1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

New video shows Proud Boys ignored their own orders against violence during Jan. 6 riot



Newly revealed video shows Proud Boys leaders calling on members to remain orderly and professional during the Jan. 6, 2021, march that turned into the U.S. Capitol riot.

Enrique Tarrio and some of his top lieutenants met Dec. 30, 2020, for a video conference to found the right-wing paramilitary group's Ministry of Self-Defense, and they told group members to remain in a defensive posture for their march the following week and keep "normies" away from them, but that's not what happened, reported the New York Times.

We’re never going to be the ones to cross the police barrier or cross something in order to get to somebody,” Tarrio said.

The extremist group's members played an aggressive and apparently coordinated role in breaking into the Capitol, and Tarrio and several other Proud Boys members have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the deadly riot.

Proud Boys members also repeatedly instigated Donald Trump supporters around them in a tactic that members later described in private messages as “riling up the normies.”

The video conference has been mentioned in court papers but hasn't been widely seen, and the Times obtained a copy recently that had been seized from Tarrio's phone.

Proud Boys lawyers say the video recording shows the Ministry of Self-Defense was not "formed to plan a violent attack on the Capitol," as prosecutors allege, but shows the group was trying “to avoid the chaos and violence” from a Dec. 12, 2020, march in Washington, D.C., following a pro-Trump rally.

However, the video shows group members using flagrantly misogynistic, homophobic and antisemitic language and rarely mention the Capitol at all, and prosecutors say some of the Proud Boys in that meeting used violent language in private messages ahead of the riot.

“Time to stack those bodies in front of Capitol Hill," one of the members posted in a group chat that included other members of the ministry.

“What would they do if 1 million patriots stormed and took the Capitol building," said another member in the group. "Shoot into the crowd? I think not.”

Read More Here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/26/us/politics/proud-boys-jan-6.html

[Rick Plant]

'This signals urgency': Jan. 6 committee announces surprise hearing for Tuesday

The House select committee has announced it is holding another public hearing this Tuesday.

The panel has already held five hearings delving into Donald Trump's role in carrying out the Jan. 6 insurrection, with the most recent one covering his attempts to corrupt the Department of Justice, and had planned to halt the remaining two on the schedule until next month.

"The Jan. 6 committee is considering holding a hearing TOMORROW," Punchbowl's Jake Sherman reported. "They had planned to push all hearings to July. This signals urgency."

The committee later confirmed it would hold a hearing "to present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony."

It's not immediately clear what the hastily scheduled hearing would cover.

Chairman Bennie Thompson told reporters last week that the hearing on Trump's alleged attempts to corrupt the Justice Department would be the last until two further hearings "later in July."

Thompson did not elaborate on the timetable but said further hearings after the two in July were "always a possibility."

"The timeline of the hearings is driven, and continues to be driven, by the investigation. The select committee continues to receive relevant new evidence that we think is very important to the investigation," an aide to the panel said.

"It's important that our members (and) investigators take the time needed to assess that information and figure out how we're going to use that information as we continue to make our presentation to the American people."

The new evidence includes documents from the National Archive and multiple new leads given to a tip-line since the televised hearings began earlier in June.

The most prized haul though will be hours of footage from documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, who was granted extensive access to Trump and his inner circle -- including for interviews -- before and after January 6.

Holder began filming on the campaign trail in September 2020, according to Politico, and had substantial access to Trump, Trump's grown-up children and his vice president Mike Pence for months.

AFP

[Rick Plant]

'This is big': Former senator explains why Jan. 6 committee might have scheduled a last-minute hearing

The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Congress revealed that they are holding an unexpected hearing on Tuesday at 1 p.m. EST. According to former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), this isn't normal and it likely means there's something significant happening.

"They've done a very good job exceeding expectations so I don't think they'll want to upset that track record," she began speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Monday. "So, you have to assume this is big because I will tell you one thing I know for sure having spent a lot of time in Washington, D.C., members of Congress don't show up three days before the Fourth of July weekend for just anything."

McCaskill went on to explain that there are only a few reasons that a committee would rush to get someone to testify the way that they are.

"This is either a witness that for some — because of a frailty, an illness, maybe perhaps, they're not sure of their ability to appear later or probable much more likely what Mike [Schmidt] just said," she said. "They're saying they'll do it now, but they're reluctant, so there is an effort to make sure they capture the live testimony while the iron is hot and while the witness says I will do it. Because they've had a lot of witnesses who have refused to give live testimony."

"So, I think that's probably what it is," she continued. "Now, this is the one time as a prosecutor I'm jealous of the committee members because obviously, you cannot put a witness on that the other side doesn't know about in a real trial. Surprise witnesses are only in rebuttal and then the other side has to have opened the door. So, I think this will pique interest with all of us and I don't think they would be piquing interest if they didn't think they could deliver something."

Wallace noted that the committee has set very high standards and they've met the mark each time. She cited Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who made it clear that he's not interested in what the Justice Department may or may not do. His focus, he told ABC News, is that the democracy of America is at stake and he intends to do whatever it takes to save it.

See the exchange below:

[Joe Elliott]

I will be looking at what happens with the Washington committee tomorrow.

