1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

MAGA rioter who talked of desire to commit 'assassination' hit with conspiracy charges



A Capitol rioter who is already facing serious charges for Tasering Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone was hit with new conspiracy charges on Monday.

As reported by NBC 4 Washington's Scott MacFarlane, federal prosecutors alleged in a superseding indictment unsealed Monday that an unidentified witness has told a grand jury that MAGA rioter Daniel Rodriguez told them that he would "assassinate Joe Biden" if he had the opportunity and would "rather die than live under a Biden administration."

Federal prosecutors go on to accuse Rodriguez and other defendants of engaging in a conspiracy whose goal was to "stop, delay, and hinder Congress's Certification of the Electoral College vote" and then to "corruptly alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal a record, document, or other object to prevent evidence of their unlawful acts on January 6, 2021 from being used in an official proceeding, that is, the grand jury investigation into the attack of the Capitol on January 6, 2021."

READ MORE: Ex-Trump official warns former colleagues that they're defying the Capitol riot probe at their own peril

Rodriguez was arrested this past spring after being identified as the Capitol rioter who Tasered Michael Fanone.

In an interview with the FBI, Rodriguez claimed that he Tasered Fanone in order to "protect" him from other Capitol rioters whom he claimed would have hurt him even worse.

Read the full indictment here (PDF).

https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-riot-conspiracy-charges/


Ex-Trump official warns former colleagues that they're defying the Capitol riot probe at their own peril

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Monday, former Trump official Miles Taylor warned his one-time colleagues against defying the Capitol riot committee -- and especially singled out former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, whom he said was attempting to use his position at the DOJ to justify a coup d'etat.

"Jeffrey Clark was stirring up the department to turn against the government it was set up to serve," Wallace agreed. "He was plotting a coup and putting together the pieces, including overturning the result of an election. Do you think someone like Clark should be retaining lawyers for other legal issues he may face?"

Taylor said he hoped that Clark was smart enough to hire a top legal team, but what he's seen from most of the former Trump advisers is that they're doubling down on being defiant, even though the Jan. 6 committee has proved that it isn't messing around, he said.

"I mean, they are taking the subjects to the mat and making sure that the law is enforced," said Taylor. "Congress's ability to subpoena someone and interview them is one of its most crucial oversight powers. If that oversight power is undermined, it fundamentally undermines the checks and balances. And whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you shouldn't want that to be the case. People like Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, Jeffrey Clark — they are going to pull every legal trick in the book to prevent their cases from going forward. That's their right. Everyone in this country gets due process."

He went on to call for "rational Republicans" willing to fight for America.

Wallace pushed back, saying that she doesn't believe there are many of those left.

"The disinformation has already permeated and rotted to its base from its roots -- the grassroots, literally, of the party, all way to its highest leaders, Kevin McCarthy. I think, if — you talk about decent Republicans, I count two," she said. "Only two! We started with Adam Kinzinger. The right has already predetermined what they are going to do about this."

Taylor agreed, saying that the Republican Party looks like "The Walking Dead" at this point.

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said that she is worried at how slow the Justice Department is going when it comes to people at the highest levels of power who attempted to overturn the election and unmake American democracy simply because they didn't like the result.

"My message to the Department of Justice is 'Get on it!'" she exclaimed. "Do not act like feds here. Act like state prosecutors. Go fast! Do not take the time -- don't give the other side a month to answer a pleading. Go to the judges. We saw this Supreme Court go quickly when they wanted to hear the Texas case."

See the full discussion below:

[Rick Plant]

Former top Trump aide Mark Meadows is cooperating with the Jan. 6 committee



Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is cooperating with the committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, CNN reports.

"Mr. Meadows has been engaging with the Select Committee through his attorney," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said in a statement. "He has produced records to the committee and will soon appear for an initial deposition. The Select Committee expects all witnesses, including Mr. Meadows, to provide all information requested and that the Select Committee is lawfully entitled to receive. The Committee will continue to assess his degree of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition."

Speaking to CNN, Meadow's lawyer George Terwilliger said that Democrats and Republicans have reached an understanding on the exchange of information moving forward.

"As we have from the beginning, we continue to work with the Select Committee and its staff to see if we can reach an accommodation that does not require Mr. Meadows to waive Executive Privilege or to forfeit the long-standing position that senior White House aides cannot be compelled to testify before Congress," Terwilliger said. "We appreciate the Select Committee's openness to receiving voluntary responses on non-privileged topics."

While Meadow's cooperation is welcome news, the extent of his cooperation remains to be seen.

