Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

More on the leaked Bannon audio.

Leaked Audio: Before Election Day, Bannon Said Trump Planned to Falsely Claim Victory

“That’s our strategy. He’s gonna declare himself a winner.”



On the evening of October 31, 2020, Steve Bannon told a group of associates that President Donald Trump had a plan to declare victory on election night—even if he was losing. Trump knew that the slow counting of Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots meant the returns would show early leads for him in key states. His “strategy” was to use this fact to assert that he had won, while claiming that the inevitable shifts in vote totals toward Joe Biden must be the result of fraud, Bannon explained.

"What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon, laughing, told the group, according to audio of the meeting obtained by Mother Jones. “He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”

“As it sits here today,” Bannon said later in the conversation, describing a scenario in which Trump held an early lead in key swing states, “at 10 or 11 o’clock Trump’s gonna walk in the Oval, tweet out, ‘I’m the winner. Game over. Suck on that.'”

Trump’s plan to falsely declare victory while tens of millions of votes were still being counted was public knowledge even before the election. Axios reported on the scheme at the time. Bannon himself discussed the idea on November 3—Election Day—on his War Room podcast. Weeks earlier, Bannon had interviewed a former Trump administration official who outlined how Trump would use allegations of fraud to dispute an electoral defeat and would seek to have Congress declare him the winner. Last month, the congressional committee investigating January 6 detailed how Rudy Giuliani convinced Trump to go ahead with a victory declaration after 2 a.m. on November 4, over the objections of campaign staff. “Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump insisted in that infamous news conference.

The nearly hourlong audio obtained by Mother Jones is new evidence that Trump’s late-night diatribe—which came a few hours later than Bannon had anticipated—followed a preexisting plan to lie to Americans about the election results in a bid to hold onto power. The new recording stands out for the striking candor and detail with which Bannon described a scheme to use lies to subvert democracy. Bannon also predicted that Trump’s false declaration of victory would lead to widespread political violence, along with “crazy” efforts by Trump to stay in office. Bannon and his associates laughed about those scenarios at various points in the recording.

In a comment sent Wednesday, a Bannon spokesperson argued that Bannon’s statements on the recording are not news. “Nothing on the recording wasn’t already said on War Room or on multiple other shows like The Circus on Showtime,” the spokesperson said. “Bannon gave that lecture multiple times from August to November to counter Mark Elias’ Election Integrity Project.” Elias is a prominent Democratic election lawyer. The spokesperson also said that the January 6 committee “should have the courage to have Mr. Bannon come and testify publicly about these events.”

After Election Day, Bannon became a prominent booster of Trump’s bogus election fraud claims. The Washington Post reported Monday that Bannon’s “vociferous support” for those lies helped convince Trump to grant him a last-minute pardon on unrelated fraud charges. Speaking to Mother Jones, Bannon’s attorney, Robert Costello questioned that reporting. He said that as far as he knew, “Trump never made any” statement linking the pardon to Bannon’s election rhetoric.

Bannon refused last year to cooperate with a January 6 committee subpoena. The Justice Department later charged him with two counts of contempt of Congress. This weekend, he claimed that he now wishes to testify before the committee. But federal prosecutors argued this about face was “irrelevant” to the charges that Bannon had already broken the law. A judge ruled Monday that the trial would go forward next week.

The pre-election audio comes from a meeting between Bannon and a half dozen supporters of Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese mogul for whom Bannon has worked. Bannon helped Guo launch a series of pro-Trump Chinese-language news websites that have promoted an array of far-right misinformation, including a video streaming site called GTV. The meeting was intended to help GTV plan its election night coverage.

Though he did not attend, Guo arranged the confab, which was held in the Washington, DC, townhouse where Bannon tapes War Room, according to a person who was present. That source recorded the meeting and recently provided the audio to Mother Jones. The attendees included Dr. Li Meng Yan, a virologist who had made unsubstantiated claims that Covid was designed by China as a bioweapon—claims that Bannon had helped to propagate. Also there was Wang Dinggang, a GTV host who had helped to spread false claims about Hunter Biden.

Speaking to this group of mostly Chinese immigrants, Bannon explained US electoral processes—and Trump’s plans to exploit them—in some detail. He emphasized that in 2020, Republicans were more likely to vote in person, casting ballots that, in many states, would be counted first. Democrats disproportionately voted by mail. Their ballots would take days to tally in a number of states. That meant that when it came to public perceptions about who was winning, Democrats would “have a natural disadvantage,” Bannon said. “And Trump’s going to take advantage of it. That’s our strategy. He’s gonna declare himself a winner.”

“So when you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm,” Bannon continued. “You’re going to have antifa, crazy. The media, crazy. The courts are crazy. And Trump’s gonna be sitting there mocking, tweeting s**t out: ‘You lose. I’m the winner. I’m the king.'”

