January 6th legal proceedings and investigations megathread

[Yoda]

I'm glad, it's happening, because I think, it will hurt Dems in midterms. Don't be surprised when you get polls like this one

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(A+)-rated ABC News/The Washington Post

https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/417a5111-a75e-4efb-b100-f1f10f164fb1/note/0bb59958-b21c-4aad-b458-076ce686873c.

Nov. 7-10
1,001 Adults

Adults:
41 (-3 since AUG 29-SEP 1)
53 (+2)
Strongly:
19 (-6)
44 (+2)

RV: 38/57  - Ouch
Strongly: 19/48


Economy:
Adults: 39/55
RV: 38/59

Covid:
Adults: 47/49
RV: 45/52


GB:
Adults: R 46 (+3)
RV: R 51 (+10)

 when Dems priority is Bannon circus and not bread-and-butter issues.

BTW, Bannon likely knew, that was coming, LMAO. It's more like political show for him, where is an actor who will perform an act.

Told ya.He'll put on hell of a show.

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1460332838063120388

https://twitter.com/bpolitics/status/1468679817298165762

Well, of course, lmao.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-08/steve-bannon-is-sabotaging-the-jan-6-probe-joshua-green
Steve Bannon Is Sabotaging the Jan. 6 Probe

On Tuesday, a federal judge set Steve Bannon’s trial date for next July in his contempt of Congress case for refusing to testify before the Jan. 6 committee. That’s sooner than the October date his lawyers asked for, but it’s still a big blow to the government and the committee, which wanted to move quickly to make an example of Bannon and pressure other witnesses to testify.

Those pressure tactics are failing, at least with the marquee witnesses. Yesterday, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows broke off cooperation with the panel, even knowing he’s likely to get hit with a criminal contempt charge himself. Another witness, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, says he’ll invoke his Fifth Amendment rights.

Outwardly, Bannon’s team was granted a delayed trial date because of the legal issues they raised about whether he was justified in refusing to testify based on his claim—dubious, legal experts believe, but unsettled—that he’s subject to executive privilege as a former Trump White House staffer.

But Bannon’s true purpose all along has been sabotaging the Jan. 6 investigation—or, as he put it with typical hyperbole, turning his contempt charge into “ the misdemeanor from hell” for Attorney General Merrick Garland, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and President Joe Biden.

Yesterday’s developments show he’s plainly succeeding. As former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe put it, the effort to force Bannon to testify is probably a “lost cause for the committee.”

But the fallout is actually worse, as Meadows’s about-face makes clear. Bannon’s intransigence has had the effect of letting him set the bar on what constitutes loyalty to former President Donald Trump—a metric that a substantial portion of Republican lawmakers and officials are deeply anxious about. Meadows had tried to plant a foot in both camps, negotiating with the committee to avoid being charged, while also remaining a member in good standing of Trumpworld.

The circus (Jan. 6 commission) got the clown (Bannon) they deserved.

How has the Jan. 6th commission behaved or conducted their proceedings/investigation like a circus? I was wholly unaware that they had been acting like any of the (numerous) Benghazi commissions. Details, please.

[Yoda]

Meadows voted in contempt of Congress.

I know that Bannon thinks he's being cute by getting his trial put off until July, and presumably Meadows' attorneys will follow the same playbook of delay, delay, delay.....but what is their brilliant strategy when their trials finally happen next summer and (in Meadows' case) probably late summer or fall? The trials themselves I gather are expected to go fairly quickly? Then when they are found guilty (presumably - it seems fairly slam dunk to me since they have no claim of executive privilege in a very serious investigation), they are each facing a year in prison. Joe Biden will be President until Jan '25 so no one will be there to corruptly pardon these treasonous, criminal lowlifes.

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/TitleChase/status/1470974469028077580

Can't wait to see if MTG's public threats to the telecom companies have the intended affect. /s

In all seriousness, at least a few of them could be in serious trouble. I'm reminded of Swalwel's lawsuit against trump, Mo Brooks, etc. If they find texts from Brooks, for example, communicating with any Jan. 6th participant and/or talking about him planning to wear body armor (and I don't find this at all unlikely after what we've found out about Meadows this week), I'd be intrigued to see how that new evidence affects that case.

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/ZcohenCNN/status/1542546816637468673

There should be a betting pool on who that was. Whomever that was, was dumber than a box of rocks.

