1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

Trump failed to sign a key military order — and Jan. 6 investigators want to know why

The Dec. 16, 2020 draft executive order prepared for Donald Trump to use the military to seize voting machines provides clear clues for the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, a former federal prosecutor explained for MSNBC on Tuesday.

"We don’t yet know the full story behind the EO. We don’t know who was involved in writing it (although some pundits have opined that the use of the word “she” describing plans for a special counsel suggests that now-disgraced Trump lawyer Sidney Powell was involved) and whether it received serious consideration. Trump never signed it, despite other dogged efforts to try to recapture a lost election. Were there residual guardrails that held? People who pointed out that the order was unconstitutional and an affront to democracy? These questions highlight the importance of the Jan. 6 committee’s work," former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote.

She noted the document draws attention to Trump's former acting Pentagon chief.

"Acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller, a former special forces member, worked as a special assistant to Trump and in various other capacities before he was appointed to serve at the Pentagon on Nov. 7, 2020, four days after the election. Trump had already lost. What reason could there be to replace a secretary of defense so late in the game?" she asked. "But Miller wasn't the only red flag. Trump installed another loyalist, Kash Patel, as Pentagon chief of staff after the election. Patel was put in charge of running the Defense Department's transition just two weeks after he assumed his new role. According to an NBC News source at the Pentagon, Patel “told everybody we're not going to cooperate with the transition team.” Three other people, characterized in news reports as Trump loyalists, also took over important posts at the Pentagon, handling policy, intelligence and security — again after the election."

The former federal prosecutor explained why prosecutions may be warranted.

"The EO suggests that a group of people was hard at work on plans to use the Pentagon to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. It took high-level insight to craft those plans and potentially put people in place to implement them. If evidence confirms a conspiracy, those involved, however high up, merit prosecution," Vance wrote. "The truth cannot stay covered up."

Read the full column:
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/trump-didn-t-sign-newly-unearthed-2020-election-eo-we-n1287959

[Rick Plant]

MAGA rioter arrested for early attack on cops at Peace Circle that allegedly unleashed the mob



A Texas man was arrested Monday for assaulting and injuring police officers as they were trying to guard the Capitol perimeter at the outset of the January 6 riot.

Jason Blythe, 26, of Fort Worth, Texas, was added to an existing indictment of four others for the early violence at the area outside the Capitol known as Peace Circle. The FBI alleges that as early as 12:50 p.m. -- as Donald Trump was finishing his incitement speech -- a group of MAGA rioters confronted the officers at Peace Circle.

“As alleged in the indictment, Blythe participated in attacks in which a metal crowd control barrier was used against two officers from the U.S. Capitol Police, including one who sustained bodily injury,” a Department of Justice release stated. “According to the government’s evidence, the assault took place at the Peace Circle, where law enforcement was attempting to secure the restricted perimeter of the Capitol grounds.”

“The indictment, unsealed today, also includes four defendants previously charged in the case: James Tate Grant, 29, of Hot Springs, North Carolina; Paul Russell Johnson, 36, of Lenexa, Virginia; Stephen Chase Randolph, 32, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and Ryan Samsel, 38, of Levittown, Pennsylvania. All four of those defendants previously pleaded not guilty.”

According to a tweet Monday by Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly, public records show that Blythe has a public defender and was released on home detention.

You can view the indictment here:
https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-rioter-jason-blythe/

[Rick Plant]

Homeland Security fears right-wing extremists will attack the power grid

The Department of Homeland Security issued a threat warning that right-wing extremists have been crafting plans to attack the electric sector, including the power grid, the Daily Beast reported Tuesday.

"DVEs have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target given its interdependency with other infrastructure sectors," said the alert.

The report comes from federal investigators who continue to work on the Jan. 6 probe and arrests of violent right-wing attackers. The alert resulted from power company requests to take stock of the 2020 and 2021 threats from domestic extremist groups.

Homeland Security chief of Intelligence and Analysis John Cohen explained that they have been working with state and local law enforcement, but he said that the office has been reaching out more to the private sector. Over the past several years, the FBI and Homeland Security have asked for additional funding to help with the increasing threat of domestic terrorism, to no avail.

