1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

The MAGA mob came for Mike Pence on January 6. Is he finally fighting back?
Supporters of Donald Trump erected a gallows for Mike Pence during the attack on the Capitol, but now he may be cooperating with the committee investigating the attack, writes Andrew Feinberg
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-pence-capitol-riot-trump-b1987230.html

[Rick Plant]

McConnell 'wants the dirty truth told' about Jan. 6 because 'he wants Trump out of the GOP'

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) came out in opposition to leniency for U.S. Capitol rioters, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said that showed he wanted Donald Trump purged from the Republican Party.

The Kentucky Republican said he would not shorten the sentences for any of the insurrectionists who pleaded guilty to crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack, after Trump pledged to pardon some or all of them if re-elected, and the "Morning Joe" host said McConnell's position on the riot has been consistent.

"It's one thing that time and again,Mitch has been unambiguous about," Scarborough said. "That is that people that committed crimes on Jan. 6 should be punished, that Jan. 6 was an atrocity, and whatever Donald Trump is saying about Jan. 6 is not true. Again, he wants to empower the Jan. 6 commission -- which, of course, he was against, bipartisan commission, which was a mistake. [Sen. Joe] Manchin thinks it was a mistake, a lot of people do, but he's certainly gotten behind this one."

"He wants the dirty truth told about Donald Trump because I think he wants Trump out of the party as much as, well, a lot of people," Scarborough added. "As much as [Rep.] Liz Cheney or some others."

[Rick Plant]

The New York Times
Trump’s Involvement in a Plan to Seize Voting Machines
The Times has unearthed Donald Trump's most brazen attempt yet to overturn the 2020 election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/podcasts/the-daily/trump-voting-machine-jan-6-committee.html

[Rick Plant]

Capitol riot committee subpoenas phone records of notorious Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward



Conspiracy theory-touting Arizona Republican Party chairwoman Kelli Ward is now a target of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots.

Politico reports that the committee has subpoenaed Ward's phone records, as well as the phone records of her husband, Michael Ward.

The requested phone records span the date of November 1, 2020, through January 31, 2021.

The publication notes that both Wards signed phony election certificates that falsely claimed Trump had won the state of Arizona, and that Kelli Ward was in regular contact with Trump officials after the election as he tried to overturn the results and remain in power.

The Wards aren't taking the subpoena lying down, however, as they are now asking courts to intervene and block carrier T-Mobile from handing over their records.

In a legal filing, they argue that their status as osteopathic doctors means that any revelations about their phone records could violate patients' privacy rights.

"“Disclosing the phone records and metadata from the Phone Number would provide the [personal health information] of an unknown but quantifiable number of individuals seeking medical treatment from the Plaintiffs to the Committee and potentially to the public at large," their attorneys argue.

https://www.rawstory.com/kelli-ward-2656537405/

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 docs from Mike Pence that Trump tried to block will be handed to Congress in 30 days

Documents from Vice President Mike Pence have been turned over to the National Archives and processed, according to CNN justice reporter Katelyn Polantz.

Former President Donald Trump has been fighting against any of his administration's documents being made public.

The Archives said in a statement that they will turn over the documents in 30 days despite Trump's protests. The only way to keep them from becoming public is with a court order, the letter says.

"After consultation with the Counsel to the President and the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, and as instructed by President Biden, I have determined to disclose to the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol the Vice Presidential records from Dec. 8, 2021, Notification that you identified as privileged in your letter of Jan. 18, 2022," the letter says.

Trump has spent the last year attacking Pence online, in speeches and to other Republican leaders.

See the screen captures of the release below:





And now, National Archives says it’s turning over In 30 days the VP records that Trump wants to keep secret, absent a court order.



https://www.rawstory.com/mike-pence-documents-released-archives/

[Rick Plant]

Trump's Jan. 6 pardon offer is 'very important evidence' that violence was 'part of the plan': Adam Schiff

Donald Trump's offer to pardon Capitol insurrectionists is "very important evidence" that speaks to his intent on Jan. 6, according to Rep. Adam Schiff (R-CA).

Appearing on on MSNBC on Wednesday night, Schiff — a member of the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection — noted that Trump has a long history of using pardons and other tactics to try to influence and intimidate witnesses.

"He, for example, pardoned Roger Stone for lying to Congress to cover up for the president," Schiff said. "He and his Attorney General Bill Barr made a criminal case involving Michael Flynn go away completely after Flynn pled guilty to repeatedly lying to the FBI. And he dangled pardons in front of (Paul) Manafort. He also went after people who cooperated with the government, like Michael Cohen, and called him a rat — used language we would expect of organized crime."

