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Capitol Insurrection GOP U.S. Senate

Something Josh Hawley Said 2 Days Before January 6 Has Come Back To Bite Him On The A*s

 

Back in January of last year, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) made an appearance on Fox News to discuss what some Republicans were planning to do in order to prevent the 2020 electoral votes from being certified during a joint session of Congress.

In the weeks before Hawley appeared on Fox, then-President Donald Trump and his surrogates had falsely asserted that the election had been stolen, votes had been counted twice, and some states destroyed ballots from historically GOP districts in states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. They never offered any proof of those assertions, but they repeated them day and night on right-wing media, including Fox News.

Hawley, however, seemed to telegraph that something big was planned for Jan. 6 when he was asked by Fox host Bret Baier:

“I want to pin you down on what you’re trying to do. Are you trying to say that Trump will be president after January 20?”

The senator replied:

“Well, that depends on what happens on Wednesday (Jan. 6).”

Baier retorted:

“No, it doesn’t.”

It most certainly didn’t depend on what happened on Wednesday, Jan. 6, because despite the horrific violence that took place that day, Congress reconvened and certified the electoral votes that made Joe Biden 46th President of the United States and relegated Donald Trump to the status of a failed, one-term loser who will likely go down in history as the worst president this country has ever had.

Hawley’s response during that Jan. 4 Fox interview also leaves him squarely in the sights of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6. There’s even the very real possibility that the senator will be subpoenaed for testimony and referred on criminal contempt charges if he refuses to obey the summons.

People like Hawley and others (i.e. Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz) appear to have been part of the larger conspiracy to stage a coup so that Trump could remain in office indefinitely. They should be called out, publicly shamed, and charged with whatever crimes are applicable for their actions.

 

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Fox News

The January 6 Committee Wants To Have A Long Talk With Sean Hannity About His Role In The Capitol Riots

The House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riots and insurrection which left five people dead is leaving no stone unturned, and is even requesting that Fox News host Sean Hannity voluntarily submit to cooperating with the panel, according to Axios.

The Jan. 6 select committee is preparing to ask Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity for his voluntary cooperation with its investigation of the assault on the U.S. Capitol, a source with direct knowledge of the plan tells Axios.

Why it matters: Hannity is one of the most prominent media figures in America and was a close adviser to Donald Trump throughout his presidency. The committee revealed last month that Hannity texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the riot to urge him to get Trump to stop his supporters.

A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment on the possibility of Hannity being called, but Jay Sekulow, an attorney for the Fox News host, raised the predictable red herring of the First Amendment:

 “If true, any such request would raise serious constitutional issues including First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of the press.”

It would? How would asking Hannity to answer questions intrude on his First Amendment protections, especially since he’s not really a journalist and mainly works as a paid propagandist and peddler of conspiracy theories?

While Hannity has condemned the storming of the Capitol, he’s been silent when it comes to criticizing failed, one-term former President Donald Trump for his role in what transpired on Jan. 6. Hannity has also been critical of the House Select Committee.

We already know that Hannity was in contact with then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as the rioting was taking place:

Committee officials have said Hannity was among several Fox News hosts who were texting Meadows during the riot.

“Can he [Trump] make a statement?” Hannity said in the texts, made public in mid-December. “Ask people to leave the Capitol.”

Hannity was also actively involved in the inner workings of the Trump administration, according to reports, Axios notes:

  • One former Trump aide sarcastically referred to Hannity as the “real chief of staff.” That was a gross overstatement, but it spoke to Hannity’s special access to Trump.
  • Such was Hannity’s influence with Trump that officials who wanted to persuade him often turned to the Fox News host to help get their ideas or action items across the line.
  • A phone call from Hannity to Trump carried more sway than a conversation between the president and many members of his own Cabinet.

Will Hannity agree to talk with the committee? What if he’s subpoenaed? If he chooses not to, he could be held in criminal contempt and jailed for up to two years.

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Donald Trump

House 1/6 Committee Is Considering A Charge Of ‘Seditious Conspiracy’ For Donald Trump

A former U.S. Attorney says that it appears the House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection is seriously considering referring failed, one-term former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department on a charge of seditious conspiracy.

Barbara McQuade, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan for seven years, made her remarks during an interview with Andrea Mitchell while appearing on MSNBC.