"White supremacists expressed interest in 'wreaking havoc' on the power grid if President Donald Trump were to lose re-election in 2020," the report explained. "And last year, four men with ties to racially motivated extremists were charged with conspiracy to damage the property of an energy facility in the United States, after using assault-style rifles in an attempt to explode a power substation."

Bringing down the national power grid would be a very difficult task, but researchers proved that hacking local grids aren't all that difficult, especially for those on the ground. Russian hackers were discovered in 2018 infiltrating "critical infrastructure" in the U.S. like power plants, water facilities and gas pipelines.

When President Joe Biden came into office, he rushed to ensure the security of the power grid with both immediate solutions and longer-term options.

Homeland Security intelligence predicts domestic violent extremists will keep working on efforts to attack electrical infrastructure and it "may result in physical damage."

"Conversations from domestic violent extremists online in recent months have focused on encouraging lone wolf attacks, as well as attempts to inspire individuals with little or no training to go after electric infrastructure—including with firearms, improvised incendiary devices, hammers, and power saws," said the Daily Beast.

These threats only add to the problems the grids are facing. Natural disasters have put pressure on infrastructure in desperate need for repair. It has cost taxpayers billions.

Read the full report:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dhs-warns-that-right-wing-extremists-could-attack-power-grid


Alex Jones reveals he spoke to Jan. 6 Committee – calls questions ‘reasonable’ but pleaded the Fifth 100 times



Conspiracy theorist and former major Trump MAGA activist Alex Jones was subpoenaed by the January 6 Committee last year and revealed on his streaming radio show Monday night he testified earlier that day.

The far right-wing extremist who hosts white nationalists and white supremacists called the Committee's questions “overall pretty reasonable,” Politico reports. He also "said the Jan. 6 committee seemed to have a lot of detailed information about him — that they displayed images of text messages he had with Wren and Cindy Chafian, who organized a pro-Trump rally on Jan. 5."

Politico's Kyle Cheney tweeted, "They had LOTS of his texts, Jones said."

He also told listeners he had pleaded the Fifth over 100 times.

Others who have pleaded the Fifth to the January 6 Committee include Roger Stone, former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, and the Federalist Society's and National Organization For Marriage's John Eastman, who penned the coup memos.

https://www.rawstory.com/alex-jones-reveals-he-spoke-to-jan-6-committee-calls-questions-reasonable-but-pleaded-the-fifth-100-times/

[Rick Plant]

Officer Goodman speaks out — says he was 'playing it safe' because people attacked Michael Fanone in public



Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman is speaking out for the first time after he was revealed to have been responsible for saving the lives of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) along with many senators and the vice president.

Speaking to the 3 Brothers No Sense podcast on Tuesday, Goodman explained that he hasn't spoken out until now because he wanted to "play it safe" after hearing about some public incidents from colleagues, the Daily Beast reported.

"I just don’t want any part of the negativity," he said. Other colleagues like Michael Fanone have become the target of Republicans and conservative media hosts.

"He’s said he’s out with his daughter, and he’s had random people run up and throw drinks in his face, and stuff like that," Goodman said.

Since the attack, many conservatives have tried to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying that she didn't order the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan. 6 ahead of time. While the Guard was requested they were a few miles from the building as the rally was at the Ellipse. No one knew that former President Donald Trump would call for the crowd to march to the Capitol.

Having the military on hand with their weapons could mean those breaching the Capitol would likely have been shot. Given the weapons with the insurrectionists, it could have become a firefight in the middle of an urban area.

“It could have easily been a bloodbath, so kudos to everybody there that showed a measure of restraint with regards to deadly force, because it could have been bad. Really, really bad," Goodman said. He credits his military training for quick thinking, saying that his old U.S. Army platoon sergeant told them, "figure it out or die."

Recalling what it was like on that day over a year ago, co-host Byron Evans said he was on-duty during the attack.

"I was on the Senate floor thinking I was going to have my first shootout at work,” Evans said. “And because of what he did, that did not have to occur. He is a real-life hero."

