Jan. 6 committee’s bombshells hiding in plain sight
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. | Brent Stirton/Getty ImagesREVERSE TO HEAD FORWARD — If you’re looking ahead with tremulous anticipation for the new, shocking, final reveal of the Jan. 6 select committee investigation, you may be facing the wrong way.
Shoes have already been dropping like hail for more than 15 months, as the contours and consequences of Donald Trump’s plan to overturn a democratic election have gone from hazy to technicolor to HD. A mob of loyalists — some hapless and misled, others prepared for violence — hung on Trump’s exhortation to “Stop the Steal,” many interpreting it as a coded call to seize the Capitol.
Without question, the select committee is sitting on a gargantuan stockpile of meaningful evidence — hundreds of interview transcripts and thousands of documents that are worth scouring for every last nuance of the sordid plot.
But the panel’s goal isn’t necessarily about unloading new salacious details (though there will certainly be some): It’s about reminding Americans with vivid and bone-chilling granularity just how close American democracy came to the brink, based on what's already been revealed. And they plan to bring it to life via harrowing first-person accounts intended to revive the fury and fear that reigned the morning of Jan. 7. It’s about tracking Trump’s effort as it evolved and drew an increasingly sprawling cast of accomplices — from activists to lawyers to members of Congress.
The desire for some new smoking gun — some hidden email or stunning confession — risks obscuring the succession of jaw-dropping revelations that have already emerged since that mob ransacked the Capitol, overrunning police while the extremists among them hunted down Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Let’s examine a few.
— Trump strained federal and state governments to the breaking point in his attempt to overturn the election. It almost worked: The former president didn’t just sow disinformation about the election results months prior to votes being cast. He didn’t just unleash a barrage of bizarre lawsuits that crumbled on close scrutiny. And he didn’t just move to install a new DOJ leadership to help legitimize his election claims — pulling back only amid a mass resignation threat by his advisers. Trump directly engaged in the effort. He called local officials in Michigan, browbeat Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a case that could lead to criminal charges in Atlanta, called into Republican state legislative meetings to encourage them to rescind Biden’s electors and brought state GOP legislative leaders to the White House to enlist them in his effort. The select committee has heard from many of these officials and leaders, and has subpoenaed several others with uncertain results.
— When the courts failed him, Trump turned to John Eastman and may have broken the law: After the Electoral College voted on Dec. 14, 2020, Trump turned toward Jan. 6, the day Congress was due to formally count electors. Eastman helped devise a strategy that was so devoid of legal merit, a federal judge has since ruled that it “likely” amounts to a criminal attempt to obstruct congressional proceedings. That strategy relied on creating an artificial conflict — dueling slates of presidential electors. Though no state legislatures had acted by the time Jan. 6 arrived, pro-Trump activists nevertheless met in seven state capitals and held mock elector ceremonies intended to create just such a conflict.
Trump and Eastman then began working on Pence, who was required to preside over the Jan. 6 session. If he would legitimize the conflict and then take the legally dubious step to recess the session for 10 days it just might provide the opening for state legislatures to act and rescind Biden’s election. But Pence and his teamfound the entire scheme to be illegal and unconstitutional, requiring Pence to violate the 133-year-old Electoral Count Act. Eastman’s attempts to convince Pence otherwise — combined with Trump’s increasingly intense pressure — are the basis for the suggestion the former president may have committed felony obstruction.
— Trump sat on his hands amid the worst of the Jan. 6 violence: Trump’s refusal to publicly call off the violent mob that attacked the Capitol in his name formed the basis of his impeachment for “incitement of insurrection” just a week before his term ended. But call logs obtained via the National Archives show that Trump spent all day calling allies in his effort to overturn the election. Other calls that don’t appear on the logs include conversations with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Pence. Notably missing from the logs or any of the reported accounts since then: Any calls between Trump and national security aides or Secret Service officials to attempt to quell the violence. Meanwhile, the committee has obtained evidence that Trump resisted entreaties to quickly call for an end to the violence, instead inflaming the crowd by angrily tweeting about Pence and waiting more than three hours after the Capitol breach to call on the mob to go home.
— The Trump White House became a haven for conspiracy theories: Trump considered naming Sidney Powell a special counsel to investigate election fraud, and brought Powell into the Oval Office in mid-December, along with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had been pushing calls for “martial law” and extreme measures like seizing voting machines. Trump never effectuated their proposals, but investigators believe the episode is emblematic of the way the gatekeeping guardrails completely collapsed in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency.
— Rioters say Trump is the reason they breached the Capitol: Although judges have largely dismissed their excuses as legally irrelevant, hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants charged with joining the mob that stormed the Capitol say it was Trump’s words that fueled them. At least a few of them have interviewed with the select committee and described coming under Trump’s thrall, being deceived by his stolen-election rhetoric — amplified by pro-Turmp media figures — and accepting his claim that the country was under threat. While it hasn’t helped many rioters escape legal consequences — in fact, a jury recently convicted a defendant who attempted to do just that at trial — the live testimony from these defendants is likely to form a potent political cudgel to underscore the power of a president’s words.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/04/21/jan-6-committees-bombshells-hiding-in-plain-sight-00026869
