Trump's world....

[concha]

Tonight was meant to be the grand primetime finale of the January 6th hearings, but those have been postponed. MSNBC’s Ali Vitali, when asked the reason, answered in classic fashion. “Look,” she said. “You have to infer that the reason for that is they’re getting new cooperation, not least of which from former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone…”

…

I’d planned to live-blog the hearings this evening over an introduction of the six-year history of the “We’ve definitely got him now!” show. Hearings are off, but it’s all worth reviewing anyway, especially since other events are conspiring to answer the question of just what all these years of efforts have won Democrats politically, which seems to be, not much.

The Endless Prosecution not only failed to win Trump’s accusers the public’s loyalty, it apparently achieved the opposite, somehow swinging working-class and even nonwhite voters toward Republicans in what even Axios this week called a “seismic shift” in American politics.

[DBP66]

Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Secret Service for erased texts

• 
  1/2

  Capitol Riot Investigation

  Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

  ASSOCIATED PRESS
• 
  2/2

  Capitol Riot Investigation Secret Service

  FILE - A U.S. Secret Service officer takes a position in the street as President Donald Trump's motorcade arrives at the White House after golfing at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., in Washington, Nov. 8, 2020, a day after was defeated by President-elect Joe Biden. A government watchdog has found that Secret Service agents deleted text messages sent and received around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol after an inspector general requested them as part of the investigation into the insurrection. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

  ASSOCIATED PRESS

FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK

Fri, July 15, 2022 at 4:08 PM

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Capitol riot has subpoenaed the Secret Service for text messages agents reportedly deleted around Jan. 6, 2021, as the panel probes Donald Trump's actions at the time of the deadly siege.

The committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the committee understands the messages had been “erased.” Thompson outlined an aggressive timeline for production of the documents by Tuesday.

“The USSS erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, as part of a 'device-replacement program,'” Thompson said in a statement late Friday.

He said the panel “seeks the relevant text messages, as well as any after action reports that have been issued in any and all divisions of the USSS pertaining or relating in any way to the events of January 6, 2021.”

 

The Secret Service said the committee “has had our full and unwavering cooperation” since beginning its work and “that does not change,” according to a statement from agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. He added: ”We plan to continue that cooperation by responding swiftly to the Committee’s subpoena.”

The subpoenas come hours after the nine-member panel received a closed briefing from the watchdog for Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service. Lawmakers were briefed about his finding that the Secret Service deleted texts from around Jan. 6, according to two people familiar with the matter.

That finding raised the startling prospect of lost evidence that could shed further light on then-President Donald Trump’s actions during the insurrection, particularly after earlier testimony about his confrontation with security as he tried to join supporters at the Capitol.

It was a rare step for the committee to issue a subpoena to an executive branch department.

The private briefing with the inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, came two days after his office sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees stating that Secret Service agents erased messages between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021 “as part of a device-replacement program.” The deletion came after the watchdog office requested records from the agents as part of its probe into events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack, the letter said.

The committee had originally sought the electronic records in mid-January and made an official request in March for all communications received or sent from DHS employees between Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, 2021.

Thompson told The Associated Press on Friday that the committee is taking a deeper look at whether records may have been lost. “There have been some conflicting positions on the matter,” he said.

The briefing was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss it.

The Secret Service insists proper procedures were followed. Guglielmi said “the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false.”

He said the Secret Service had started to reset its mobile devices to factory settings in January 2021 “as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration.” In that process, some data was lost.

The inspector general has first requested the electronic communications on Feb. 26, “after the migration was well under way,” Guglielmi said.

The Secret Service said it has provided a substantial number of emails and chat messages that included conversations and details related to Jan. 6 to the inspector general. It also said text messages from the Capitol Police requesting assistance on Jan. 6 were preserved and provided to the inspector general’s office.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service, is also expecting a briefing from the inspector general about the letter, according to a person familiar with the committee’s discussions who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the top Republican on the committee, said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” by the inspector general's recent letter and that it was "essential that the Department be transparent with its inspector general, Congress, and the American public.”

The Jan. 6 committee has taken a renewed interest in the Secret Service following the dramatic testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who recalled what she heard about Trump’s actions the day of the insurrection.

Hutchinson recalled being told about a confrontation between Trump and his Secret Service detail as he angrily demanded to be driven to the Capitol, where his supporters would later breach the building. She also recalled overhearing Trump telling security officials to remove magnetometers for his rally on the Ellipse even though some of his supporters were armed.

Some details of that account were quickly disputed by those agents. Robert Engel, the agent who was driving the presidential SUV, and Trump security official Tony Ornato are willing to testify under oath that no agent was assaulted and Trump never lunged for the steering wheel, a person familiar with the matter told the AP. The person would not discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

With evidence still emerging, the Jan. 6 committee has scheduled its next hearing to take place Thursday in prime time. The eighth in a series of hearings that began in early June will take a deeper look into the three-hour-plus stretch when Trump failed to act as a mob of supporters stormed the Capitol.