It’s not clear how much influence Bannon, who had previously been Trump’s top White House strategist before being ousted, really wielded over Trump at this time. But Bannon has suggested that he was a key architect of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results and has reportedly asserted that he convinced Trump to make January 6 a moment of reckoning in that bid. Bannon was also among the Trump associates who gathered in a set of rooms and suites in the Willard Hotel on January 6 to advise on the president’s attempt to remain in power.

Bannon’s remarks to Guo’s supporters indicate that he was working with a group, led by Giuliani, that wanted Trump to take particularly aggressive steps to contest unfavorable election results. Other advisers have said they opposed these steps. Bannon said during the October 31 meeting that he was collaborating closely with Giuliani, who was preparing to oversee Trump’s planned legal efforts.

Bannon’s meeting with Guo’s associates occurred a few weeks after Bannon, working with Giuliani, had provided the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop to the New York Post. Bannon acknowledged in the recording that he had also helped supply Guo supporters with this material. As Mother Jones has reported, Guo then directed his backers to put sex videos and other salacious content from the laptop online. Bannon praised Guo’s effort during the meeting, saying it had helped slow Biden’s momentum. That left Biden with little prospect of a resounding election night victory that Trump wouldn’t easily be able to contest, Bannon added.

As  result, any chance for a “peaceful resolution of this is probably gone,” Bannon said. “Because the other three alternatives [are], either Biden’s up slightly and Trump says he stole it, right, and he’s not leaving. Or it’s undefined and we can’t figure out who’s leading, and Trump’s saying he’s stealing it, and he’s not leaving. Or, Trump’s leading, which is the one where they’re gonna burn the city down.”

Bannon expressed the belief that Trump actually winning would lead to violence by the left. But he also said that Trump falsely claiming he’d won—a strategy Bannon was cheering on—would probably cause violence too. And Bannon emphasized that election night would mark the start of a battle for power in which Trump would try to stop the votes of people who opposed him from being counted, while Democrats would try to use invalid ballots to defeat him. Democrats, Bannon claimed, “steal elections all the time.”

Election Day 2020 would not be like others, Bannon said. “This is a revolution,” he explained. “This election just triggers more fighting.”

Bannon also said during this meeting that once the voting was done, Trump would be unencumbered by electoral pressure. “Here’s the thing. After then, Trump never has to go to a voter again,” Bannon said. “He’s gonna fire [Christopher] Wray, the FBI director…He’s gonna say ‘F*** you. How about that?’ Because…he’s done his last election. Oh, he’s going to be off the chain—he’s gonna be crazy.”

Bannon also said he expected that Trump would quickly fire CIA Director Gina Haspel, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“If Trump is losing by 10 or 11 o’clock at night, it’s going to be even crazier. No, because he’s gonna sit right there and say, ‘They stole it. I’m directing the attorney general to shut down all ballot places in all 50 states,'” Bannon said. “He’s not going out easy. If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy s***.”

Listen to leaked audio:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/leaked-audio-steve-bannon-trump-2020-election-declare-victory/

[Rick Plant]

Gas ended the day at $4.48, 55 cents lower than it was on June 16th. 

Given that rising gas prices accounted for at least of our recent inflation this precipitous, ongoing drop is a dramatic and very positive economic event.

Some gas math:

1/20/21 - $2.40 a gallon
1/1/22   - $3.22
6/16/22 - $5.03
7/10/22 - $4.68, down 35 cents in last 3 weeks
7/19/22 - $4.48, down 20 cents from last week, down 53 cents in the past month, an 11% drop   
69% of the increase in gas prices came from Putin.

Refusal of Republicans to acknowledge benefits his war against the Ukraine and the West, betrays our national interest.




Due to this dramatic decline all of the increase of gas prices putting current prices outside of historic norms are due to Putin's aggression.

Instead of uniting to fight Putin's tax on Americans, the GOP is covering for him and campaigning with his allies. They are traitors.   

Prime Minister of Hungary to join Donald Trump at CPAC event in Dallas
https://www.audacy.com/krld/news/local/prime-minister-of-hungary-to-join-donald-trump-cpac-dallas

The blaming of Biden for higher gas prices is a lie, a conspiracy theory, and is aiding Putin's war effort for it deflects blame from him with US voters. Gas prices are high worldwide and even higher than the United States. Putin's war in Ukraine caused these gas prices to skyrocket worldwide.   

Continued alignment of GOP against US/Western interests should be getting far more attention, but the mainstream media has largely ignored it. So much for the "Liberal Media" that right wingers lie about. If it was so "liberal",  the GOP alignment of supporting Putin's interests would be shouted from the mountain tops.

Let's also not forget that the GOP continues to vote against funding Ukraine which is in our national security interests.

The GOP and Faux "News" hacks have been cozying up to Orban and want his fascist style government to replace our democracy.

Look at what the GOP has been doing as of late: banning books, targeting teachers & doctors, targeting LGBTQ people with hate laws, going after companies like Disney for not discriminating gays, taking away free speech in Florida, restricting voting rights, forcing women to give birth and controlling women's bodies which are all the hallmarks of fascism under a dictatorship.