[Rick Plant]

Former Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson will testify before January 6 committee on Tuesday, sources say



Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a witness to many critical events and conversations, is expected to testify publicly on Tuesday before the select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Her planned appearance was first reported by Punchbowl News.

The witness who will testify at a hastily scheduled Jan. 6 hearing on Tuesday is Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the insurrection, Punchbowl News reported. Hutchinson has reportedly told the committee in closed sessions that Trump approved of “Hang Mike Pence” chants from his supporters storming the Capitol in the hopes of stopping the election of Joe Biden from being certified, CNN reported earlier this month. The committee last week also presented videotaped testimony from Hutchinson discussing how Reps. Mo Brooks (R-AL) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) wanted blanket pardons for members of Congress who tried to subvert the election. The committee was not expected to convene another hearing until July, but on Monday made the surprise announcement of a new date “to present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mark-meadows-aide-cassidy-hutchinson-is-witness-at-surprise-jan-6-hearing-report-says?ref=home

[Rick Plant]

I have not been following the hearings on TV (no cable) so these posts by Rick help make it easy to keep abreast of the Capitol Hearings on Trump's efforts to negate an American election.

Hi Joe,

Glad you are able to follow all of the important information coming out of the hearings in this thread.

I posted the each full day of the hearings in this thread so you can watch them whenever you want.

I also included clips of the most important revelations from each hearing as well.             

[Rick Plant]

Cassidy Hutchinson, incredibly close to Meadows, was involved in the absolute most innermost circles of the White House from November 3rd-January 6th post election—she was also around Trump, been privy to a TON of information not yet public in any way involving many, many people.

Former Mark Meadows White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson is the surprise witness: report



After a day of speculation, it was revealed that former White House aide to Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, will be the surprise testimony on Tuesday.

According to Punchbowl News managing editor Heather Caygle, Hutchinson will walk through some of the things she's also said in the two meetings with the committee totaling 20 hours of conversations under oath.

Three people familiar with the investigation told the Washington Post that the reason for the secrecy "is in part due to credible security threats to a witness."

Among the thing she revealed are conversations between Donald Trump and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who conveyed to the president that his Jan. 6 plot doing was illegal.

"Hutchinson has provided extensive information about Meadows’s activities in trying to overturn the election," The Washington Post reported. "The Washington Post reported late last month that Hutchinson had told the committee that Meadows remarked to others that Trump indicated support for hanging his vice president after rioters who stormed the Capitol on that day started chanting, 'Hang Mike Pence!'"

Last month, Politico revealed Hutchinson told the committee that Meadows incinerated documents after a meeting with Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA). It was previously revealed that Trump attempted to flush documents down the toilet, clogging the pipes in the centuries-old building.

"Meadows played a critical role in shepherding an array of schemes entertained by Trump in his quest to hold onto power," explained Jordan Green. "That included hosting meetings with the president and members of the House Freedom Caucus to discuss a plan — much like [Peter] Navarro’s 'Green Bay Sweep' — to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to remand the electoral votes back to the battleground states and delay certifying the election for Biden, according to testimony to the January 6th Committee by White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson."

Harry Litman
@harrylitman

Cassidy Hutchinson is the symbol of the hearings not merely because the wealth of information she will present, but because it is secondhand, which is forced on the committee by Meadows’s  successful but derelict noncooperation.Have to hope DOJ will mine his & Scavino’s knowledge.

Previous assumptions about the witness included Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who said that he was willing to begin cooperating with the committee. Another possible witness was Alex Holder, the documentary filmmaker who turned over 11 hours of video of Donald Trump beginning in Oct. 2020 and going through Jan. 2021.

Pat Cipollone, Trump's former White House counsel, has been specifically called out by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) for refusing to come forward after he reportedly "tried to do the right thing" around the Jan. 6 plot to overthrow the election.

Read More Here

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/27/jan-6-committee-announces-surprise-tuesday-hearing-offers-few-details/

[Rick Plant]

The most simple way to explain the January 6th insurrection would be this:

Donald Trump refused to give up power after he lost the election to Joe Biden and what we had after that was a long-spanning, tactical, GOP-coordinated effort to steal the election from the American people via a violent coup.

This is something that would happen in some third world country, not the United States of America.

These Republicans and the right wing media knew there was no election fraud but they used those lies an excuse so they could steal the election from the American people.

Those lies radicalized the Republican base which led to a violent insurrection. And to this very day, even after all the evidence proves there was no voter fraud, 70% of Republican voters still believe that the election was "stolen". That's how dangerous the right wing media is that can brainwash the overwhelming majority of Republican voters.         

Trump and the Republican party even tried to use fake electors instead of the real electors to illegally vote for Trump.   

These are all criminal acts by Trump, the Republican party, and the right wing media which is sedition and treason.

They knew they lost fair and square but they refused to give up power and tried to steal their way back in.

And these are the same criminals who want to get back into power in November so they can lie to the American people and implement far right extremist laws.   

Every single one of these traitors need to be indicted and imprisoned for seditious conspiracy and treason. Once you lose the ability to have free and fair elections you will never have it again. And that's what the Republicans attempted to do, which was to end democracy and illegally install themselves into power.