It will be the first hearing in prime time since June 9, the first on the committee's findings. That earlier hearing was viewed by 20 million people.

[DBP66]

Trump campaign operative who delivered Jan. 6 false elector lists is identified

 

Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo

 

Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu

Fri, July 15, 2022 at 7:52 PM

 

 

A little-known Donald Trump campaign operative delivered lists of false electors to Capitol Hill in a bid to get them to Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two people familiar with the episode.

Mike Roman, then Trump’s 2020 director of Election Day operations, delivered those false elector certificates — signed by pro-Trump activists in Michigan and Wisconsin — to Rep. Mike Kelly's (R-Pa.) chief of staff at the time, both people told POLITICO. Kelly was a Trump ally in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, and his then-top aide received the documents from Roman before deputizing a colleague to disseminate copies on Capitol Hill, according to both people.

Roman’s role in the effort to deliver those slates of electors directly to Pence has not previously been reported. The onetime Trump White House researcher and former aide to the conservative Koch network, who was subpoenaed in February by the Jan. 6 select committee, did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

The origin of the false elector lists, which never got to Pence before he presided over certification of Joe Biden's victory on Jan. 6, has become an enduring subplot in the select panel's investigation of the Capitol attack designed to disrupt that day. After the committee revealed the role of a top aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in the episode during a hearing last month, Johnson said the false elector lists came from Kelly — who has repeatedly denied any involvement by his office in their distribution.

 

"They have changed their story, from denying their involvement outright to now not denying their former chief of staff’s involvement," said Alexa Henning, a Johnson spokesperson. "Congressman Kelly should be issuing Senator Johnson an apology for participating in the perpetration of false stories regarding Senator Johnson’s minimal involvement in this matter."

Kelly has recently touted the results of an “internal investigation” that identified Matt Stroia, his chief of staff at the time, as the intermediary for the lists. That inquiry found that the lists were never passed from Stroia, now a Pfizer lobbyist, to Johnson's office. Kelly's office, in response to a request for comment, said Stroia had a previous relationship with members of the Trump team and got contacted by someone linked to that team on Jan. 6.

"Matthew got the information," Kelly's current chief of staff, Tim Butler, said in an interview. "There was another staffer here in the office who was asked to physically walk it over. And it's just those two individuals that were involved."

Neither of those two individuals worked in Kelly's office any longer, Butler said. Kelly's office declined to identify the other staffer involved.

Neither Roman nor Stroia returned requests for comment for this story.

Both people who confirmed Roman's involvement in the transmission of the elector lists spoke on condition of anonymity amid the select panel's ongoing investigation into the runup to the attack and Trump's role in it.

The Jan. 6 committee's mention of his office's role put Johnson, facing a tough reelection race this fall, on the back foot. He later told a home-state radio host: "My office's entire involvement in this thing lasted 70 minutes. My involvement was probably seconds, maybe a minute or two."

Roman's involvement, however, clarifies another piece of the puzzle behind Trump’s effort to seize a second term he didn’t win. Trump, relying on a band of fringe attorneys, spent much of December 2020 leaning on Republican state legislatures in a handful of states to ignore the results and deliver pro-Trump electors to Congress.

Under Trump’s plan, Pence — required by the Constitution to preside over the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021 — would cite the “alternate” and illegitimate electors to block Biden’s victory or delay the count altogether. Ultimately, no state legislature agreed to Trump’s plan, but the former president's campaign still assembled activists to sign false documents claiming to be genuine presidential electors and delivered them to Congress.

The plan fell apart when Pence refused to go along, contending that doing so would violate multiple provisions of federal law and insisting he had no power to do anything other than introduce certified electoral votes. Pence, who had huddled with advisers and the Senate parliamentarian to flesh out his position, had decided well before Jan. 6 that he would not attempt to overturn Biden’s victory.

But that didn’t stop the Trump campaign from attempting to place some of the false slates directly into Pence’s hands on Jan. 6.

The Justice Department is in talks with the select committee about evidence specifically related to the false electors effort, Jan. 6 panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said this week.

DOJ has in recent weeks subpoenaed a slew of Trump allies who acted as false electors, including several state GOP chairs. It has also subpoenaed state-level operatives working on Trump’s campaign.

In addition, FBI agents recently seized the phone of attorney John Eastman, a top strategist for Trump’s effort who worked closely on the plan to appoint false electors. Eastman is fighting in a New Mexico federal court to get his phone back but was dealt a setback Friday evening when a judge denied his motion for a restraining order.

When subpoenaing Roman, who is from Pennsylvania, the select committee cited records reflecting his push to convince Republican state legislatures to appoint pro-Trump slates of presidential electors as part of a strategy to boost the losing campaign.

“[T]he Select Committee is in possession of communications reflecting your involvement in a coordinated strategy to contact Republican members of state legislatures in certain states that former President Trump had lost and urge them to “reclaim” their authority by sending an alternate slate of electors that would support former President Trump,” Thompson wrote in a letter accompanying the subpoena.