The GOP is controlling what you can read, what can be taught, what you can say, what you do with your own body, and where you can travel. Yes, that's fascism as we no longer have the freedom to what we want. Fascist Republicans are controlling what we do in our lives.

Republicans are not allowing pregnant women in red states to go out of state to seek an abortion during a medical emergency under their "no exception abortion law". Yes that's fascism, as we no longer have the freedom to do what we want. We have to do what the state tells us to do, and that's what the GOP is enforcing with their radical laws which are the same laws Orban has in Hungary. That's what the GOP wants in ALL 50 states, they want us to be another Hungary. 
                     
Hungary election: PM Viktor Orban criticises Ukraine's Zelensky as he wins vote
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60977917

GOP leaders are openly promoting on American soil Putin's most important European ally Viktor Orban, and one which evidence shows, who was involved in attacking the US.

Illiberal, unpatriotic, betrayal, compromised - we find to the words to describe what's happening here with these GOP traitors. 

NEW: During the US presidential election in 2016, Russian hackers used a Hungarian gov't computer to disguise international data traffic needed for attacks against the US. Then it all happened again in 2020.

https://twitter.com/panyiszabolcs/status/1547871241813389319

Most of the inflation America is currently experiencing is coming from Putin's war on Ukraine. 

If you are mad about high gas prices and inflation you should be mad at Putin and his enablers in the U.S. aka the GOP.

https://twitter.com/michael_hendrix/status/1547924293991817216

[Rick Plant]

More on the leaked Bannon audio.

Leaked Audio: Before Election Day, Bannon Said Trump Planned to Falsely Claim Victory

“That’s our strategy. He’s gonna declare himself a winner.”



On the evening of October 31, 2020, Steve Bannon told a group of associates that President Donald Trump had a plan to declare victory on election night—even if he was losing. Trump knew that the slow counting of Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots meant the returns would show early leads for him in key states. His “strategy” was to use this fact to assert that he had won, while claiming that the inevitable shifts in vote totals toward Joe Biden must be the result of fraud, Bannon explained.

"What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon, laughing, told the group, according to audio of the meeting obtained by Mother Jones. “He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”

“As it sits here today,” Bannon said later in the conversation, describing a scenario in which Trump held an early lead in key swing states, “at 10 or 11 o’clock Trump’s gonna walk in the Oval, tweet out, ‘I’m the winner. Game over. Suck on that.'”

Trump’s plan to falsely declare victory while tens of millions of votes were still being counted was public knowledge even before the election. Axios reported on the scheme at the time. Bannon himself discussed the idea on November 3—Election Day—on his War Room podcast. Weeks earlier, Bannon had interviewed a former Trump administration official who outlined how Trump would use allegations of fraud to dispute an electoral defeat and would seek to have Congress declare him the winner. Last month, the congressional committee investigating January 6 detailed how Rudy Giuliani convinced Trump to go ahead with a victory declaration after 2 a.m. on November 4, over the objections of campaign staff. “Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump insisted in that infamous news conference.

The nearly hourlong audio obtained by Mother Jones is new evidence that Trump’s late-night diatribe—which came a few hours later than Bannon had anticipated—followed a preexisting plan to lie to Americans about the election results in a bid to hold onto power. The new recording stands out for the striking candor and detail with which Bannon described a scheme to use lies to subvert democracy. Bannon also predicted that Trump’s false declaration of victory would lead to widespread political violence, along with “crazy” efforts by Trump to stay in office. Bannon and his associates laughed about those scenarios at various points in the recording.

In a comment sent Wednesday, a Bannon spokesperson argued that Bannon’s statements on the recording are not news. “Nothing on the recording wasn’t already said on War Room or on multiple other shows like The Circus on Showtime,” the spokesperson said. “Bannon gave that lecture multiple times from August to November to counter Mark Elias’ Election Integrity Project.” Elias is a prominent Democratic election lawyer. The spokesperson also said that the January 6 committee “should have the courage to have Mr. Bannon come and testify publicly about these events.”

After Election Day, Bannon became a prominent booster of Trump’s bogus election fraud claims. The Washington Post reported Monday that Bannon’s “vociferous support” for those lies helped convince Trump to grant him a last-minute pardon on unrelated fraud charges. Speaking to Mother Jones, Bannon’s attorney, Robert Costello questioned that reporting. He said that as far as he knew, “Trump never made any” statement linking the pardon to Bannon’s election rhetoric.

Bannon refused last year to cooperate with a January 6 committee subpoena. The Justice Department later charged him with two counts of contempt of Congress. This weekend, he claimed that he now wishes to testify before the committee. But federal prosecutors argued this about face was “irrelevant” to the charges that Bannon had already broken the law. A judge ruled Monday that the trial would go forward next week.

