes, and those people are going to still sit in prison because they broke the law.

“That’s where they belong, and they are being treated with due process the way that anybody else who breaks the law is going to get treated. So, you know, I am disappointed to see them do that, but these people disappoint me every day, so it’s not a surprise.”

If you rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, you’re a domestic terrorist and deserve to be treated accordingly. Don’t like it? Then you’d better stay home the next time some American Hitler urges you to march.