[concha]

 

A decade from now this asshat will still be completely obsessed with Orange Man Bad.

 

 

[DBP66]

11 minutes ago, concha said:

 

A decade from now this asshat will still be completely obsessed with Orange Man Bad.

 

 

your boy tried to take the country over....based on a lie (which 70% of the Republicans believe?!?!)...no BIG deal??....you're a real student of history huh Don??....nothing to see here...just your everyday deadly insurection.....🤡

[DBP66]

Steve Bannon said Trump 'would lie about anything' to win arguments, new book says

 

 

Joshua Zitser

Sat, July 16, 2022 at 7:17 AM

 

 

 

Steve Bannon.Win McNamee/Getty Images

• Steve Bannon told aides that Trump "would lie about anything," per a new book.

• The quote comes from a new book by the Politico reporter Jonathan Lemire, cited in The Guardian.

• A recent report said Bannon told associates before the 2020 election that Trump was already planning to declare victory.

The former White House strategist Steve Bannon told aides that former President Donald Trump would often lie to win arguments, according to a new book cited by The Guardian.

Bannon said Trump "would say anything, he would lie about anything," The Guardian reported.

He also said that Trump lies "to win whatever exchange he [is] having at the moment," according to the outlet.

 

The quote comes from "The Big Lie: Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics After 2020," written by Politico's White House bureau chief Jonathan Lemire, which is set to be published on July 26.

The "big lie" refers to the debunked conspiracy theory that Trump lost the 2020 election due to voter fraud.

Bannon pushed these voter-fraud claims after the election, though the former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg told The Atlantic last month that the strategist only pushed the conspiracy theory to get a pardon. Bannon received a pardon as one of Trump's last acts in office.

The book excerpt comes on the heels of a Mother Jones report that said Bannon said before Election Day that Trump was already planning to reject the 2020 election results.

In the audio, recorded during an October 2020 meeting between Bannon and his associates, he can be heard saying that Trump is "just gonna say he's a winner" even if he loses.

The House January 6 committee is investigating Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 election results and the subsequent Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

Bannon initially refused to engage with a subpoena from the committee, leading to his indictment by a federal grand jury in November 2021 on two counts of contempt of Congress. Bannon's criminal trial is set to  start on Monday.

On Thursday, US District Court Judge Carl Nichols once again refused to delay the trial, rejecting Bannon's request to push it back due to the publicity surrounding the House investigation.

During a pre-trial hearing, Nichols said he was hopeful that the jury selection process would filter out any bias against Bannon. He also said he would consider delaying the trial if it proved difficult to find a suitable jury.

Days earlier, Nichols had denied a request to delay Bannon's trial, saying he would not allow Bannon to argue that executive privilege excused his decision to not comply with sitting for questioning or turning over subpoenaed records to the January 6 committee.

Last week, Bannon offered to testify before the committee, which prosecutors dismissed as a "last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability."

[concha]

 

Let's take a poll:

Who reads the "articles" that Dumbass66 spams the site with?

 

[DBP66]

54 minutes ago, concha said:

 

Let's take a poll:

Who reads the "articles" that Dumbass66 spams the site with?

 

LOL...how about....Who reads this post?...that would be YOU.....🤡

[concha]

[DBP66]

No major problems with ballot drop boxes in 2020, AP finds

•  
•  
•  

ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY

Sun, July 17, 2022 at 7:30 AM

 

 

ATLANTA (AP) — The expanded use of drop boxes for mailed ballots during the 2020 election did not lead to any widespread problems, according to an Associated Press survey of state election officials across the U.S. that revealed no cases of fraud, vandalism or theft that could have affected the results.

The findings from both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states run contrary to claims made by former President Donald Trump and his allies who have intensely criticized their use and falsely claimed they were a target for fraud.

Drop boxes are considered by many election officials to be safe and secure, and have been used to varying degrees by states across the political spectrum. Yet conspiracy theories and efforts by Republicans to eliminate or restrict them since the 2020 election persist. This month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that drop boxes are not allowed under state law and can no longer be widely used.

Drop boxes also are a focal point of the film “2,000 Mules,” which used a flawed analysis of cellphone location data and ballot drop box surveillance footage to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election.

 

In response to the legislation and conspiracy theories surrounding drop boxes, the AP sent a survey in May to the top elections office in each state seeking information about whether the boxes were tied to fraudulent votes or stolen ballots, or whether the boxes and the ballots they contained were damaged.

All but five states responded to the questions.

None of the election offices in states that allowed the use of drop boxes in 2020 reported any instances in which the boxes were connected to voter fraud or stolen ballots. Likewise, none reported incidents in which the boxes or ballots were damaged to the extent that election results would have been affected.

A previous AP investigation found far too few cases of potential voter fraud in the six battleground states where Trump disputed his loss to President Joe Biden to affect the outcome.

A number of states — including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas — said they do not allow the use of drop boxes. Some had not allowed them before the 2020 election, when the coronavirus pandemic prompted wider use of mailed ballots. In states where they are used, secretaries of state or election commissioners may not be aware of every incident involving a drop box if it was not reported to their office by a county or other local jurisdiction.