The pre-election audio comes from a meeting between Bannon and a half dozen supporters of Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese mogul for whom Bannon has worked. Bannon helped Guo launch a series of pro-Trump Chinese-language news websites that have promoted an array of far-right misinformation, including a video streaming site called GTV. The meeting was intended to help GTV plan its election night coverage.

Though he did not attend, Guo arranged the confab, which was held in the Washington, DC, townhouse where Bannon tapes War Room, according to a person who was present. That source recorded the meeting and recently provided the audio to Mother Jones. The attendees included Dr. Li Meng Yan, a virologist who had made unsubstantiated claims that Covid was designed by China as a bioweapon—claims that Bannon had helped to propagate. Also there was Wang Dinggang, a GTV host who had helped to spread false claims about Hunter Biden.

Speaking to this group of mostly Chinese immigrants, Bannon explained US electoral processes—and Trump’s plans to exploit them—in some detail. He emphasized that in 2020, Republicans were more likely to vote in person, casting ballots that, in many states, would be counted first. Democrats disproportionately voted by mail. Their ballots would take days to tally in a number of states. That meant that when it came to public perceptions about who was winning, Democrats would “have a natural disadvantage,” Bannon said. “And Trump’s going to take advantage of it. That’s our strategy. He’s gonna declare himself a winner.”

“So when you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm,” Bannon continued. “You’re going to have antifa, crazy. The media, crazy. The courts are crazy. And Trump’s gonna be sitting there mocking, tweeting s**t out: ‘You lose. I’m the winner. I’m the king.'”

It’s not clear how much influence Bannon, who had previously been Trump’s top White House strategist before being ousted, really wielded over Trump at this time. But Bannon has suggested that he was a key architect of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results and has reportedly asserted that he convinced Trump to make January 6 a moment of reckoning in that bid. Bannon was also among the Trump associates who gathered in a set of rooms and suites in the Willard Hotel on January 6 to advise on the president’s attempt to remain in power.

Bannon’s remarks to Guo’s supporters indicate that he was working with a group, led by Giuliani, that wanted Trump to take particularly aggressive steps to contest unfavorable election results. Other advisers have said they opposed these steps. Bannon said during the October 31 meeting that he was collaborating closely with Giuliani, who was preparing to oversee Trump’s planned legal efforts.

Bannon’s meeting with Guo’s associates occurred a few weeks after Bannon, working with Giuliani, had provided the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop to the New York Post. Bannon acknowledged in the recording that he had also helped supply Guo supporters with this material. As Mother Jones has reported, Guo then directed his backers to put sex videos and other salacious content from the laptop online. Bannon praised Guo’s effort during the meeting, saying it had helped slow Biden’s momentum. That left Biden with little prospect of a resounding election night victory that Trump wouldn’t easily be able to contest, Bannon added.

As  result, any chance for a “peaceful resolution of this is probably gone,” Bannon said. “Because the other three alternatives [are], either Biden’s up slightly and Trump says he stole it, right, and he’s not leaving. Or it’s undefined and we can’t figure out who’s leading, and Trump’s saying he’s stealing it, and he’s not leaving. Or, Trump’s leading, which is the one where they’re gonna burn the city down.”

Bannon expressed the belief that Trump actually winning would lead to violence by the left. But he also said that Trump falsely claiming he’d won—a strategy Bannon was cheering on—would probably cause violence too. And Bannon emphasized that election night would mark the start of a battle for power in which Trump would try to stop the votes of people who opposed him from being counted, while Democrats would try to use invalid ballots to defeat him. Democrats, Bannon claimed, “steal elections all the time.”

Election Day 2020 would not be like others, Bannon said. “This is a revolution,” he explained. “This election just triggers more fighting.”

Bannon also said during this meeting that once the voting was done, Trump would be unencumbered by electoral pressure. “Here’s the thing. After then, Trump never has to go to a voter again,” Bannon said. “He’s gonna fire [Christopher] Wray, the FBI director…He’s gonna say ‘F*** you. How about that?’ Because…he’s done his last election. Oh, he’s going to be off the chain—he’s gonna be crazy.”

Bannon also said he expected that Trump would quickly fire CIA Director Gina Haspel, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“If Trump is losing by 10 or 11 o’clock at night, it’s going to be even crazier. No, because he’s gonna sit right there and say, ‘They stole it. I’m directing the attorney general to shut down all ballot places in all 50 states,'” Bannon said. “He’s not going out easy. If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy s***.”

Listen to leaked audio:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/leaked-audio-steve-bannon-trump-2020-election-declare-victory/

So, this audio confirms what we all knew about how Criminal Donald and his henchmen were going to steal the election from us. We heard from reporting this is what they were going to do, but this audio is clear documented evidence coming from Bannon himself describing in detail their treasonous coup attempt.   

It was obvious Criminal Donald was going to lose badly which is why all these insane schemes were concocted even BEFORE Election Day.