That could be literally anyone in the Trump administration.

See the subsequent tweet I posted above. One of the messages came from an intermediary of Mark Meadows.  I suspect that Mr. Meadows is soon to be in some deep legal trouble.

You mean besides committing voter fraud in North Carolina???

[Yoda]

Didn’t Lindsey call officials in GA trying to pressure them similar to Trump?

Or am I remembering wrong?

From the AJC article:

Graham separately called Raffensperger in the days following the November 2020 elections and allegedly questioned whether the secretary of state had the power to reject more legally cast absentee ballots to help Trump narrow his deficit in Georgia. Graham denied the allegation.

This won't be hard to prove either way.  No one's phone records are untouchable.

I don't think Graham is denying he made the calls, just their characterization as to their content. Just why out of state politicians think it appropriate to hit on those charged with counting the votes escapes me. Just why such calls are picked up by the vote counters also escapes me.

This was my main thought when the Graham call was first reported as well. The fact he even placed the call as a hyper-partisan trump supporting US Senator from another state absolutely reeks of corrupt intent. He had no business calling the GA SoS, and his staff should have refused the call. Why even entertain it? Lindsay Graham is no more his constituent than I am. The GA SoS is employed by and answers to GA voters and media, period.

It'll be interesting how Graham answers when he is asked before the grand jury why he called in the first place. Who did he speak to prior? Who asked him to call? Who told him what to say?

[Yoda]

Why are you guys engaging with his nonsensical, gaslighting BS? I've had him blocked for months now I think, and this thread's past couple pages is a perfect encapsulation of why I was right to do so.

[Yoda]

Can we fire the SS Director before he retires so he can't collect his pension, like the trump criminal cabal did to Andrew McCabe? Is this a possibility?

[Yoda]

They’ve done a good job laying out Trump’s total inaction and even refusal to carry out his duties as president.

Him refusing the call from the Department of Defense seems like a big deal.

Can this be used as evidence of criminal negligence?

[Yoda]

They’ve done a good job laying out Trump’s total inaction and even refusal to carry out his duties as president.

Him refusing the call from the Department of Defense seems like a big deal.

Can this be used as evidence of criminal negligence?

POTUS failing to perform the duties of his office is not a crime,

And herein lies the problem. The US military was controlled by a man in an office who was under no obligation to protect American lives and will suffer no consequences whatsoever for failing to do so. Oh, he took an oath, you say? Call me crazy, but I believe that the Commander in Chief should face the same consequences a soldier would if that soldier sat idly by and watched on TV from a few blocks away for three hours while their fellow service members were being viciously attacked and seriously wounded by a mob of terrorists. I could be wrong, but I do believe that a US service member can still be hanged for such a heinous, unimaginable offense. trump should absolutely be held criminally liable for allowing the violence to continue. A non-zero # of people would be alive today if he had sent in the Guard or some other force immediately instead of watching Fox News with glee for three hours.

[Yoda]

It appears that the DOD was into erasing evidence as well. Honor and good judgement is just so yesterday.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/02/politics/defense-department-missing-january-6-texts/index.html

I'm officially on Team Coverup as opposed to Team Simply Inept. These are no coincidences; at this point it's an unmistakable pattern. Texts did not get permanently wiped from phones at the SS, White House and DoD that all concerned Jan 6th by accident. This was intentional evidence destruction in order to cover up a crime or at the very least, awareness that a crime or crimes had been committed. People need to go to prison for a long time over this.

[Yoda]

Well, this could mean something or it could be nothing, but there are reports that Trump has made an unscheduled trip to D.C. this evening.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1569111826343813121

Apparently the QAnoners think he's in DC to arrest Biden and be reinstated as President lol.

This gets stranger.  Apparently Trump was at his Virginia golf course, but drove around with a large group (none of whom were playing).  Some long-distance photos were captured and a few of the others in the group were tentatively identified.  A couple of them:

https://twitter.com/KarenInSoFlo/status/1569388381402005508

https://twitter.com/Nadja72638243/status/1569428361822208002

There are closeups of Trump in some of the replies.  He's looking kind of ragged.

This is entirely reminiscent of some mob boss and his fellow gangsters trying to meet in some place that can't be readily bugged or infiltrated by law enforcement.