Drop boxes have been a mainstay in states with extensive mail voting for years and had not raised any alarms. They were used widely in 2020 as election officials sought to provide alternative ways to cast ballots with the COVID-19 outbreak creating concerns about in-person voting. The boxes also gave voters a direct method for submitting their ballots, rather than sending them through the U.S. Postal Service and worrying about delivery delays.

Starting months before the 2020 presidential election, Trump and his allies have made a series of unfounded claims suggesting that drop boxes open the door to voter fraud. Republican state lawmakers, as part of their push to add new voting restrictions, have in turn placed rules around when and where the boxes could be accessed.

Arizona Assistant Secretary of State Allie Bones said drop boxes are “safe and secure” and might even be considered more secure than Postal Service mailboxes. She said bipartisan teams in the state collect ballots from the drop boxes and take them directly to secure election facilities, following so-called chain-of-custody protocols.

"Not to say that there’s anything wrong with USPS, and I think they do a great job as well, but the hysteria around ballot drop boxes I think is just a made-up thing to create doubt and fear,” Bones said.

Arizona has had robust mail-in voting for years that includes the use of drop boxes, and in the AP survey, the state reported no damage, stolen ballots or fraud associated with them in 2020. Nevertheless, Trump-aligned lawmakers in the state pushed for legislation that would ban drop boxes, but were stymied by Democrats and several Republicans who disagreed with the strategy.

Utah is a state controlled by Republicans that also has widespread use of mailed ballots and no limits on the number of drop boxes a county can deploy. Jackson Murphy, spokesman for Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who is the state’s top election official, said in the AP survey that Henderson encourages counties to make secure drop boxes accessible to voters.

Of the states responding to the survey, 15 indicated that drop boxes were in use before 2020 and 22 have no limits on how many can be used in this fall's election. At least five states take the extra step of setting a minimum number of drop boxes required.

Republican-led Florida and North Dakota and Democratic-led New York did not respond. Montana and Virginia did, but did not answer the survey questions related to the 2020 election.

Last year, five states added new restrictions to ballot drop boxes, according to research by the Voting Rights Lab. That included Georgia, where President Joe Biden won a narrow victory and where drop boxes were allowed under an emergency rule prompted by the pandemic.

Georgia Republicans say their changes have resulted in drop boxes being a permanent option for voters, requiring all counties to have at least one. But the legislation, which includes a formula of one box per 100,000 registered voters, means fewer will be available in the state’s most populous communities compared with 2020.

Iowa lawmakers last year approved legislation to limit drop boxes to one per county. Previously, state law did not say how many drop boxes counties could use. This year, Louisiana, Missouri and South Carolina have passed laws effectively prohibiting drop boxes, according to the Voting Rights Lab, which researches state election law changes.

Along with incidents recorded in news reports, the AP survey found a handful of cases in 2020 in which drop boxes were damaged.

Officials in Washington state said there were instances when drop boxes were hit by vehicles, but that no ballot tampering had been reported. Massachusetts election officials said one box was damaged by arson in October 2020 but that most of the ballots inside were still legible enough for voters to be identified, notified and sent replacements.

A drop box also was set on fire in Los Angeles County in 2020, but a local election official said the vast majority of the ballots that were damaged were able to be recovered and voters provided new ballots. Another drop box in California was temporarily closed because of a wildfire.

“The irony is they were put in place to respond to a problem with the post office and make sure people had a secure way of returning their ballots,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat. “And so there’s no actual legitimate concern except for, again, potential external threats or people who have been radicalized through misinformation to try to tamper with drop boxes to make a point.”

North Carolina provides an example of how deep-seated the misinformation has become. The state does not allow drop boxes and did not use them during the 2020 election.

“And despite that fact, people are still claiming drop box fraud must have occurred in North Carolina," said Patrick Gannon, public information director for the State Board of Elections. "You can’t make this up. Oh wait. Yes, you can.”

In Wisconsin, Republicans had supported the use of drop boxes before Trump seized on mailed ballots as part of his unsubstantiated claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that found ballot drop boxes were not allowed under state law also said no one other than the voter can return their ballot in person to a local clerk’s office or alternate site.

Some voters said they were frustrated by the ruling.

Kelly O’Keefe Boettcher of Milwaukee said she cast her ballot in a drop box in 2020 because of safety concerns during the pandemic and is upset that they’ll no longer be an option for her or for voters who are less able to get to the polls.

“Drop boxes are accessible; they are egalitarian,” she said. “To watch them go, I feel, people can say it’s not voter suppression. But it is.”

Wisconsin state Rep. Tim Ramthun, a Republican candidate for governor, reintroduced a resolution this past week for the GOP-controlled Legislature to decertify Biden’s victory there, adding the state Supreme Court ruling on drop boxes as one reason to do so. Trump also renewed his calls for decertification in Wisconsin, citing the ruling.

