Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Trump Faces 'Clear-Cut Criminal Exposure' in Georgia: Attorney
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-faces-clear-cut-criminal-exposure-georgia-attorney-1727366

[Rick Plant]

Trump could face multiple criminal charges for trying to overturn 2020 election: report



A U.S. congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol has sought to build a case that then-President Donald Trump behaved illegally when he tried to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat, but what charges could prosecutors bring against Trump and how might he defend himself?

OBSTRUCTING AN OFFICIAL PROCEEDING

In a March 2 court filing, the committee detailed Trump's efforts to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence either to reject slates of electors for Joe Biden, who won the election, or delay a congressional count of those votes.

The president's efforts likely violated a federal law making it illegal to "corruptly" obstruct any official proceeding, or attempt to do so, said David Carter, the California federal judge overseeing the case said in a March 28 written order.

At a primetime hearing on Thursday, committee members alleged that Trump watched the violence at the U.S. Capitol unfold live on television and failed to prevent it. Witnesses testified as to Trump's reluctance to tell the rioters to leave for hours after they breached the building.

Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor and lecturer at Columbia Law School, said a prosecutor would include that testimony if they were to try Trump on an obstruction charge because it would show his intent at the time.

"(Trump) was urged by everyone around him to act, to try to do something to stop it, and he chose not to," Rodgers said.

CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD THE UNITED STATES

In the March 2 filing, the committee said it was likely that Trump and others conspired to defraud the United States, which criminalizes any effort by two or more people to interfere with governmental functions "by deceit, craft or trickery."

In addition to Trump's efforts to pressure Pence, the committee cited his attempts to convince state election officials, the public and members of Congress that the 2020 election was stolen, even though several of his allies told him there was no evidence of fraud.

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, previously testified that Trump was so enraged by then-Attorney General Bill Barr's interview with the Associated Press saying there was no evidence of election fraud that Trump threw his lunch at the wall, breaking a porcelain dish and leaving ketchup dripping down the wall.

SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY

Prosecutors have already charged more than a dozen members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups who were at the Jan. 6 riot with seditious conspiracy, a rarely used statute that makes it illegal to overthrow the U.S. government by force.

To prove Trump committed seditious conspiracy, prosecutors would need to show he conspired with others to use force.

Rodgers said a prosecutor could use Trump's failure to act to bolster such a charge, including testimony that he knew he was the only person who could get the rioters to leave the Capitol.

TRUMP'S DEFENSE?

Trump has repeatedly denied doing anything illegal in connection with the Jan. 6 events.

In a series of posts on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday, Trump attacked the House panel, but maintained his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. "So many lies and misrepresentations by the corrupt and highly partisan Unselect Committee!" he wrote.

If the Justice Department were to bring charges, prosecutors' main challenge would be to prove that Trump acted with corrupt intent, experts said.

© Reuters

[Rick Plant]

Trump deleted references to prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters in remarks -testimony

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump crossed out sentences that distanced him from the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and refused to call for their prosecution in a draft of a speech he delivered the next day, congressional testimony showed on Monday.

The former Republican president deleted lines that said, "I want to be very clear: You do not represent me. You do not represent our movement," according to an image of the script posted on Twitter by a member of the Jan. 6 committee investigating the attack, U.S. Representative Elaine Luria.

He also deleted a reference to directing the "Department of Justice to ensure all lawbreakers are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. We must send a clear message — not with mercy but with JUSTICE. Legal consequences must be swift and firm."

In a primetime hearing last week, the congressional committee probing the attack played video outtakes from the Jan. 7 speech that showed Trump refusing to admit the election was over and he had lost. "I don't want to say the election is over," Trump said in footage recorded as he rehearsed the speech.

In the attack, thousands of Trump supporters breached the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's November 2020 presidential victory.

Video clips that Luria posted, not previously made public, included testimony from the former president's daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and White House lawyers and aides who described Trump as reluctant to give a reconciliatory address after the Capitol attack.

"Do you know why he wanted that crossed out?" an investigator asked Kushner.

"I don't know," Jared Kushner responded.

The witnesses described concerns about what would happen if the president did not send a stronger message.

"That needed to be stated forcefully: They did not represent him or his political views in any form or fashion," White House counsel Pat Cipollone testified.