Goodman doesn't see himself that way, noting he asks himself daily "who the hell am I? I’m day-to-day with that. I have my ups and down with the popularity."

He said that the social media "Eugene Goodman Day" was "way too much," as was the idea of a statue of him.

"That’s just one more thing for a bird to prop up and take a dump on me,” he explained.

After he was asked to escort Vice President Kamala Harris to the inauguration, Goodman said that his colleagues have started calling him "Gucci."

https://www.rawstory.com/eugene-goodman-speaks-out/

[Rick Plant]

Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison



Watergate lawyer Nick Ackerman spoke with CNN Thursday after a late-night decision from the Supreme Court and said that former President Donald Trump is finally starting to face consequences for his actions. He even went on to suggest that if the evidence proves Trump intentionally tried to stop Congress then the former president could be on the hook for up to 20 years in prison.

"If you took it from Donald Trump's standpoint, he truly believes the three people he appointed to the Supreme Court have to be loyal to him. That they owe him," said Ackerman. "He looks at it as a quid pro quo type of arrangement he's used to in business. The fact of the matter is these Supreme Court justices stick to the rule of law and in this particular case what they did is they relied on the 1974 decision of U.S. v. Nixon where Nixon tried to do the same thing and conceal his office tapes from the prosecutors based on executive privilege. What the court did was essentially adopt the same decision that was given in Nixon. I mean, this was history repeating itself."

He went on to say that during President Richard Nixon's era, there was a concern that he'd appointed several Supreme Court justices too. That too was an 8-0 decision.

"Because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump's claims would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court's decision," the Court said.

This excerpt of the decision essentially leaves Trump "nowhere," said Ackerman.

"There's no executive privilege they can assert here," he explained. "Because executive privilege as the Court said in the Nixon case, you can't use it for conversations in furtherance of criminal activity. With Nixon, it was in furtherance of the conspiracy to obstruct the Watergate case. Here it's relating to basically an insurrection that was perpetrated on the Congress. And there's no way under any circumstance that any court is ever going to say that those conversations are legitimate, executive privilege-covered conversations. The exec privilege relates to legitimate government business that the president is engaged in, most notably military actions, national security, and the like. This is certainly why they're saying it doesn't make any difference whether Trump is a sitting president or not. These conversations are not covered by executive privilege."

He continued, explaining that the key piece of the case is that Trump acted with a corrupt motive and all of the courts are going to say that privilege doesn't exist in those cases. These documents will now show the intent of his words on Jan. 6. In the second impeachment trial, the prosecutors didn't have access to documents or people who could prove Trump was intentionally attempting to cause violence.

"This really is going to answer the question, can they make a criminal case on Donald Trump for obstructing Congress, which is an extremely serious federal felony carrying imprisonment of 20 years."

[Rick Plant]

Wife of Justice Clarence Thomas signed off on letter saying Capitol attackers 'have done nothing wrong'



It has been less than a week since 11 Oath Keepers were arrested with seditious conspiracy, but the spouse of Justice Clarence Thomas believes that they "have done nothing wrong."

Bulwark's Charlie Sykes pointed to a letter signed by Ginni Thomas along with many other fringe conservatives like the Family Research Council, the chair of the Tea Party Patriots Fund and the president of the Club for Growth. The letter speaks out against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who serve on the Jan. 6 committee which bothers Republicans who believe the GOP should be unified in protecting those who participated in a "coup," as three retired U.S. Army generals characterized it.

"The actions of Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger on behalf of House Democrats have given supposedly bipartisan justification to an overtly partisan political persecution that brings disrespect to our country’s rule of law, legal harassment to private citizens who have done nothing wrong, and which demeans the standing of the House," the letter Thomas signed says.

It adds to questions about Mrs. Thomas that surfaced after the attack at the U.S. Capitol. On Jan. 6, she was supporting the violence as it unfolded on her social media. When screen captures were being circulated, she promptly deleted her Facebook account, as Law and Crime observed at the time:

On the morning of Jan. 6, Ginni Thomas—wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas—endorsed the protest demanding that Congress overturn the election, then sent her “LOVE” to the demonstrators, who violently overtook the Capitol several hours later. She has not posted since.