According to the AP survey, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said it is not aware of any cases in 2020 in which drop boxes were damaged, had submitted ballots stolen or destroyed, or were used for fraudulent ballots.

“Isn’t a mailbox a secure place to put a letter?" asked Dave Wanninger, who with his wife used a ballot drop box in a Milwaukee public library in 2020. "Why would a drop box be any different?”

[DBP66]

Georgia investigators are gathering evidence Trump may have broken these 3 state laws

 

Georgia investigators are gathering evidence Trump may have broken these 3 state laws

 

Camila DeChalus

Sat, July 16, 2022 at 7:00 AM

 

 

 

• The Fulton County investigation into Trump is ramping up.

• Legal experts point to three Georgia laws Trump may have broken.

• The Georgia investigation into Trump is the most urgent legal challenge against him, experts say.

Soon after Fani Willis started in her job as Fulton County district attorney back in February 2021, she announced that she would take on an investigation of historic proportions — scrutinizing Donald Trump.

Now nearly a year and a half later, Willis appears to be ramping up her local criminal investigation into the former Republican president and his associates' possible interference in Georgia's results from the 2020 presidential election. On July 5, the Fulton County special grand jury issued subpoenas to members of Trump's inner circle, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, his legal adviser John Eastman, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

 

The latest development signals that Willis is getting closer to gathering the evidence she needs to decide whether to charge Trump, according to several legal experts who spoke with Insider.

When Willis first announced her investigation into the former president, she said it would focus on Trump and his associates' attempts to pressure Georgia state officials to overturn the state's 2020 election results. Since then, the investigation has expanded to examine an alleged scheme to have a fake slate of electors certify the election results so that Trump won in Georgia instead of the man who actually did, Joe Biden, according to a recent subpoena for Kenneth Chesebro, a legal advisor to Trump.

Legal experts told Insider that the Georgia investigation into Trump could be the most pressing legal challenge against him. The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has also put more focus on Trump's efforts to interfere with the state's results from the 2020 presidential election after Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger testified before the committee and recalled how Trump pressured him to find more votes to overturn the election results.

"The January 6 hearings are accelerating the evidence that she needs to charge the former president," Norm Eisen, a former advisor to House Democrats during their 2019-2020 impeachment of Trump, said of Willis. "They're providing her with additional proof of the offenses."

John Dean, the White House counsel for former President Richard Nixon whose public testimony played a critical role in unraveling the Watergate scandal, told Insider that the public has now seen  evidence "that would indicate that (Trump) has a lot of reasons to be worried."

But others like Alan Dershowitz, who was a part of Trump's defense team during his first impeachment trial, feel differently about Willis's investigation into Trump. Dershowitz told Insider that the process in which Willis is conducting her investigation is "deeply flawed."

"Usually, what happens is a crime is committed, and then you try to find the person," he said. "Here, it is the opposite. People are looking to try to find a crime. Maybe they'll find one. It's possible, but I think the process is extremely dangerous."

Trump's attorney Justin Clark did not respond to Insider's request to comment on the Georgia investigation.

Four legal experts spoke to Insider on the possible Georgia laws Trump may have broken that could potentially bolster Willis' case against him.

Racketeering

Last March, Willis hired John Floyd, an expert in racketeering cases, to assist in her investigation into Trump. Floyd wrote a book on prosecuting state racketeering cases called "RICO State By State: A Guide to Litigation Under the State Racketeering Statutes."

Typically, racketeering charges are associated with criminal mobs or gang organizations. But it also can be applied to a group of individuals who commit crimes through extortion or coercion. Under Georgia law, this offense carries a minimum prison sentence of at least five years.

Willis also has experience prosecuting these kinds of cases. As a Fulton County assistant district attorney, she worked on a high-profile case involving several Atlanta public school teachers who were accused of conspiring to change their student's standardized test scores answers. In 2015, 11 of the 12 school educators were convicted on racketeering charges.

As the local DA, Willis could use the evidence of Trump's calls with Georgia election officials to bolster her potential case against him, said Nick Akerman, a former federal prosecutor who also worked on the Watergate prosecution team.

For instance, on December 23, 2020, Trump called Frances Watson, who served as a chief investigator of the investigations division for the Georgia Secretary of State, where he urged her to find election fraud. A few days later, on January 2, 2021, Trump called Raffensperger and pressured him to find more votes to overturn the election results.

"It's the strongest case they have against Trump," Akerman said. "You have two great witnesses: Raffensperger and (Republican Georgia Governor Brian) Kemp. And you've got Trump calling the chief investigator in Georgia. I mean, the evidence there is just pretty overwhelming."

 

Brad Raffensperger (left), the Georgia secretary of state, testified before the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. His deputy, Gabe Sterling, also appeared before the panel.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Election fraud solicitation

Willis could potentially charge Trump with election fraud solicitation by using the phone calls he made to Raffensperger and Watson as evidence to support her claims. She can also point to the evidence she has gathered on Trump's alleged scheme to send a fake slate of electors to overturn Georgia's election results, legal experts told Insider.