Trump aide John McEntee told committee investigators that Kushner asked him to nudge the speech along and encourage Trump to "help everything cool down."

"Was the implication that the president was in some ways reluctant to give that speech?" an investigator asked McEntee.

"Yeah."

"OK, what do you base that on?"

"The fact that somebody has to tell me to nudge it along," McEntee said.

© Reuters

[Rick Plant]

Trump ‘chose not to act’ as U.S. Capitol underwent attack, Jan. 6 panel says

The committee showed video of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, hours after pumping his fist in solidarity with Trump supporters, running away from the Senate chamber as the mob approached



Donald Trump ignored White House staff, family members and outside advisers who urged the president to call off the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to testimony before the U.S. House panel investigating the insurrection at its eighth and final hearing of the summer Thursday night.

Instead, Trump sat in the White House dining room for hours watching the Fox News coverage of the assault, committee leaders said as they laid out new details of the 187 minutes between the end of Trump’s speech on the White House ellipse and his tweet telling rioters to “go home with love and peace.”

Despite the pleas of those closest to him, and despite seeing the violence unfold live on Fox, Trump was unmoved. Trump didn’t fail to act, committee member Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who co-led Thursday’s hearing, said: “He chose not to act.”

Vice Chair Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, underscored that Trump’s refusal to condemn the riot was described by dozens of Republican witnesses, “those who served Donald Trump loyally for years,” she said.

“The case against Donald Trump in these hearings is not made by witnesses who were his political enemies. It is instead a series of confessions by Donald Trump’s own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials.”

Here are some details that emerged Thursday night:

Hawley’s jog


Footage of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri running to escape violent rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol (screenshot).

The committee showed video of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, hours after pumping his fist in solidarity with Trump supporters, running away from the Senate chamber as the mob approached.

People in the committee hearing room broke out into audible laughter during the footage of Hawley running, which was replayed in slow motion.

Hawley later voted not to certify the election results, and he uses images of his fist pump that day to raise money, putting it on coffee mugs and other items.

Shortly before watching the video of Hawley fleeing, the committee was also told that a member of the U.S. Capitol Police who watched Hawley’s fist pump that day was rattled by it.

“She told us that Sen. Hawley’s gesture riled up the crowd and it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space protected by the officers and the barriers,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia.

Trump clung until the last minute to the idea that the election wasn’t over

The panel showed outtakes from Trump’s video message to supporters telling them to leave the Capitol, and from a address the next day. Even as he prepared for those statements, he refused to concede he lost the election.

“I don’t want to say the election is over,” he said in a Jan. 7 outtake, reacting to a line speechwriters included. “I just want to say, ‘Now Congress has certified the results,’ without saying.”

The unsubstantiated claim that Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden was illegitimate — and that somehow the result could be overturned — was the concept that motivated the attack.

Trump heard from many people who wanted him to call off the attack

People identified as telling Trump or Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman, that he must condemn the violence included Trump’s children Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., Fox News host Sean Hannity, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and others.

Sarah Matthews, a former communications official for Trump’s reelection campaign who was in the White House on Jan. 6, said she had seen at rallies the power Trump had over his supporters.

“He was the only person in the world who could call off the mob he sent to the Capitol,” Thompson said.

Pence’s security detail

A White House official with national security responsibilities relayed a harrowing account of Vice President Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail. Pence was at the Capitol to conduct his ceremonial role to certify the election results, which Trump was strongly pressuring him not to do.

The official, whose identity the committee did not disclose because the official feared retribution, heard chaos at the Capitol over a radio.

“There were a lot of there was a lot of yelling a lot of a lot of very personal calls over the radio,” the official said. “I don’t like talking about it, but they were calling to say goodbye to family members.”

The rioters’ anger was focused on Pence, U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat who co-led Thursday’s hearing, said, after Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m. that Pence didn’t have “the courage” to overturn the vote. “He put a target on his own vice president’s back,” Luria said.

The panel showed video of Secret Service agents hustling Pence and his team to a secure location.

Cipollone considered resigning on Jan. 6

The top White House lawyer decided against stepping down because he was worried about who would replace him, he told the panel in taped  testimony.