Imagine coming out on tv to declare he won even before all the votes were counted. Did this idiot think people would actually go along with that?

After their schemes failed miserably, they took it a step further trying to get fake electors to take over the real electors to vote for Criminal Donald in the states he lost. When that didn't work, he cslled up the Georgia Secretary of State wanting him to find a specific number of votes to help him win the state. When that failed, as a last resort, he incited an insurrection to trying to stop Biden's vote certification.

All of this proves Criminal Donald knew he lost and was looking for any way to stay in power including inciting his MAGA mob to riot and take over our U.S. Capitol.

Let's not forget that the Republican Party and the right wing media were all in cahoots together trying to keep an illegitimate fraud illegally in power all because they didn't want to lose when they lost badly. They spread his election lies, refused to certify Biden's election victory, incited the MAGA base, and they now defend the rioters who took over our Capitol. All of them knew they were lying, but went through with it anyway because they were thirsty for power.   

These are the same criminals who falsely attack and lie about Biden each day and the ones who want to take over our government so they can make laws based on their QAnon conspiracy theories and radical evangelical religion. This is already happening in red states right now, and they want to take over our government to make these insane laws federal which we all would be forced to live under.

What this audio proves is premeditated intent to commit fraud against the United States in an act of treason. All of these criminals responsible need to rot in prison.                             

[Rick Plant]

For 4 years, Donnie told us that he would get Mexico to pay for a wall. He was an absolute failure because Mexico didn't fork over one dime as U.S. tax payers got stuck with the bill instead.

So, the "great negotiator" couldn't get Mexico to pay for border security.

Well, just the other day, President Biden met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López and got him to pay $1.5 Billion for border security. President Biden was easily able to get done what Criminal Donald could never do. The right wing media and right wing politicians are silent as a mouse, as President Biden achieved a huge accomplishment by getting Mexico to pay for their immigration problem. Remember, it was Criminal Donald who made a mess at the border for Biden to deal with but Biden got the deal done. Results matter and Biden made the deal.

Criminal Donald also promised us "new big beautiful infrastructure" he claimed would pass each week. That never happened either. President Biden passed the largest Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill in American history in his first few months in office and projects have already started all over the country. Republican are all talk and no action. Democrats are getting the results that Americans ask for.

President Biden promised he would combat illegal immigration and bring us new infrastructure. Biden also promised he could work across the aisle with Republicans to get important legislation passed. And he did more than once. He accomplished both Infrastructure and Border Security in less than a year. That's what REAL leadership brings. Donnie failed miserably each time and Biden came shining through with the results. We better not hear anymore right wing conspiracy theories from Trump supporters about a phony "Biden Border Crisis" when it was Criminal Donald who handed Biden the crisis. It was President Biden who got this deal done to make Mexico pay for their immigration problem. That's another Biden win and another Trump disaster taken care of. 

Mexico agrees to provide $1.5 billion to help U.S. manage migrants on southern border
The agreement was discussed Tuesday when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with President Joe Biden at the White House.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/mexico-agrees-provide-15-billion-help-us-manage-migrants-southern-bord-rcna37889

Yes, There’s a Crisis on the Border. And It’s Trump’s Fault.
April 05, 2019
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/05/border-crisis-donald-trump-226573/

[Rick Plant]

MAGA rioters ‘both wept’ as they were sentenced to over 3 years in prison for J6 violence: report



Two supporters of Donald Trump cried in court on Friday as they were sentenced for their role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Two New York state men who led a mob that overwhelmed police at the perimeter of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — then bodysurfed over the top of the crowd at a building entrance and pepper-sprayed officers — were both sentenced Friday to 44 months in prison," The New York Times reported. "Cody Mattice, 29, of Greece, N.Y., and James Mault, 30, of Brockport, N.Y., both wept as they stood before Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell and asked for leniency, apologizing for their actions and saying they hoped to return soon to their families and young children. But Howell noted that prosecutors had already cut them a reasonable deal by dropping charges that could have led to far more prison time, and she imposed the sentences requested by the government. Only four other Jan. 6 defendants have been sentenced to longer prison terms."

Judge Howell said, "they were not patriots on Jan. 6, and no one who broke the police lines and stopped the democratic process was a patriot that day."

Mattice reportedly took video of the two.

"Text messages obtained by the FBI showed that Mattice and Mault planned for violence on Jan. 6, initially expecting resistance from antifa. They texted family members during the mayhem, and then congratulated each other in the days after the riot, which temporarily halted the certification of the presidential election," the newspaper reported. "Howell read from many of the messages, using the same profanity the men had."

The two men pleaded guilty in April.

"Shortly before the police line was breached, Mault attempted to convince officers to stand down and join with the mob," the DOJ announced. "At approximately 2:30 p.m., Mattice pulled down a segment of the metal barricades that stood in front of a police line. He quickly grabbed it with both hands, pulling it away from officers and onto the ground. A short time later, rioters overwhelmed the police line, forcing officers to retreat up a central staircase to the Lower West Terrace. Mattice and Mault were part of the group that assaulted the police line. They stood at or near the front of the group, pushing forward against the officers, who attempted to keep the rioters from advancing."