"The evidence that we have about Donald Trump's demand for the phony votes and the phony electoral certificate, I mean, that fits Georgia's solicitation of election fraud, like a hand in glove," Eisen told Insider.

But her biggest challenge would be proving that Trump knew he was committing election fraud when he made these calls to the Georgia officials, said Peter Odom, a former Fulton County prosecutor.

"With fraud cases, you have to show that someone knew that what they were doing was fraudulent," Odom, who has previously worked on these kind of cases, told Insider.

Odom added that Trump's possible legal defense could be that he didn't have an intent to commit a crime because he believed there was election fraud.

"If he actually thought he won and he was trying to get people to promote his victory, one could argue that he didn't have the intent to have people commit a crime. He had the intent to have people get to the truth," he said.

But prosecutors on Willis's team could point to the number of White House legal advisers and Justice Department officials who told Trump they found no evidence to support the notion that the election was rigged.

Some DOJ officials, like former Attorney General William Barr, have already testified before the House select committee about his conversations with Trump and how he informed him that there was no election fraud. Barr's testimony to the House select committee was later displayed during several of the committee's public hearings.

Interference with performance of election duties   

Willis could also potentially charge Trump with the crime of interfering with the performance of election duties.

Prosecutors would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump intentionally interfered or attempted to delay the performance of an official government proceeding. Her team could point to the calls Trump made to Raffensperger and Watson and claim that he made these calls with the intent to delay them from carrying out their election duties," legal experts say.

Odom told Insider that if Willis charged these crimes against Trump, she would have to prove that the former president knowingly tried to commit them.

"The hardest thing to prove in a case like this is the intent of the individual that is committing that crime," he said. "You have to show that someone did something purposely…or that they did something with reckless disregard."

Read the original article on Business Insider

 

[concha]

Po-TAY-to

Po-TAH-to

 

[DBP66]

Report: Conservative Newsmax peddles Jan. 6 misinformation

 

FILE - From left, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., staff counsel Dan George, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., staff counsel Candyce Phoenix, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., sit on the dais as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) More

 

AMANDA SEITZ

Mon, July 18, 2022 at 5:37 PM

 

 

Washington (AP) — A conservative TV channel is presenting viewers with an “alternate universe” of how the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, a new research report finds.

Newsmax has broadcast at least 40 false claims or conspiracy theories about the attack since June, when a House committee began televising its evidence about the role former President Donald Trump and his allies played in the day's events, according to NewsGuard, a tech firm that monitors misinformation.

“If you’re watching Newsmax, you may come away with an entirely different feeling of what happened at the hearings, and what happened on Jan. 6,” NewsGuard analyst Jack Brewster said of the findings.

Many of the falsehoods, presented by anchors, reporters and guests who include Republican members of Congress, have been repeatedly debunked. Newsmax did not comment on the report.

 

Anchors and guests have claimed that there were only a few hundred rioters or that they were “unarmed,” despite photos taken from that day and federal charges that show some were armed with guns or used pepper spray, flagpoles and stun guns as weapons. The Department of Justice estimates at least 2,000 people entered the U.S. Capitol.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified last month that Trump had been informed protesters were armed with weapons.

Another false claim that Trump ordered National Guard troops to the scene, only to be blocked by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was repeated 11 times since the Jan. 6 committee began its hearings on June 9, for example. That misinformation was proven false more than a year ago: Pelosi doesn’t direct the National Guard.

The false claims broadcast on the Trump-friendly Newsmax echo the misleading defenses regularly offered by Trump, as well as his allies, about the violent day at the U.S. Capitol. Newsmax is also named in a defamation lawsuit brought by vote-counting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems for baseless claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent -- the falsehood that spurred many protestors turned rioters to travel to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Newsmax, which is available on most cable, satellite and streaming services, is watched by roughly 200,000 viewers daily. Brewster, who has been monitoring television misinformation around the Jan. 6 hearings, said Newsmax has most regularly aired falsehoods about the insurrection compared to other conservative TV channels.

“I was most shocked by the durability of these claims,” Brewster said. “These are false claims that are not new. A lot of them have been repeated ad nauseum.”

Newsmax has not livestreamed the hearings in full, and in a June press release described the hearings as “political theater.”

[DBP66]

Former White House aides to testify at next Jan. 6 hearing

• 
  1/2

  Former White House aides to testify at next Jan. 6 hearing

  FILE - Former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger departs after President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to Army Sgt. Maj. Thomas P. Payne in the East Room of the White House, Sept. 11, 2020, in Washington. Pottinger and Sarah Matthews are expected to testify at the House Jan. 6 committee's prime-time hearing on July 21, as the panel examines what Trump was doing as his supporters broke into the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the hearing. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

  ASSOCIATED PRESS
• 
  2/2

  Capitol Riot Investigation

  FILE - In this image from video released by the House Select Committee, an exhibit shows Sarah Matthews, former White House deputy press secretary, during a video deposition to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, that was displayed at the hearing Thursday, June 16, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Matthew Pottinger and Matthews, are expected to testify at the House Jan. 6 committee's prime-time hearing on July 21, as the panel examines what Trump was doing as his supporters broke into the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the hearing.(House Select Committee via AP)

  ASSOCIATED PRES

FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK

Mon, July 18, 2022 at 8:20 PM

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former White House aides are expected to testify at the House Jan. 6 committee's prime-time hearing Thursday as the panel examines what Donald Trump was doing as his supporters broke into the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, a former press aide, are expected to testify, according to the person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and requested anonymity. Both Pottinger and Matthews resigned immediately after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that interrupted the congressional certification of President Joe Biden's victory.