I was going to say that these pics reminded me of the scenes from The Sopranos when Tony would go into his basement with whoever he was criming with at the time and turn on the laundry machine.

This is trump's version of that. Middle of a golf course, too far away for sound to be picked up. These are criminal co-conspirators who just got subpoenas or expect to get them getting their stories straight.

[Yoda]

This footage of Pelosi & Schumer in their secure locations is insane, holy sh*t

It certainly is. I've been watching coverage of the hearing for the better part of two hours now. Apparently, it was a documentarian - who I assume is a congressional staffer or aide - who recorded that footage on her phone. She certainly had considerable foresight in doing so, as it is historical footage that will be shown in documentaries and films in the years ahead. And it's very revealing how the congressional leaders had to take responsibility for getting law enforcement resources to the Capitol, while Trump sat on his laurels for hours and did nothing.

Did nothing to quell the violent sedition he initiated.

Given that we do not have the White House call logs, we do not know precisely what Mr. Trump did during that time. "Nothing" would be the least damaging action that does not contradict available evidence, but said evidence is hardly conclusive - it covers a range of possibilities, from "nothing" to "actively aided an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States".

I keep forgetting that the call logs have a 7 hour gap where they were likely using burner phones. That alone should be an absolutely enormous scandal all on its own.

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1581081159475560448

I'm sorry, what the hell did I just read?!? The SS was giving security updates to the Oathkeepers?!?!?

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1581081159475560448

I'm sorry, what the hell did I just read?!? The SS was giving security updates to the Oathkeepers?!?!?

This is beyond f***** up and smells like a God damn coup in the making, chapter 3,974.

Makes you wonder if this (at least one of the reasons) is why the Secret Service suddenly started deleting information from phones. What other embarrassing evidence is there (would have been found) ?

IMO any agents who deleted their text message from the 5th and 6th need to be fired at a minimum, if not prosecuted. From a national security perspective, you simply have to assume those agents are compromised. They simply cannot be allowed to be around POTUS or any other elected officials, cabinet secretaries, etc.

[Yoda]

Sen. Lindsey Graham asks the Supreme Court to block a subpoena from an Atlanta grand jury investigating 2020 election interference.

... The emergency request was filed with Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees the 11th Circuit. Thomas is likely to refer the matter to the full court.

https://us.cnn.com/2022/10/21/politics/lindsey-graham-supreme-court-appeal/index.html

Is there any doubt that Clarence Thomas is going to make an issue of this, and bring this to the full court?

It's really something how much of a coward Lindsay Graham is. He is absolutely terrified of testifying. If republicans follow through on their threat to kick out some democrats from the House if/when they take control next year, if democrats still control the Senate they should kick out Graham, Mike Lee and Ron Johnson if he survives. Any Senator who was involved in trying to steal the election has no goddamn right to be there. They should be in jail.

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1587512864654368773

Time's up, Lindsay. You f****** coward.

[Yoda]

The noose gets tighter. Good luck getting charged in DC, donald. Your freak Florida ''judge'' and a sympathetic jury pool won't be there to potentially save you.

[Yoda]

Yes. Jack Smith would not bring any charges he couldn't prove, and the jury and judge will not be sympathetic to the defendant. He's screwed.

[Yoda]

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. Chutkan, an Obama appointee, is the only federal judge in Washington, D.C. who has sentenced Jan. 6 defendants to sentences longer than the government had requested.

https://politicalwire.com/2023/08/01/donald-trump-indicted/


Inject this s*** STRAIGHT into my f***ing veins.

[Yoda]

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. Chutkan, an Obama appointee, is the only federal judge in Washington, D.C. who has sentenced Jan. 6 defendants to sentences longer than the government had requested.

https://politicalwire.com/2023/08/01/donald-trump-indicted/


Inject this s*** STRAIGHT into my f***ing veins.

It gets worse for Trump.

Judge assigned to Trump case previously said ‘the country is watching to see what the consequences are’ for January 6

District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge assigned to preside over former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Washington, DC, has repeatedly spoken out in very strong terms against the efforts to overturn the election and disrupt the transfer of power.

Chutkan, a Jamaica native, has served as a federal judge since she was appointed by Barack Obama in 2014. After graduating from University of Pennsylvania Law School, Chutkan spent more than a decade working as a public defender in Washington, DC. According to her biography on the court website, Chutkan “argued several appellate cases and tried over 30 cases, including numerous serious felony matters” as a public defender.