Records don’t exist

The White House phone log does not include any entries from 11:06 a.m. to 6:54 p.m., though the president was making and taking calls during those hours, the committee said.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a taped deposition that she gave Trump a list of senators and that the president called them to urge them not to certify the election results.

Alabama Republican U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville said on a local television news station in February that Trump called him as he prepared to evacuate the Capitol.

The committee also has phone records of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, which show the two spoke twice in that timeframe.

The White House daily diary is also blank from 1:21 p.m. to 4:03 p.m. on Jan. 6, Luria said.

And the official White House photographer was told not to take photographs as Trump went into the Rose Garden to record a video message to supporters.

See you in September

The panel will not hold another public hearing until September, Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said. Thompson, who has tested positive for COVID-19, appeared virtually.

The panel will continue its work over Congress’ August recess, Cheney said.

https://missouriindependent.com/2022/07/22/trump-chose-not-to-act-as-u-s-capitol-underwent-attack-jan-6-panel-says/

[Rick Plant]

Rachel Maddow sounds the alarm on today's new shocking Jan. 6 revelations

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow opened her Monday show by talking about the 1950s activist Gerald L.K. Smith, who promoted Christian Nationalism. It's the same kind of Christian Nationalism that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) promoted over the weekend and that Doug Mastriano (R-PA) promotes as part of his gubernatorial campaign.

After calling out Mastriano and the latest alliances between the GOP and Christian Nationists, Maddow brought up the revelation that former President Donald Trump's draft of his Jan. 7 speech was part of the House Select Committee's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and attempt to overthrow the election.

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) posted a video online that revealed the excerpt and the questions that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were asked about it.

Maddow ran the text of the speech along with the video shown last Thursday of Trump rewriting the comments in real time.

"I don't want to say the election is over. I don't want to say the election is over," Trump repeated.

Kushner testified that he was talking with Stephen Miller about remarks to deliver on Jan. 7, and Ivanka Trump said that those conversations began on the evening of Jan. 6. That conflicts considerably with the ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl whose book, Betrayal said that Kushner arrived back in Washington from Saudi Arabia.

"His plane landed at Joint Base Andrews at about four p.m., but he went straight home, later telling people the Secret Service had told him it would be dangerous to go to the White House. He made no public statement about the riot," said Karl's book.

Eric Herschman, former White House senior adviser said that they were discussing the need for a speech on Jan. 7 and then pivot to the transition.

"I sat with her, I spoke to Miller about putting together some remarks for the 7th that we were going to present to the president to try to say, uh, we felt like it was important to further call for de-escalation, " testified Kushner.

"So, right after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, there's this draft speech written for him to give the next day, and he only gives it to try to avert himself from being forcibly removed from office by the cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment," Maddow continued. "In that speech, the draft of the speech says you don't represent me. You don't represent our movement. You belong in jail. He cuts all that and inside says you will pay, and by the time he's talking about it at his rallies, not only is no one supposed to be paying any more, now they are unfairly persecuted patriots who are all getting pardons if he gets to be president again."

She played the clip where Trump promises to pardon everyone from the Jan. 6 attack. He never did.

Maddow then cited former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short, who revealed that there is a grand jury investigation happening about Jan. 6 and the attempt to overthrow Congress and the election. It was known that there was a probe into the fake electors and some of the campaign specifics, but Short didn't work on the campaign.

“Grand jury subpoenas were sent to those who assisted in the organizing and planning of former President Donald Trump’s 'Save America' rally on the Ellipse near the White House," ABC News reported on Monday, citing a source. They went on to say that "prosecutors [are] seeking multiple records and documents related to the rally, including text messages and emails, as well as potential communications with other individuals regarding the logistics of the event."

Short also wasn't part of organizing the Jan. 6 rally nor did he have anything to do with it.

Maddow explained that all of this comes together for an extensive news day that all reveals shocking information from inside the GOP.

See the intro below:

[Rick Plant]

Editorial: Trump should be charged for crimes against the United States



Charging a former president with crimes would be an extraordinary development in American history and carries the risk of forever reshaping our politics as well as the very future of the nation. It should not be undertaken lightly.

But former President Trump’s multifaceted attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election that culminated with him inciting violent mobs to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory, was also an extraordinary development in American history — one that nearly destroyed our democracy. The country is already in uncomfortable, uncharted waters navigating the wreckage Trump left in his wake.