Both men maced officers.

"At approximately 4 p.m., Mattice and Mault approached the tunnel leading into the Capitol Building from the Lower West Terrace," DOJ said. "They attempted to push through the crowd and climbed up and body-surfed over other rioters. After reaching the tunnel, they grabbed onto and hung from the wooden frame surrounding the arch. Mattice reached out to another rioter and grabbed a small object appearing to be a canister. He then sprayed chemical spray at police officers. After doing so, Mattice fell back and into the crowd. Mault likewise obtained a small canister containing chemical spray from another member of the crowd, and he, too, sprayed it at officers defending the tunnel."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Fingered: Meet the notorious Trump operative who delivered the false elector lists



Politico on Friday identified the Donald Trump aide who delivered lists of fake electors in a bid to get them to Mike Pence.

"Mike Roman, then Trump’s 2020 director of Election Day operations, delivered those false elector certificates — signed by pro-Trump activists in Michigan and Wisconsin — to Rep. Mike Kelly’s (R-PA) chief of staff at the time, both people told Politico," Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu reported. "Kelly was a Trump ally in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, and his then-top aide received the documents from Roman before deputizing a colleague to disseminate copies on Capitol Hill, according to both people."

Roman was subpoenaed in February by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"The origin of the false elector lists, which never got to Pence before he presided over certification of Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, has become an enduring subplot in the select panel’s investigation of the Capitol attack designed to disrupt that day," Politico reported. "After the committee revealed the role of a top aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) in the episode during a hearing last month, Johnson said the false elector lists came from Kelly — who has repeatedly denied any involvement by his office in their distribution."

Kelly chief of staff Matt Stroia was reportedly the intermediary.

The Trump White House did not announce Roman's hiring.

"Mike Roman, a longtime Republican opposition researcher who worked for billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch before joining the Trump campaign, is now the White House’s director of special projects and research," ProPublica reported in May of 2017. "He is one of a half-dozen unannounced hires the White House has made since President Trump took office. Roman, who led the Kochs’ surveillance and intelligence-gathering unit before it was disbanded in April 2016, is best known for promoting a video showing members of the New Black Panthers allegedly intimidating voters outside a Philadelphia polling place in 2008."

"ProPublica noted "Roman, who made roughly $246,000 in salary from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners, according to his financial disclosure, was also a contributor to the conservative news site Breitbart and was tapped to run Trump's 'election protection' poll-watching efforts this November."

Roman would again run Trump's election day operation in 2020 and has a long history of election activism.

"A veteran Republican operative who got his start in politics by helping to persuade a judge to throw out hundreds of mail-in ballots is organizing an 'army' of volunteers for President Donald Trump’s campaign to monitor voting in Democratic-leaning areas on Tuesday," the AP reported on election day. "Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day Operations, is a former White House aide from Pennsylvania who gathered claims in 1993 of voter fraud, resulting in a court ruling overturning election results and getting his candidate seated in the Pennsylvania State Senate. It’s a strategy that Trump has been advocating on Twitter and on the stump."

In 2015, Politico reported on Roman under the heading, "The Koch intelligence agency."

"The political network helmed by Charles and David Koch has quietly built a secretive operation that conducts surveillance and intelligence gathering on its liberal opponents, viewing it as a key strategic tool in its efforts to reshape American public life," Kenneth Vogel reported. "The competitive intelligence team has a staff of 25, including one former CIA analyst, and operates from one of the non-descript Koch network offices clustered near the Courthouse metro stop in suburban Arlington, Va."

A former official with the group described Roman, who was paid $286,000 the previous year.

“They act all cloak and dagger – like the CIA. There was a joke about how hardly anyone ever met Mike Roman. It was like, if you wanted to find him, he’d be in a trench coat on the National Mall,” said the former official.

The select committee subpoena says, "it appears" Roman "helped direct" Trump staffers on the phony electors scheme.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

3 men linked to Russian spies were in 'unhinged' Dec. 18 Oval Office meeting with Trump: report



One of America's top counterintelligence experts revealed his thoughts on SaPersonay on the three men linked to sanctioned Russian spies who were present for a key White House meeting plotting Donald Trump's coup attempt.

"Four days after the electors met across the country and made Joe Biden the president elect, Donald Trump was still trying to find a way to hang on to the presidency," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said in Tuesday's public hearing of the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"On Friday, December 18th, his team of outside advisers paid him a surprise visit in the White House that would quickly become the stuff of legend," Raskin explained. "The meeting has been called unhinged, not normal and the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency. The outside lawyers who'd been involved in dozens of failed lawsuits had lots of theories supporting the big lie, but no evidence to support it."

At the meeting, the group discussed the idea of using the U.S. military to seize voting machines.