The Defendant (head of the notorious criminal Trump Organization) will doubtless whine that a judge who has publicly evidenced a dislike of criminals and traitors will be biased against him and should be replaced by one whom he appointed in return for pledges of loyalty and favors.

Oh I can't WAIT for the tantrums from trump. I bet the judge will be forced to issue a gag order when trump repeatedly and personally attacks herself and Jack Smith on social media, which I don't think trump is physically capable of holding himself to.

[Yoda]

I've heard some analysts say that even with the likely bump in donations it'll take in, the increase in legal fees could cause Trump's SuperPAC to run out of money possibly as soon as before the end of the year.

I had to pick up my jaw today when I read that last year his PAC had $105 million and now only has $4 million. What's even crazier is that up until he was a declared candidate, the RNC was paying his legal bills too! Being a career criminal really, really drains your bank account after you get caught. It's the republicans' own fault though. They could have convicted him at his impeachment trial and been done with him; legally barred from running again. Now he's a candidate again and he is financially bleeding the republican party dry. Karma's a b****

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/PalmerReport/status/1687200857518231552?t=coVoDp-NkBqPnPd2C5...

I'm genuinely giddy with excitement that trump is about to meet something face to face that he has never met before in his life: someone with power over him who will throw him in jail without a second thought if he breaks this sort of gag rule he's under. I honestly don't think he makes it until the trial without being locked up.

[Yoda]

Some thoughts by Andrew Weissmann

https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1687949203958358017

Suggests the Trump Truth Social Tweet on Pence might be intentional so he can play the Victim Card once going to jail.

Somehow I doubt that Donald Trump would voluntarily go to jail. The easiest explanation is the most likely ... Donald Trump can't control his impulses.

Agreed. I think the "martyr" theory is kinda silly. trump would literally throw his own child under the bus to save himself from one day in jail. He's not trying to voluntarily go to jail as part of some 3D chess plan. He's psychotic and needs attention at all times.

[Yoda]

Unsurprising:
New Judge Cannon order opens door for DOJ to ask for her Trump case removal: legal experts

"Judge Cannon responds to the govt's request for a hearing on Nauta's lawyer's conflicts & discloses the existence of a grand jury investigation in another district while denying gov't's motion to seal. The govt can appeal. This may tee up the issue of her fitness on this case," Vance tweeted.

MSNBC host and former prosecutor Katie Phang agreed, chiming in with: "If the DOJ filed under seal certain documents, and Judge Cannon just disclosed the existence of an otherwise confidential grand jury proceeding, we might be at the motion for recusal stage for the DOJ…"

And Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor who worked for special counsel Robert Mueller, argued that Cannon was either showing bias or ignorance with her latest ruling.

"The obstruction crimes that were investigated are charges that could have been brought in FLA or in DC and thus could be investigated in either district," he wrote. "And there was conduct that is alleged to have occurred outside FLA."

This comes on the heels of a non-Trump-related story about Cannon:
Trump documents case judge made multiple errors in earlier trial

Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon closed jury selection for the trial of an Alabama man - accused by federal prosecutors of running a website with images of child sex abuse - to the defendant's family and the general public, pointing to a lack of space in the courtroom, a trial transcript viewed by Reuters showed.

This error forced Cannon to re-start jury selection before the trial ended abruptly with defendant William Spearman pleading guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Spearman's plea deal included an unusual provision allowing him to appeal a decision by Cannon against his motion to suppress evidence in the case.

Cannon's decision to close the courtroom represents "a fundamental constitutional error," said Stephen Smith, a professor at the Santa Clara School of Law in California. "She ignored the public trial right entirely. It's as though she didn't know it existed."

It would be pretty hilarious if she managed to get herself kicked off of the case this early. On the not-so-funny side, the absolute clowns trump put on the federal bench like Cannon and the freak in North Texas will be wreaking havoc and issuing nonsense opinions for 40 years. We absolutely MUST pack SCOTUS if we ever get the chance.

[Yoda]

More evidence of the obvious that Trump hates America.

Imagine if a Democrat said what he did right there.

It reads like something republicans would claim that John Kerry had said in '04, but of course it would turn out he never had. Which just goes to show for the 10,000,000th time, that with republicans, it's ALWAYS projection.