What’s needed now is not genteel deference to political norms but an unflinching pursuit of justice. Over the last two months the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack has meticulously presented with video clips and firsthand testimony ample evidence that the former president led a dangerous, mendacious plot to block the peaceful transfer of power and hang on to the presidency despite being voted out of office. At a minimum, the Department of Justice should prosecute him for conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, the electoral vote count. These crimes carry maximum sentences of five and 20 years in prison, respectively.

Of course, prosecutors may have evidence the public hasn’t seen that merits additional charges, and the House panel appears likely to reveal more over the coming months. But already the first eight hearings have shown that Trump was told many times, by several close and well-informed advisors, that there was no evidence of voter fraud or ballot irregularities that would have altered the outcome of the election. “Bs” is what Atty. Gen. William Barr called Trump’s claim that the election was stolen.

And yet Trump continued to perpetuate the lie, using the misplaced trust of many Americans to continue the con. He fleeced his followers for $250 million supposedly to fight his bogus lawsuits (but actually funneled to a political action committee). He invited them to come to Washington for a “wild” demonstration at which he gave an inflammatory speech to a crowd he knew was armed — and then directed them to march to the Capitol.

And then, for three hours after he left the rally, Trump refused to take steps to quell the violence as rioters battled with police, stormed into the Capitol and disrupted the electoral vote count. As the House panel demonstrated in painstaking detail during Thursday’s hearing, Trump watched the rampage unfold on TV from the comfort of a White House dining room, rebuffing pleas from aides who wanted him to publicly condemn the violence and call off the mob. He never called for any law enforcement or military support even as members of Congress feared for their lives. In the end, more than 100 police officers were injured, four people in the crowd died and five police officers who served at the Capitol Jan. 6 died in the days and weeks that followed.

“We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation,” committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in her closing remarks Thursday.

Trump knew there was no legitimate reason to challenge the election results but pressured officials at many levels of government to take illegal actions to preserve his power. Thankfully, they didn’t acquiesce to his demands, but the testimony detailing how Trump bullied officials in the U.S. Department of Justice, state legislatures and local election offices was truly chilling.

An election worker described facing racist death threats after Trump baselessly accused her of processing fraudulent ballots. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger testified that Trump called him and said, “I need 11,000 votes, give me a break.”

And then there is the jaw-dropping evidence of Trump menacing his own vice president. As the violence mounted on Jan. 6, Trump lobbed a tweet saying Vice President Mike Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done” by rejecting electoral votes for Biden. The tweet further inflamed the frothing crowd that chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.” Secret Service agents protecting Pence at the Capitol described being so afraid they called loved ones to say goodbye. Trump, though, thought Pence deserved it and didn’t think the rioters “were doing anything wrong,” White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she heard Trump’s chief of staff say.

Altogether it demonstrates a tyrannical pattern in which Trump wielded the power of the presidency to work numerous channels to overthrow the will of the voters. That’s evidence of criminal behavior that must be evaluated in court.

One of the arguments against prosecuting Trump is that it violates American norms because impeachment by Congress is the proper venue for holding a president accountable, not a criminal courtroom, and the Senate failed to muster the two-thirds majority required to find him guilty of inciting an insurrection. This is a flimsy argument. Trump’s misconduct took place in the period between losing the November election and inciting the riot on Jan. 6. By that point, only two weeks remained of his presidency, so Congress didn’t have time to mount a thorough impeachment proceeding with the benefit of the evidence the House panel has gathered over the last year and a half. Besides, Trump’s entire political persona — from his campaign through his presidency — was about breaking norms. Why would it be taboo now to take an unprecedented step in response to unprecedented conduct? It’s not.

Another argument against prosecution is that it could backfire and wind up empowering Trump instead of imprisoning him. Trump will be in the spotlight as the case drags on. He would likely cast it as political retribution by Biden’s Justice Department, and use the process to develop a new arsenal of conspiracies with which to stoke his fans’ grievances. Proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is difficult. If the prosecution is unsuccessful and Trump is acquitted, he could gain more currency than he has now as a political loser.