The two witnesses will add to the committee's narrative in its eighth, and possibly final, hearing this summer. The prime-time hearing will detail what Trump did — or did not do — during several hours that day as his supporters beat police officers and broke into the Capitol.

Previous hearings have detailed chaos in the White House and aides and outsiders were begging the president to tell the rioters to leave. But he waited more than three hours to do so, and there are still many unanswered questions about what exactly he was doing and saying as the violence unfolded.

Video: Rusty Bowers doubts he'll win election after Jan. 6 hearing testimony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 NEWS LIKE YOU, MY FRIEND. 

 

Scroll back up to restore default view.

A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment. CNN was the first to report the identity of Thursday’s witnesses.

Lawmakers on the nine-member panel have said the hearing will offer the most compelling evidence yet of Trump’s “dereliction of duty" that day, with witnesses detailing his failure to stem the angry mob.

“We have filled in the blanks,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the House committee investigating the riot who will help lead Thursday’s session, said Sunday. "This is going to open people’s eyes in a big way.”

“The president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television during this timeframe,” he added.

Throughout its yearlong investigation, the panel has uncovered several details regarding what the former president was doing as a mob of rioters breached the Capitol complex. Testimony and documents revealed that those closest to Trump, including his allies in Congress, Fox News anchors and even his own children, tried to persuade him to call off the mob or put out a statement calling for the rioters to go home.

At one point, according to testimony, Ivanka Trump went to her father to plead with him personally when those around him had failed to get through. All those efforts were unsuccessful.

Thursday’s hearing will be the first in the prime-time slot since the June 9 debut that was viewed by an estimated 20 million people.

The hearing comes nearly one week after committee members received a closed briefing from the watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security after it was discovered that the Secret Service had deleted text messages sent and received around Jan. 6. Shortly after, the committee subpoenaed the agency, seeking all relevant electronic communication from agents around the time of the attack. The deadline for the Secret Service to respond is Tuesday.

Committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told The Associated Press on Monday that the Secret Service informed them it will turn over records within the requirements of the subpoena.

[concha]

[DBP66]

DOJ Says Probe of Trump’s Jan. 6 Role Will Continue If He Declares 2024 Run

 

Chris Strohm

Tue, July 19, 2022 at 10:14 AM

 

 

(Bloomberg) -- The Justice Department’s investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results won’t be deterred if the former president declares his intention to run again, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.

“We’re going to continue to do our job, to follow the facts wherever they go, no matter where they lead, no matter to what level,” Monaco said Tuesday at a cybersecurity conference in New York. “We’re going to continue to investigate what was fundamentally an attack on our democracy.”

 

There have been reports in recent days that Trump might declare in the near future that he’s running again to be the Republican candidate for president in 2024, apparently in an attempt to help shield him from potential prosecution over the plot that culminated in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Legally, Trump wouldn’t enjoy any special protections by being a declared candidate for president. Politically, though, the Justice Department likely would face increased criticism that it is investigating a presidential candidate of an opposing political party, especially if the probe leads to criminal charges.

Monaco reiterated a pledge that she and Attorney General Merrick Garland have made that the Justice Department will follow the facts of the investigation wherever they lead. To date, the department has prosecuted more than 850 individuals for offenses related to attack the Capitol and has issued subpoenas for information about Trump allies and lawyers.

“The mandate the team has remains, which is to follow the facts wherever they go, regardless of what level, regardless of whether the subject of those investigations were present on Jan. 6,” Monaco said.

[concha]

[DBP66]

 

New court filing confirms 11 GOP false electors potential targets in election tampering probe

Richard Elliot

Tue, July 19, 2022 at 6:49 PM

 

 

In a new motion, 11 GOP false electors now confirm that the Fulton County District Attorney considers them potential “targets” of the special grand jury looking into possible election tampering in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

As a result, all 11 plan to “take the fifth” rather than give testimony.

Eleven of those so-called false electors confirm they could be targets of the investigation, so they don’t want to testify and they all want a judge to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from this case.

Channel 2 political reporter Richard Elliot was in the room in December 2020 as the 16 GOP false electors signed a document declaring their votes for former President Donald Trump.

Now, 11 of those so-called nominee electors filed a motion asking a judge to toss their subpoenas to testify before the special grand jury investigating potential criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 election, because they plan to invoke their right against self-incrimination and not testify.

This comes after they confirm in the document that the Fulton County DA’s office warned them they could face possible criminal indictments in the case.