Mrs. Thomas has a "long history of incendiary rhetoric, particularly online," CNN.com reported in a report about "rankled" former clerks of Judge Thomas.

It prompted progressives to ask the Jan. 6 Committee to call Thomas to answer questions about whether she helped fund any of the operations through her Republican organization Groundswell. Others said that Thomas should be recused from any cases that ultimately involve Jan. 6 as a result.

"Even worse, however, is the fact that no matter how far his wife takes her antics, Justice Thomas will likely not face any real repercussions for it," CNN noted in their expose of Mrs. Thomas. "Under federal law, justices must recuse themselves from cases in which their 'impartiality might reasonably be questioned,' or where their spouse has 'an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome.' However, such recusals almost never happen on the Supreme Court. The reality is that while Congress can impeach justices for egregious conduct -- a step not taken since 1805 -- there is no real mechanism for enforcing ethical rules against them."

https://www.rawstory.com/clarence-thomas-wife-january-6/

[Rick Plant]

Right wing hack Sean Hannity was giving talking points for Criminal Donald and his henchmen to use.

New texts reveal Sean Hannity wrote the ‘playbook’ for Trump's White House to respond to Jan. 6



Fox News personality Sean Hannity wrote a five-point playbook for White House staff to respond to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol revealed on Thursday.

The plan was revealed in an 11-page letter the committee sent Ivanka Trump to urge her voluntary cooperation. The committee said it was "investigating the former president's activities and conduct in the days after January 6th, including President Trump's state of mind."

The committee revealed that on Jan. 7, Hannity texted White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany what the committee described as a "five-point approach" to conversations with President Trump.

"No more stolen election talk," was Hannity's first item.

His second item warned "impeachment and 25th Amendment are real, and many people will quit."

The committee did not reveal the other three points of Hannity's plan, but revealed McEnany replied. "Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook. I will help reinforce."

Hannity also texted her "no more crazy people" to which she replied, "Yes, 100%."

The committee said it is interested in learning more about the "crazy people" influencing Trump.

"The Select Committee would like to discuss this effort after January 6th to persuade President Trump not to associate himself with certain people, and to avoid further discussion regarding election fraud allegations," the committee wrote, suggesting Feb. 3 or 4 for an interview.





https://www.rawstory.com/sean-hannity-january-6-playbook/

[Rick Plant]

'What did you see? Who was there?': Feds home in on links between Jan. 6 rioters and Trump’s inner circle



Federal investigators are asking Jan. 6 rioters about their possible links with Donald Trump's inner circle.

Prosecutors have asked members of the Oath Keepers, who are accused of organizing the attack, and even defendants facing low-level charges about their contacts with Trump allies such as Roger Stone, reported USA Today.

“They asked a ton of open-ended questions when I was allowed to be there," said Brian Lockwood, an attorney representing Oath Keepers member Mark Grods. "What happened next? What did you see? Who was there? What did you see them doing? What were they wearing? What were they doing? Did you see them communicating with other people?"

Brandon Straka, a MAGA influencer who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to probation, was also questioned about his possible contacts with Trump's inner circle.

“During the interviews, the government was focused on establishing an organized conspiracy between defendant, President Donald J. Trump, and allies of the former president, to disrupt the Joint Session of Congress on January 6,” said his attorney Bilal Essayli. “Defendant answered all questions truthfully and denied the existence of any such plot.”

Legal experts say that type of questioning is standard for large-scale cases like the insurrection, and doesn't necessarily mean that Trump or his associates are targets of the investigation.

"The technical term for Trump and most people the government is asking about this early is probably ‘subjects,’” said Patrick Cotter, who has prosecuted organized crime cases. “Subjects are people about whom the feds have not made any determination: They may turn out to be targets or witnesses."

Investigators are particularly interested in the rioters' expectation that Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's election win, according to court records and defense lawyers.

“I'm just a small lawyer down in Mobile,” said Lockwood, the Oath Keeper's lawyer, "but I'm confident that the government believes that the intent of the Jan. 6 incident was to trigger the president at the time to invoke the Insurrection Act."

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-insurrection-act/