"I think his recent statements, as well as the public reports of prior inquiries about pardoning people involved in attacking the Capitol police that day, they go to a couple of things," Schiff added. "They go to his intent. If this violence at the Capitol wasn't part of the plan, or wasn't something he condoned, then why would he consider pardoning them? So, I think it's very important evidence as to intent. But it also is I think part of that broader pattern to influence potentially what witnesses have to say, or whether they will say it."

Watch the full interview below:

[Rick Plant]

Kayleigh McEnany hands over text messages to the January 6 committee as its revealed handed-in documents have had to be taped back together because Trump RIPPED them up in the White House



Kayleigh McEnany has turned over text messages to the House committee probing the January 6 Capitol riot while some of Donald Trump's White House documents had to be taped back together to send to the panel.

A source familiar with Mcenany's interaction with the panel told ABC News in a Tuesday report that texts turned over from her phone were used in a recent letter sent to Ivanka Trump seeking her compliance.

According to the records, Fox News host Sean Hannity texted McEnany: '1 - no more stolen election talk. 2- Yes, impeachment and the 25th amendment are real and many people will quit.'

'Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook. I will help reinforce....,' McEnany replied.

McEneny, who served as Trump's final press secretary, was subpoenaed in November by the panel seeking her records and testimony and she joins a growing list of former and current Trump aides to cooperate with the probe.

Since leaving the White House, McEnany has joined Fox News and is co-host of Outnumbered alongside Harris Faulkner and Emily Compagno.

The panel subpoenaed 10 people in November, including McEnany, who now appears to be complying.

A source familiar with her testimony told ABC that McEnany appeared for hours virtually before the panel on January 13 – the same day she did not appear on her midday Fox program.

Trump claims however, that there should be an investigation of former Vice President Mike Pence for not sending the Electoral College votes back to the states. He said in a Tuesday statement that if Pence had taken this action, there would not have been an attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In addition to the text messages, investigators are expected to receive McEnany's White House files from the National Archives.

Trump tried unsuccessfully to prevent the Archives from sharing the documents with Congress.

Some of the papers handed over to the select committee were taped together by National Archives staff because they had been ripped up, the agency revealed in a statement.

'Some of the Trump presidential records received by the National Archives and Records Administration included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump,' the Archives told CNN without explaining how it was known that Trump was the individual who defaced the records.

'These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump Administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House,' the Archives said. 'The Presidential Records Act requires that all records created by presidents be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their administrations.'

News of McEnaney's testimony and document hand-over makes at least seven known Trump world individuals who have complied with the panel.

Ben Williamson, who was senior advisor to Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Keith Kellogg Vice President Mike Pence's National Security Advisor, John Eastman, Trump's lawyer; and Taylor Budowich, who still serves in Trump's communications shop have all complied in some form.

Meadows is considered to be in partial compliance because he did hand over documents before deciding to no longer cooperate with the panel.

Trump ally Steve Bannon and Meadows have openly challenged the committee's subpoenas. This resulted in Congress holding them in contempt and issuing criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, which has not yet acted.

Pence's Chief of Staff Marc Short also testified before the House committee last week, a Monday CNN report revealed.

Short's hearing with the House select committee signals further willingness by Pence's team to cooperate with the investigation.

He testified for hours in-person at the Capitol last Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter revealed . It followed a subpoena and months of discussions between Short's attorney Emmet Flood and lawyers on the committee.

The panel is still unsure if Pence will testify but the committee is in early talks with his legal team seeking some form of cooperation.

Multiple sources claim Pence would prefer his aides act as a 'proxy' so the former VP doesn't have to appear.

Obtaining Short's testimony comes as the panel tries to get to the bottom of an alleged pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump and his staff to get Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections.

Pence, as vice president and therefore president of the Senate, did not have the power to overturn the elections as Trump thought. His role in the certification process is to oversee Congress as it votes to uphold the Electoral College votes from each state, which ultimately ended up declaring Biden the winner.

Trump, it's reported, believes Pence could have unilaterally stopped Congress from certifying Biden's win, which the former president still claims was 'rigged' in an election riddled with 'fraud.'

The 45th president has repeatedly blamed his No. 2 for his election loss.

In a Sunday evening statement, Trump bluntly admitted for the first time that he was trying to use Pence to overturn the election result.

He pointed to efforts on Capitol Hill to change the Electoral Count Act, including firming up language to make clear the vice president is only there to count votes and can't override the will of the voters.

'Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,' Trump wrote in his statement from his Save America PAC email. 'Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!'

Pence is speaking at the Federalist Society gathering in Florida this week and a source familiar with his thinking says he may respond to Trump's statements about him at that forum.