Mitchell asked McQuade about comments made by Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) the top Republican on the Jan. 6 committee:

“Congresswoman Cheney was saying that there are several criminal statutes in play as to whether or not there could be some enhanced penalties or some issue regarding the former president’s actions that day. What laws do you think could be used against the former president if it’s approved that he was criminally negligent by not calling off the rioters or do you think new laws would have to be enacted?”

McQuade replied:

“No, I think there are current laws on the books that could be applied there. I don’t know that negligence alone is going to be enough, but as Congresswoman Cheney has recited on occasion, there is a crime making it illegal to corruptly impede or obstruct an official proceeding, which includes proceedings before Congress. If he [Trump] had the power to stop that riot from happening and to permit the vote to go forward, his failure to do that could be that effort to corruptly obstruct the official proceeding. It may be, you know.”

And then McQuade brought up the most serious possible charge: Seditious conspiracy:

“We’ve got this 187 minutes when he sat and did nothing despite the fact that he knew that this violence and destruction was occurring. Is it because it was all part of a larger plan? So I think, in addition to that obstruction statute that Congresswoman Cheney has mentioned, I think we could also look at conspiracy to defraud the United States — that just means trying to impede the normal functioning of government — all the way up to seditious conspiracy. I think all of those potential crimes are in play.”

What exactly is the definition of seditious conspiracy? According to 18 U.S. Code § 2384:

“If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”

Twenty years in federal prison. Considering that Donald Trump is already 75, he’d die while incarcerated. And considering what he’s done to this country, he deserves to never see freedom again.

 

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Donald Trump

Bob Woodward: Here’s How The 1/6 Committee Can Prove Trump Is Complicit In The Capitol Insurrection

 

Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward says the House Select Committee on January 6 has a witness who can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that failed ex-President Donald Trump was complicit in the Capitol insurrection.

During an appearance on CNN, Woodward referenced retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who was a longtime Trump ally and is key to finding out exactly what Trump knew and when he knew it:

“Keith Kellogg … is somebody who is a Trump loyalist, but also an institutionalist. He used to say within the White House that Trump and Pence, the vice president, were fire and ice. You can guess who was fire, Trump, and Pence was ice.

“Kellogg, as we found from multiple first-hand witnesses, was with Trump on January 6th, in the office with Trump, begging Trump to tweet out to stop the violence, and he said memorably, ‘Mr. President, not everyone is carrying a television on their shoulder,’ says go out and tweet, and this is a mob and when you have a mob, you have lost it.'”

Trump reportedly refused to heed Kellogg’s warnings, Woodward continued:

“Trump would not respond, and so Kellogg went to find Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, and she went to see Trump, her father, in the Oval Office dining room three times from multiple witnesses, and one of the things she said to President Trump is, let this thing go. Eventually he did tweet but it was delayed.”

That, Woodward concluded, makes Kellogg of major importance for the House Select Committee:

“So in a sense, from the point of view of an investigation, having somebody like Keith Kellogg there who was a participant, who is now under oath, you couldn’t get a better witness. It’s somebody that Republicans would have to look at and say, wait a minute, this is a credible strong person, somebody who served in the military for decades.”

Here’s the video from CNN:

 

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Crime Donald Trump January 6 The Trump Adminstration

Security Expert: DOJ May Have Already Charged Trump’s Associates For Their Role In January 6

Considering what we already know about what transpired on January 6 and the revelations we’ve had from the House Select Committee on the Capitol insurrection, some have suggested that the Justice Department should have begun arresting top Trump administration officials and associates for their role in riots.

Recently, Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe noted that he believes Attorney General Merrick Garland is moving far too slowly:

But what if people have already been arrested and charged without any announcement? Could that have taken place in secret?

Security expert and journalist Marcy Wheeler notes on Twitter that arrests may have been made and the DOJ is now using those people to work their way up the food chain for even bigger fish.

Wheeler, who publishes on her own highly-acclaimed web site, Emptywheel.net, laid out a fascinating premise:

Think about it: Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s so-called “attorney,” Rudy Giuliani, could already have been arrested, booked, and charged with all sorts of crimes related to Jan. 6. Now DOJ prosecutors are getting them to cooperate in exchange for sentencing consideration.

That’s the way the FBI and Justice Department has worked when going after the mafia: They get lower level soldiers in the organization to tell what they know about the capos and bosses. It’s a bottom-up way of dealing with criminal acts that’s been used for decades by law enforcement.

Now that the House Select Committee is about to hold public hearings, it’s not a stretch to suggest we may start seeing who has been charged and some of the court filings that could still be under seal.

Stay tuned.