"In the wee hours of December 19th, dissatisfied with his options, Donald Trump decided to call for a large and wild crowd on Wednesday, January 6th, the day when Congress would meet to certify the electoral votes," Raskin explained. "Never before in American history had a president called for a crowd to come contest the counting of electoral votes by Congress or engaged in any effort designed to influence, delay, or obstruct the joint session of Congress in doing its work required by our Constitution and the Electoral Count Act. As we'll see, Donald Trump's 1:42 AM tweet electrified and galvanized his supporters, especially the dangerous extremists in the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government."

In a thread posted to Twitter, former FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok noticed a pattern among some of the participants. Strzok had also headed the FBI's counterespionage section.

Strzok said the meeting had 'staggering counterintelligence issues' presented by three of those in attendance.

"Mike Flynn, who who was paid by an organ of Russian state media to travel to Moscow to attend a dinner where he was seated next to Putin. Flynn later plead guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian Ambassador about election interference," he noted.

"Patrick Byrne, one of several men once in an intimate relationship with convicted Russian agent Marina Butina. Byrne gave money to Butina after her return to Russia, where she ran for the Duma, hounded Navalny, and supported the invasion of Ukraine," Strzok continued. "Rudy Giuliani, who repeatedly met with and took info from sanctioned Russian agents like Andrii Derkach, despite USIC warnings to the White House in 2019 that Trump’s personal lawyer 'was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence.'"

"So in this tiny meeting in the Oval Office where options to upend US democracy were advanced to the President of the United States, there were not one, not two, but three people directly linked to sanctioned and convicted agents of the Russian government," Strzok noted. "While I doubt Russia planned it, their efforts to gain access to Trump’s inner sanctum succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. And it demonstrates just how successful seemingly amateurish intelligence activity can be."

He included a Russian Foreign Ministry photo from inside the Oval Office of Trump meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The meeting occurred in May of 2017, one day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for investigating Russia's successful efforts to help Trump win the 2016 election.

"President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State," The Washington Post reported a few days later. "A Russian photographer took photos of part of the session that were released by the Russian state-owned Tass news agency. No U.S. news organization was allowed to attend any part of the meeting."

Here is the thread Strzok posted to Twitter:

Read: https://twitter.com/petestrzok/status/1548315766767792128


Legal expert offers roadmap to indict Trump on manslaughter charges

In a column for MSNBC, former U.S Attorney Barbara McQuade suggested there is enough evidence revealed so far during the Jan 6th House committee hearings on the Capitol insurrection that a case could be made to indict Donald Trump on multiple charges of manslaughter.

According to the former federal prosecutor, the committee is focusing on possible sedition or criminal conspiracy referral to the Justice Department, but another avenue to holding the former president to account for the Capitol riot he encouraged would be to nail him for the lives lost that day.

Noting, "Five people died in the Jan. 6 attack. Officer Brian Sicknick sustained a fatal stroke a day after rioters sprayed him with a chemical irritant. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot by police when she tried to climb through a window and enter the House chamber. A Georgia woman, Rosanne Boyland, was crushed by fellow rioters as they pushed their way against the police outside a Capitol door. Kevin Greeson, an Alabama man, died of a heart attack in a sea of Trump supporters on the sidewalk west of the building. Benjamin Philips of Pennsylvania died of a stroke during the assault on the Capitol," McQuade claimed it would not be unreasonable to pin their deaths on Trump due to his negligent actions that day.

Writing, "Under federal law, involuntary manslaughter occurs when a person commits an act on federal property without due care that it might produce death," she explained that Trump's refusal to step in when advised repeatedly by close advisors -- including his children -- that people could get hurt could serve as a starting point for multiple charges of negligent manslaughter.

"It was not until the 187th minute of the riot that Trump put out a video-recorded statement asking the mob to go home. I believe his three hours of inaction could amount to an omission necessary to prove that first element of manslaughter," she wrote. "For criminal liability, prosecutors must show not just simple negligence, but gross negligence, an extreme deviation from the standard of care. Here, Trump certainly was aware, or should have been aware, of the risk of death at the Capitol. And yet he failed to take action. Testimony from staffers who urged him to act will be important at the upcoming hearing, especially for establishing a failure to take due care."

As she notes, "Under DOJ’s Principles of Federal Prosecution, prosecutors should generally charge the most serious, readily provable offense," and that it is debatable that manslaughter charges could take precedence over sedition charges.

"Charging one crime does not preclude charging another, and indictments may include multiple counts. Here, charging manslaughter would not prevent DOJ from also charging Trump with other serious crimes," she suggested before offering, "If sufficient evidence can be assembled to prove conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding or seditious conspiracy, those charges can and should be filed as well to encompass the full scope of his apparent misconduct."