A source close to Pence said of the potential to 'overturn' the results: 'There was a lot of pressure, but we always knew we were doing the right thing.'

Short was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and was also part of a White House meeting two days prior.

Before testifying last week, Short has already supplied subpoenaed documents to the committee, one source told CNN. This included a memo from Trump aide Johnny McEntee comparing the former president to Thomas Jefferson.

Another source familiar with Short's cooperation said it's typical witnesses will hand over additional documents when they testify before a congressional panel.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10464079/Kayleigh-McEnany-hands-texts-1-6-panel-revealed-documents-RIPPED-Trump.html

[Rick Plant]

RNC has ‘gone all-in on the insurrection’ while excusing ‘bigoted rantings’: Charlie Sykes



Conservative columnist Charlie Sykes published a hard-hitting column on Friday after the Republican National Committee's resolutions committee unanimously voted to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for participating in the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"The timing of the resolution is notable — coming just days after Donald Trump dangled pardons for the Insurrectionists who tried to help him overturn the election, and just days after he threatened mass unrest if prosecutors try to hold him accountable. It comes the week we learned of Trump’s push to have the government seize voting machines, and got more details about his plan to use faked and forged electoral vote certificates to force Mike Pence to overturn the election," he wrote. "And it came as Trump continued to ratchet up his lies about his electoral defeat."

Despite Trump's ongoing lies about democracy, Sykes said that there was no discussion about a censure of the former president.

"Nor was there even the slightest suggestion that perhaps the party should distance itself from the bizarre bigoted rantings of [Marjorie Taylor Greene] (R-GA), or Paul Gosar (R-AZ), or Lauren Boebert (R-CO), or Madison Cawthorn (R-NC)," he wrote. "The purge came only for Cheney and Kinzinger. Because, of course, this Republican party now has one standard, and one standard only: loyalty to the exiled Orange God King and his ongoing obstruction of justice."

READ: Trump came perilously close to carrying out Sidney Powell's bizarre plot to steal the election: report

Sykes described the symbolic resolution as "a performative act of groveling to the defeated, disgraced, twice-impeached former president."

The conservative writer was shocked that the language of the resolution described the Jan. 6 rioters as "ordinary citizens" who were engaged in "legitimate political discourse."

"So let’s not put too fine a point on this: The Republican National Committee is fully embracing the Trumpian ret-conning of January 6 as a peaceful protest, and, in the process, has gone all-in on the Insurrection itself.

Read the full column:

https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/the-rnc-joins-the-insurrection


Momentum grows for Jan. 6 committee to grant limited immunity to compel testimony of Trump DOJ official



Ambassador Norm Eisen, who served as co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during Donald Trump's first impeachment trial, argued on CNN on Friday that the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol should consider giving "use" immunity to former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark.

During a Wednesday deposition, Clark reportedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times.

"Norm, do you think it's worth offering immunity to Clark or anyone else?" CNN's Ana Cabrera asked.

"I do think that statutory immunity should be considered, so we can get to the truth of what Mr. Clark has to say as one of the inside coup lawyers — perhaps the leading one inside the government — pushing for the overthrow of a legitimate election," Eisen replied. "Remember, they do have to keep it close or it can taint any possible prosecution of Clark outside of Congress. That's what happened with Ollie North, most famously."

READ: Dallas QAnon leader demanding followers shun their families as his ravings become more bizarre

"So, yes, I think it should be considered," he said.

The idea got a major boost on Thursday when it was floated by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who is the only member of the select committee who is also a veteran of the Watergate investigation of Richard Nixon.

Watch video in link below:

https://www.rawstory.com/jeffrey-clark-2656559647/


MAGA rioter tells court he lost his 'six-figure job' to storm the Capitol for Donald Trump



MAGA rioter Richard Barnard appeared in court on Friday to receive his sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to a Class B misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

According to Politico's Kyle Cheney, Barnard told the court that his life had been completely devastated ever since he made the fateful decision in January 6th, 2020 to storm the Capitol on behalf of former President Donald Trump.

As Cheney reports, Barnard says that he lost his "six-figure job," as well as his credit rating and retirement savings because he participated in the MAGA riot.

"There’s nothing the court can do to me that will come even close to what I’ve lost," he said.

According to Court House News, Barnard attended the Capitol riot with a fellow U.S. Marine Corps veteran from Texas, Jeffrey Witcher, who was caught on camera claiming that he had broken into the White House, when in reality he was in the United States Capitol building.

"I am in the White House!" Witcher boasted at the time. "We crashed this. Our house! We did it, family, we did it! We did it! We’re in the White House!"

https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-riot-sentences-2656561425/