They also said forcing them to testify when they refuse is nothing more than politics.

“The attempt to force the nominee electors into the grand jury only to have them invoke their rights is political theater and gamesmanship, not a good faith use of the grand jury,” the motion read.

Georgia GOP chair David Shafer is among the 11.

He and the others insist the meeting was perfectly legal and was open and transparent despite emails showing there was an attempt to keep it secret.

Their attorneys even used a sound bite in their filing in an attempt to demonstrate that.

“Because the president’s lawsuit contesting the Georgia election has not been decided or even heard, we held this meeting to preserve his rights. Had we not held this meeting, then his lawsuit would effectively been mooted,” Shafer said at the time.

A week after vowing to fight his subpoena, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham now says he’ll accept it though he reserved the right to challenge it here in Atlanta.

“We will be going to court to contest the subpoena,” Graham said.

The grand jury wants to know more about his two alleged phone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where he asked about reexamining certain absentee ballots in a way that could tip the vote to Trump.

GOP lieutenant governor candidate Burt Jones was also one of those electors. He’s asked a judge to remove Willis from the case, stating her support for the Democratic candidate in that race disqualifies her from prosecution.

Those 11 other false electors joined that request on Tuesday, which a judge agreed to hear in court on Thursday.

[concha]

[concha]

[DBP66]

The guy who helped serve the Trump Kool-Aid to the brainwashed morons....like Don and Dave...🤡...🤡

Mark Meadows’ Boast About Trump’s ‘Unbelievable Prowess’ Does Not Go Well

Ed Mazza

Wed, July 20, 2022 at 4:49 AM

 

 

Mark Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff under former President Donald Trump, made a new claim about his old boss that’s raising eyebrows on social media.

On Tuesday, Meadows bragged on Fox News about how frequently Trump engaged the media, claiming he handled questions “with unbelievable prowess”:

While Trump certainly engaged the media ― especially on his way to the chopper ― what he said was often baffling and in many cases just plain untrue. The Washington Post counted 30,573 false or misleading statements by Trump over four years.

Critics blasted Meadows, who is currently under investigation for potential voter fraud in North Carolina:

[concha]

[DBP66]

1 minute ago, concha said:

30,000+ lies....laugh away Steve....the clowns deserve it!.....right Don?....🤡

[DBP66]

LOL...too funny....how f*in desperate can Trump be??...as his clowns fall in line....right Don and Dave??.....🤡.....🤡

A top Wisconsin election official says Trump called him last week urging him to decertify Biden's 2020 election win in the state

Erin Snodgrass,Hannah Getahun

Tue, July 19, 2022 at 9:44 PM

 

 

 

Former President Donald Trump.Joe Maiorana/AP Photo

• The Wisconsin State Assembly speaker says Donald Trump is still trying to decertify Joe Biden's win.

• Robin Vos told a local outlet Trump raised the topic last week after a court ruled on ballot boxes.

• Trump has used his social-media platform recently to criticize Vos.

A Wisconsin election official says Donald Trump is still trying to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat in the battleground state.

Robin Vos, the speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, said in a Tuesday interview that the former president called him last week and encouraged him to decertify Joe Biden's win in the state — 20 months after the 2020 election.

Vos told WISN-TV 12 News in Milwaukee that Trump broached the topic in the days after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled absentee-ballot drop boxes in the state illegal on July 8.

"It's very consistent. He makes his case, which I respect," Vos told the news outlet. "He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin. I explained that it's not allowed under the Constitution."

"He has a different opinion," Vos added.

Vos' story comes in the midst of public hearings from the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection and Trump's efforts to overturn his reelection defeat.

Trump took to Truth Social to air his grievances with Vos.

"Looks like Speaker Robin Vos, a long time professional RINO always looking to guard his flank, will be doing nothing about the amazing Wisconsin Supreme Court decision," the former president wrote, using the insult that stands for "Republican in name only."

"The Democrats would like to sincerely thank Robin, and all of his fellow RINOs, for letting them get away with 'murder,'" he added.

Vos told WISN-TV that the July 10 court decision regarding ballot drop boxes would have an effect on the law moving forward and couldn't be applied retroactively. Vos has voiced support for the court decision and called the drop boxes "illegal."

Trump responded to the interview Tuesday evening, once again urging Vos to act.

"So what's Speaker Robin Vos doing on the Great Wisconsin Supreme Court Ruling declaring hundreds of thousands of Drop Box votes to be illegal?" he wrote. "This is not a time for him to hide, but a time to act!"

Vos and a representative for Trump didn't immediately responded to requests for comment from Insider.

Biden beat Trump by fewer than 21,000 votes in Wisconsin.

In 2021, Trump accused Vos of "working hard to cover up election corruption" after refusing to do a forensic audit on the results of the 2020 election in the state, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Vos eventually began an investigation into the 2020 election in his state.

Vos himself has peddled election conspiracy theories and baselessly claimed that voter fraud in his state influenced the 2020 election.

[concha]