You can read more here:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/did-trump-commit-manslaughter-jan-6-committee-doj-should-find-n1297314


Right-wing lawyer advised Trump to use 'martial law' in effort to overturn election

According to a bombshell report from the New York Times, around Christmas day in 2020 Donald Trump spoke on the phone with a right-wing lawyer for advice on using martial law as a mechanism to overturn the presidential election results.

The reports note that the new evidence Trump conspired to steal the election comes from notes made by attorney William J. Olson about his conversation with the former president who was at Mar-a-Lago at the time.

According to the Times' Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater, "The lawyer, William J. Olson, was promoting extreme ideas to the president that Mr. Olson later conceded could be regarded as tantamount to declaring 'martial law' and could even invite comparisons with Watergate. They included tampering with the Justice Department and firing the acting attorney general, according to the Dec. 28 memo by Mr. Olson, titled 'Preserving Constitutional Order,' describing their discussions."

According to the report, Olson wrote, "Our little band of lawyers is working on a memorandum that explains exactly what you can do,” with the Times adding he marked his notes, "privileged and confidential” and also added "The media will call this martial law. That is ‘fake news.’”

"The document highlights the previously unreported role of Mr. Olson in advising Mr. Trump as the president was increasingly turning to extreme, far-right figures outside the White House to pursue options that many of his official advisers had told him were impossible or unlawful, in an effort to cling to power," the Times is reporting. "The involvement of a person like Mr. Olson, who now represents the conspiracy theorist and MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, underscores how the system that would normally insulate a president from rogue actors operating outside of official channels had broken down within weeks after the 2020 election."

You can read more here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/16/us/politics/trump-olson-lindell-election.html

[Rick Plant]

Secret Service may be too close to Trump — and they might even be co-conspirators: impeachment lawyer

Former impeachment lawyer and White House ethics czar Norm Eisen speculated whether there were Secret Service agents who are part of Donald Trump's plot to overthrow the government.

Norm Eisen @NormEisen

Here we go @cnn to discuss the mystery of the Secret Service.

Are there a few bad apples in there who are co-conspirators in Donald Trump‘s possible obstruction of justice and witness tampering?

i’ll discuss w/ @FWhitfield a little after 3:40 PM ET

it’s clear there is a witness intimidation campaign

it appears that some at the Secret Service are part of it

now the question is how the new document distruction allegations relate

I’ll discuss tomorrow, Sunday, @CNN at 7AM et & again mid afternoon https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/07/potential-charges-trump-witness-intimidation.html

https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/1548754304382664706

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Eisen said that his questions go deeper than just the text messages but about the alliances that the law enforcement agents have with the former president.

"I think that the questions have a larger significance than just whether texts were lost or not," he began. "I'm more concerned that after Cassidy Hutchinson testified, after the blockbuster testimony about Donald Trump's anger that he couldn't go to the Capitol, that some in the Secret Service seem to be part of an anonymous whisper campaign disagreeing with her story. Mr. [Anthony] Ornato, Mr. [Bobby] Engel. And then you find out there have been other witnesses who have come forward and pushed back on that, including a member of the MPD. And now we find out that documents may be missing from the critical days of the 5th and the 6th."

He went on to explain that the committee should be looking into possible legal issues and obstruction of justice charges.

"Was there any intentional effort to obstruct justice here as part of Donald Trump's Secret Service agents being too close to Donald Trump? We don't know the answer, but that needs to get a hard look from the service, from congress, and from the Department of Justice," he said.

Eisen went on to say that he thinks the committee will get to the bottom of what happened and that the DOJ will take a deeper look into a pattern of behavior. That will likely include "the Secret Service agents who may have been a little too close to Mr. Trump. Were they part of an effort to intimidate Cassidy Hutchinson? We need answers on the lost documents and on the behavior of these individuals."

See the panel discussion below:

Right-wing militias will succeed with their next coup attempt after learning their lessons from Jan. 6: extremism expert

Appearing on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show" early Sunday morning, extremism analyst Kristopher Goldsmith claimed that far-right militia groups like the Proud Boys are paying close attention to House select committee hearings on Jan 6th insurrection and taking notes on what not to do the next time they are given a chance.

Speaking with host Phang, Goldsmith that, for far-right extremists, Jan 6th was a learning experience and the lessons they took away from that day will help them in the future.

"You are very plugged into this world of extremism," host Phang began. "How have members have this group reacted to the January 6th hearings? How will it affect their tactics moving forward?"

"To be frank, they are not reacting, it's like the hearings are not happening," he replied. "Right now, organizations like the Proud Boys are securing seats on the Republican Executive Committee in Miami; this is where Jeb Bush grew his base of power years ago. Now over half a dozen members or former members of the Proud Boys are on the Republican Executive Committee in Miami - Dade."

"We are looking at an evolution of the fascist wing of the far-right extremist Republican Party that is not afraid of law enforcement," he continued. " I mean they learned their lesson, don't fail at a coup and the next time they are going to be successful. And it's going to be because they have people in power who aren't just afraid of them but are truly on their team."

Watch Video Below: