1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

House Jan. 6 committee reveals when Pat Cipollone's video testimony will become public

The House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 still has at least two more hearings that they intend to hold, and now they're revealing when former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone's testimony could be revealed to the public.

Cipollone appeared behind closed doors on Friday for several hours and the committee revealed that he did confirm some of the information that was already known. Members wouldn't go into detail from there, however.

In a statement Sunday, Tim Mulvey, the committee's spokesman, "Cipollone's videotaped testimony will likely be featured prominently during the final hearing."

"In our interview with Mr. Cipollone, the Committee received critical testimony on nearly every major topic in its investigation, reinforcing key points regarding Donald Trump’s misconduct and providing highly relevant new information that will play a central role in its upcoming hearings," the statement from the committee read.

"This includes information demonstrating Donald Trump’s supreme dereliction of duty," the statement also said.

Tuesday, July 12 at 1 p.m. EST will be the next public hearing.

AFP


Cipollone was pressed on Trump pardons for his family during House committee testimony: CNN

According to a report from CNN's Pamela Brown, former Donald Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone was quizzed about reports that Donald Trump may have asked about pardoning himself and his kids before leaving the White House for good after losing the 2020 presidential election.

Details on what the White House attorney told the committee during his 8-hour interview on Friday have been scarce, but Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) did appear on "Face the Nation" on Sunday to say Cipollone did provide more information about a Dec 18, 2020 meeting with what he called Trump's "Team Crazy."

According to source who spoke with CNN, the topic of Trump pardons was also addressed with Cipollone.

"A House select committee spokesperson told CNN the panel's interview with Cipollone was productive but said there was no agreement made to restrict any questions to avoid potential issues with executive privilege," Brown wrote before adding, "The select committee on Friday also asked Cipollone a series of questions about pardons, including potential pardons for the Trump family and whether Trump wanted to pardon himself."

Also, on Sunday morning, Houe select committee member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) admitted that Cipollone handed over more information about Trump's plans to declare martial law in order to seize voting machines.

AFP


Cipollone provided 'important insight' on Trump's plans to declare martial law: J6 committee member

During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," House Jan 6th committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) was fairly closed-mouthed about what former White House counsel Pat Cipollone told the committee during his 8-hour-along testimony last Friday.

She was a bit more forthcoming when host Jake Tapper narrowed down his questions about Donald Trump's efforts that went beyond the assault on the Capitol building that sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives.

After telling the CNN host that he would have to wait to see what the committee has on tap for Tuesday morning hearing, to be followed by a second public hearing on Thursday in prime time, Lofgren did confirm some topics that were discussed.

"We will have some excerpts of Mr. Cipollone's testimony," she promised. "He was able to provide information on basically all of the critical issues we're looking at, including the president's, what I would call, dereliction of duty on the day of January 6th. So, yes, that was important."

After she added, "As you know, the committee rules don't allow us to disclose the testimony without a vote of the committee, that hasn't happened yet, but it was important testimony," Tapper pressed, "Did he discuss Trump considering seizing the voting machines or Trump considering declaring martial law to seize the voting machines?"

"I think you'll have to wait for the hearing later this week. As i said, we haven't had a vote to disclose the testimony, "she repeated before conceding, "Let me just say this, I think he did provide important insights on those subjects."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Oath Keepers founder tried to get in contact with the White House weeks before the Jan. 6 attack: lawyer



Speaking to NBC News, the general counsel for the Oath Keepers says the far-right militia group's founder, Stewart Rhodes, tried to get her to put him in touch with the White House in the weeks before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Kellye SoRelle, in addition to representing the Oath Keepers, also volunteered for Lawyers for Trump during the 2020 election and was in touch with many of Trump's allied who worked to overturn the election's results.

“[Rhodes] was hitting me up for a contact,” SoRelle told NBC News. “He didn’t have any access points.”

Rhodes wanted SoRelle to send a letter to Trump calling for him to invoke the Insurrection Act in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, but she declined. SoRelle told NBC News that she never put Rhodes in contact with anyone at the White House.

"Nonetheless, she was on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol (though didn’t enter the building) on Jan. 6. And on the night before the attack, she was present in a parking garage as Rhodes met with Enrique Tarrio, the head of the Proud Boys, the other predominant organization in a smorgasbord of extremist groups connected with the Capitol attack," reports NBC News.

Rhodes attorney James Bright told NBC News that he doesn't think it's a big deal that Rhodes was trying to contact the White House and that hundreds of people "try to get in touch with politicians daily."

AFP


Oath Keepers lawyer says Stewart Rhodes wanted her Trump contacts before Jan. 6 Capitol attack

The Jan. 6 committee will explore links between the Trump White House and right-wing militia groups Tuesday. It has spoken to Kellye SoRelle, who might be a key.


Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, left, and Kellye SoRelle, in sunglasses, at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

WASHINGTON — In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes tried to get the organization’s general counsel, Kellye SoRelle, to put him in touch with the White House, she told NBC News.

In addition to her work with the Oath Keepers, SoRelle was a volunteer for Lawyers for Trump during the 2020 election and was in contact with many of the people fighting a doomed legal battle to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election and keep former President Donald Trump in office. The contacts include, she said, people in Rudy Giuliani’s and Sidney Powell’s camps, as well as those inside the administration, although she added that she “wasn’t, like, communicating with Trump directly.”

Rhodes wanted her to put him in touch with the White House. “He was hitting me up for a contact,” said SoRelle, a family law lawyer who previously ran for the Texas state House. “He didn’t have any access points.”

As he prepared an open letter calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Rhodes asked SoRelle to send it to the White House. She says she declined.

As SoRelle tells it, despite her close relationship with Rhodes, she never put him in touch with key figures, putting a firewall between her work with the Oath Keepers and her work to overturn the election results. Nonetheless, she was on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol (although didn’t enter the building) on Jan. 6. And on the night before the attack, she was present in a parking garage as Rhodes met with Enrique Tarrio, the head of the Proud Boys, the other predominant organization in a smorgasbord of extremist groups connected with the Capitol attack.

SoRelle has already spoken extensively with the Jan. 6 committee, and given her overlapping roles, it’s likely that testimony will come up at the panel’s next public hearing Tuesday, much of which the committee has said will focus on the role of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and the goal they shared with Trump to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes.

A source familiar with the Jan. 6 committee’s work said SoRelle was of great interest to the committee given her links both in Trump’s orbit and with members of the alleged seditious conspiracy.

Her dual role could play a part as the committee tries to establish a deeper connection between both camps. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” the person said.

Rhodes attorney James Bright said he didn’t think it was a story that Rhodes — who prosecutors say had organized a militia ready and willing to take up arms on behalf of Trump — was trying to get in touch with the president ahead of Jan. 6.

“Hundreds of people try to get in touch with politicians daily,” Bright said.

Robert Costello, a lawyer for Giuliani, said Giuliani had “no connection” to the Oath Keepers. “I represented Mr. Giuliani at the time, and I don’t believe he had a ‘camp.’ In any event, Rudy Giuliani has no connection to the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys or any other fringe group,” Costello said.

Powell didn’t respond to a request for comment. Last month, a judge ordered Rhodes’ attorneys to disclose whether Powell’s group Defending the Republic was helping to pay their legal fees following reporting from Mother Jones and BuzzFeed News.

The FBI seized SoRelle’s phone last year as part of its seditious conspiracy investigation against several members of the Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.

SoRelle co-signed two of the open letters that prosecutors have cited in that case. Full archived versions of the letters, which are no longer online, were provided to NBC News by one of the online sleuths investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

One open letter dated Dec. 14, 2020, calls on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, saying that “millions of American military and law enforcement veterans, and many millions more loyal patriotic American gun owners stand ready to answer your call to arms, and to obey your orders to get this done.”

The open second letter, dated Dec. 23, 2020, was more explicit, informing Trump that if Congress certified the election on Jan. 6, “tens of thousands of patriotic Americans, both veterans and non-veterans, will already be in Washington D.C., and many of us will have our mission-critical gear stowed nearby just outside D.C., and we will answer the call right then and there, if you call on us.”

Citing George Washington, the letter encouraged Trump to immediately invoke the Insurrection Act and not to “let the fact that it is Christmas stop you.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/oath-keepers-lawyer-says-stewart-rhodes-wanted-trump-contacts-jan-6-ca-rcna37267

[Rick Plant]

Next J6 hearing to focus on Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, QAnon — and GOP members of Congress: select committee aides

Aides to the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol previewed what viewers will see in Tuesday's public hearing during a call with reporters on Monday afternoon.

The hearing will be led by Reps. Elaine Luria (D-VA) and Jaimie Raskin (D-MD).

During the briefing, aides said the hearing will focus on how Trump grew more "desperate" as it became clear he had lost the election.

The aides said a "pivotal moment" was a Dec. 19 tweet by Trump.

"Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Trump tweeted.

The hearing will also focus on extremist groups in Trump's MAGA base. A Jan. 6 aide specifically listed the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and QAnon. Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been charged with seditious conspiracy in relation to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

There will be a focus on the the extremist groups' "ties" to Trump advisors Roger Stone and Mike Flynn, an aide said.

The hearing will also focus on members of Congress who were involved, including efforts to pressure Mike Pence to overturn the election.

The hearing is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast live at RawStory.com.

https://www.rawstory.com/jan-6-hearing-2657649599/

[Rick Plant]

Jamie Raskin’s 5-year battle against white nationalism comes to head at Tuesday’s J6 hearing: NYT



On Monday, The New York Times reported that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) will take the lead in Tuesday's hearings of the House Select Committee on January 6 — and that he will bring to bear five years of experience investigating white nationalist and far-right extremist groups in the committee's assessment of Trump's ties to same.

"Long before the Jan. 6, 2021, assault, Mr. Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, had thrown himself into stamping out the rise of white nationalism and domestic extremism in America," wrote Luke Broadwater. "He trained his focus on the issue after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., five years ago. Since then, he has held teach-ins, led a multipart House investigation that exposed the lackluster federal effort to confront the threat, released intelligence assessments indicating that white supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement and strategized about ways to crack down on paramilitary groups."

"Now, with millions of Americans expected to tune in, Mr. Raskin — along with Representative Stephanie Murphy, Democrat of Florida — is set to take a leading role in a hearing that promises to dig deeply into how far-right groups helped to orchestrate and carry out the Jan. 6 assault at the Capitol — and how they were brought together, incited and empowered by President Donald J. Trump," the report continued.

Raskin, who is Jewish and has personal motivations to investigate these groups due to many of them expressing anti-Semitic ideology, laid out what he plans to show to the Times.

“There were Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, the QAnon network, Boogaloo Boys, militia men and other assorted extremist and religious cults that assembled under the banner of ‘Stop The Steal,’ ” said Raskin. “This was quite a coming-out party for a lot of extremist, antigovernment groups and white nationalist groups that had never worked together before.”

"As he has studied the rise of right-wing extremism, Mr. Raskin has noticed a pattern in the countries that are able to stamp out creeping authoritarianism: Liberals must unite with the center-right," said the report.

"Much of the Jan. 6 committee’s work has been geared toward creating such a consensus, by highlighting the testimony of Republicans who stood up to Mr. Trump and the effort to overturn the 2020 election," it added. "'When you look at it historically, liberal and progressive parties generally don’t defeat authoritarian and fascist assaults on democracy by themselves,' Mr. Raskin said. 'Where democracy survives, it’s because the center-right and the center-left come together to defend it.'"

You can read more here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/11/us/jamie-raskin-jan-6-hearing.html

[Rick Plant]

Pro-Trump groups planned to gather in DC for inauguration — then switched to J6 after his tweet



On Monday, Axios reported that the January 6 Committee will present evidence at Tuesday's hearing that pro-Trump groups originally planned to converge on D.C. on the date of President Joe Biden's inauguration — but changed their plans after a Trump tweet directing them to gather on January 6 instead.

"One of the central questions in the investigation has been how directly culpable Trump was in the violence committed by his supporters — something impeachment managers sought to answer in the weeks after the assault," reported Andrew Solender. "But the committee has substantial resources the impeachment managers lacked, including subpoena power and more than a year to gather evidence."

"The committee has evidence that some pro-Trump groups had initially planned to be in D.C. in the days after President Biden's inauguration to kick off the opposition to his administration, according to a source familiar with the findings," said the report.

The report added, "The panel will contend that a Dec. 19, 2020, tweet from Trump calling supporters to the nation's capital for a 'big protest' on Jan. 6 — the now-infamous day Congress was set to certify electors — spurred supporters to change their plans, the source said."

According to the report, "At least one pro-Trump group allegedly changed its rally permit."

Trump appeared at a "Stop the Steal" rally on the National Mall immediately prior to the attack, and while he did not participate, he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified he actually wanted to join the rioters and attacked his security detail when they wouldn't take him there.

This comes as a former associate of Steve Bannon, Dustin Stockton, told MSNBC's Ari Melber that the organizers of the "Stop the Steal" rally were seeking to distance themselves from the extremists converging on the Capitol — and resentful that Trump got in the way of their efforts to diffuse tensions.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2022/07/12/jan6-committee-extremist-trump-proud-boys

[Rick Plant]

These right wing fascist and militia groups always existed, but Donald Trump allowed them to act on their violence and take over the Republican party.

Democracy expert expects political violence will get much worse and become a 'normal part of our life'



Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld, an expert on how democracies can improve at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, spoke to Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent about what Americans witnessed on Jan. 6, 2021, and what can be expected as the United States enters a new era of politics.

The outlook is grim, Kleinfeld explained, noting that things will get much worse before they get better.

"Americans need to realize that paramilitary groups could become a normal part of our political life," she said of those like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, which have been part of the prosecutions of the attack on Congress.

"For the last few years, we’ve seen an uptick in Republican parties at the local level — though occasionally at the state level — using militias for security at party events, having militias vote on party business, in one case in Michigan having militias introduce legislation," she explained. "You’re seeing a lot of photo-ops with militia members — things that normalize their interaction with the democratic process. These militias are being used to threaten other Republicans who aren’t part of this anti-democratic faction."

She cited some of the other countries where police violence has broken out and that it goes from violence to dehumanization. She cited the GOP's use of the word "groomers" to imply Democrats are pedophiles. The same happened to Republican Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers after he refused to overturn the 2020 election results in his state for Trump. He testified that they spent days outside of his home blasting loudspeakers calling him a pedophile while his terminally ill daughter was dying.

"The next stage is making violence against those dehumanized opponents seem more normal. You’re starting to see GOP candidates posing with rifles — everything from Rep. Thomas Massie’s family Christmas photo to Eric Greitens’s new ads about hunting RINOs," said Kleinfeld.

There are three groups an antidemocratic faction of the GOP is going after, she continued: pro-democracy Republicans, elected officials who handle elections, and everyday people like teachers and librarians.

"But if they start losing, then they’ve built up a lot of hatred — a lot of distrust in the system — and then the violence is going to get out of their control," she told Sargent. "It’ll look more like an insurgency. A disaffected left, not connected to the Democratic Party, is also justifying violence. It could get ugly."

The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and what led up to it will look at the links between the attacks and milita groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

Read More Here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/gop-political-violence-militias-jan-6-democratic-breakdown/

[Matt Grantham]

Cassidy is a perjurer Whats worse is what she perjured herself about is nonsense He grabbed the wheel LOL

[Rick Plant]

Rep. Jamie Raskin @RepRaskin

When he sent this tweet, Trump became the first president in American history to call for a protest against the peaceful transfer of power.

At tomorrow's hearing, America will see how it mobilized dangerous extremists & white nationalist groups to come armed to “Stop the Steal.”



https://twitter.com/RepRaskin/status/1546632527024164864