This seems like a legitimate risk, but not a sufficient reason to back away from the pile of evidence that points toward Trump’s culpability. Justice is much larger than political considerations, and extending this argument more broadly would be akin to saying it’s too risky to try someone who tells a lot of lies and has a solid fan base. That shouldn’t be how we determine which Americans are held to answer for potential crimes. Being famous or incendiary should not shield anyone from justice.

The lesser-known players in this horrid plot are already being held to account. Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against more than 850 people who participated in the Jan. 6 mob, including charges for assaulting police officers with deadly weapons, entering a restricted building with deadly weapons, destroying and stealing government property, and obstructing an official preceding. Three participants have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy. Some 99 Jan. 6 rioters have been incarcerated.

Prosecuting the foot soldiers is only partial justice for this grave attack on American democracy. To restore the nation’s standing in the world, and among its citizens, it’s critical that the ringleader of this shameful chapter in history be held accountable as well. Prosecuting Trump will demonstrate that the bedrock principles of the United States remain firm: The voters decide who holds power, and no one is above the law.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-07-24/prosecute-trump-criminal-charges-jan-6

[Rick Plant]

Just like Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis won't condemn his Nazi supporters. All these neo nazis and hate groups support GOP candidates and politicians. The GOP as a whole refuses to condemn them. GOP members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar support them. What a disgrace.   

Why Won’t Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Denounce His Neo-Nazi Supporters?

Sen. Rick Scott was the only featured speaker at Turning Point USA’s conference who openly condemned the display of swastikas and other Nazi imagery by a group of pro-DeSantis protestors



Florida politicians and local Jewish leaders are demanding Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis condemn a group of neo-Nazis who congregated outside a Tampa convention center over the weekend, passing out anti-Semitic propaganda and displaying swastikas alongside flags that read “DeSantis Country.”

The gathering occurred Saturday outside the Tampa Convention Center, where the conservative youth-oriented group Turning Point USA was hosting its Student Action Summit, just one day after DeSantis addressed the conference.

"We may disagree on policies, but if we as leaders don’t denounce neo-Nazis and white supremacists in our state, in our country, what are we doing here?” said Florida Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried, who is Jewish, during a press conference. “I am asking you, Ron DeSantis, to denounce the Nazis that were here, here to celebrate you speech inside this convention center. They were holding your pictures yesterday.”

"addition to DeSantis, other high-profile Student Action Summit attendees — including former President Donald Trump, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — have also stayed silent on the matter.

“I’ll be dammed if Nazis and Proud Boys waltz through our City and spew such repulsive speech,” Florida state Sen. Janet Cruz wrote on Twitter. “Words have power and we will NOT accept this in our backyard. All of us must stand up and make clear that we reject this bigoted display.”


Screen capture from video of nazi demonstrators outside the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida, July 23, 2022.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) was the only featured speaker at the conference who openly condemned the group’s presence outside the convention center. “This is a disgusting act of hateful anti-Semitism and doesn’t belong in Florida, our nation or anywhere across the world,” he tweeted. “We stand with our Jewish community and against this hate. It must end.” (Meanwhile, alt-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, who also attended, bizarrely claimed the neo-Nazis were, in fact, liberal protestors. “There are now actual Neo-Nazis outside of Turning Point protesting the event,” he wrote on Twitter. “Got a little closer and yup, they are definitely leftists.”)

The display also drew comment from Florida Holocaust Museum chairman Mike Igel. “Carrying the Nazi flag, or that of the SS, the unit responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust, is an indefensible act of pure hatred,” Igel said in a statement. “This isn’t about politics or religion. It’s about humanity.”

According to Tampa-based media outlet Creative Loafing, flyers handed out by the group were published by the Goyim Defense League — an organization the Anti-Defamation League describes as a “small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs led by Jon Minadeo II of Petaluma, California” known for spreading “antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories” through social media and highly coordinated public stunts.

In a statement, Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet said the group “condemns those ideologies in the strongest of terms” but claimed there was little event organizers could do to remove the racist protesters from the vicinity. “Since these individuals were located on public property, our security attempted to, but was not permitted to remove them,” Kolvet said, adding: “They have nothing to do with TPUSA, our event, or our students.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ron-desantis-neo-nazi-turning-point-usa-florida-conference-1388015/