"It's not incorrect to say he has cooperated to some extent, but he hasn't completely fulfilled his obligation and we need to see what happens. But Meadows doesn't want to be held in contempt," a source told CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/30/politics/mark-meadows-january-6-committee/index.html

[Rick Plant]

Mark Meadows will testify before Capitol riot committee next week: Liz Cheney
https://www.rawstory.com/mark-meadows-capitol-riot-2655891596/

[Rick Plant]

Adam Schiff is 'skeptical' about the newly cooperative Mark Meadows -- here's why

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is skeptical of Mark Meadows' cooperation with the House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot.

The former White House chief of staff spent Jan. 6 alongside Donald Trump as the former president's supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of his election loss, and Schiff told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Meadows could be a key witness for the bipartisan committee -- if he fully cooperates in good faith.

"He is producing documents, I can't speak to the contents yet," Schiff said. "In terms of whether he is cooperating, time will tell when he comes in to be deposed. We'll find out whether this is a gambit or whether he is serious about cooperating with the committee. We don't know. I have to say, I'm a bit skeptical, given his track record, but we are going to find out very soon."

"We think he has a lot to offer the committee, but I think at this point, it is still too early to tell whether this is a legal strategy to avoid being held in criminal contempt or whether we're seeing the road that Steve Bannon is on," he added. "He made a decision to change course. We'll find out when he comes for the deposition. If he tries to assert privilege over things that are not privileged, it is clearly a legal stratagem. We don't think there is any meritorious claim of privilege here, and we have to decide what to do if he makes assertions."

That includes a referral to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress charges.

"We won't take anything off the table," Schiff said.

[Rick Plant]

FBI arrests MAGA rioter who attacked cops with flagpole and wrote about it in his diary



A 71-year-old Pennsylvania man has been charged by the Department of Justice with assaulting police officers during the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Like many other MAGA rioters that day, Howard Charles Richardson of King Prussia was captured on video as part of the crowd fighting with law enforcement outside the building. But Richardson was also betrayed by an unusual witness, according to the Feds: His own diary.

The FBI visited Richardson October 25 at his home, according to the criminal complaint against him. Here’s how that went:

‘Agents executed a search warrant for Richardson's residence and person. During the search, agents located two red hats and a black and blue windbreaker with a "Brigantine Beach" logo on the upper left chest, which matches the jacket Richardson is seen wearing (at the riot). Agents also found a day planner that Richardson acknowledged was his. Richardson wrote that he parked at 11:00 a.m., was at the front of the Capitol building at 12: 15 p.m., "gates were breeched" at 1:00 p.m., "moving up to steps" at 1:30-1 :45 p.m., and "got pepper sprayed" at 2:00 p.m. He noted that he "started to leave" the Capitol at 3:30 p.m. (U.S. Capitol surveillance footage in fact shows RICHARDSON, identified by the same blue windbreaker and khaki pants, walking away from the Capitol building at approximately 3: 10 p.m. on January 6.)”

The FBI also cited more conventional video evidence against Richardson, as reported in a DOJ new release:

“Video footage depicts Richardson in a group near the bicycle rack-style barricades outside the Capitol. At approximately 1:38 p.m., carrying a metal flagpole with a blue flag attached, he approached an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department. In the video, Richardson can be heard yelling, “here it comes,” before swiftly approaching the officer’s position and striking the officer with the flagpole three times. He only stopped swinging after the flagpole broke in his hands.”

Richardson is charged with engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, civil disorder, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a dangerous weapon, among other charges.

You can read the FBI complaint against Richardson here.

https://www.rawstory.com/fbi-arrests-maga-rioter-who-attacked-cops-with-flagpole-and-wrote-about-it-in-his-diary/

[Rick Plant]

Federal judge blasts Trump and his allies for 'stoking the flames of fear' before Capitol riot



This Wednesday, a federal judge said that the individuals behind the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the Capitol riot should be held accountable for stoking "the flames of fear," POLITICO reports.

Although U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson didn't mention former President Donald Trump by name, she said the efforts of Trump's allies stoked "discontent and explicitly encouraged [attendees] to go to the Capitol and fight for one reason and one reason only: to make sure the certification of the election didn’t happen.”

Jackson made her comments as she was sentencing Capitol riot defendant Russell Peterson. As POLITICO points out, Jackson is the latest judge to suggest Trump's influence helped spark the events of Jan. 6.

"No one was swept away to the Capitol. No one was carried,” she said to Peterson. “There may be others who bear greater responsibility and should be held accountable. But this is not their day in court. It’s yours.”

Peterson was sentenced to 30 days in jail and $500 in restitution.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-capitol-riot-2655904572/

[Rick Plant]

Trump DOJ official to plead the 5th -- and Capitol riot committee will 'hang it around his neck'

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig on Wednesday told CNN's Erin Burnett that the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots was about to make things very uncomfortable for former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark.

Even though the committee voted to move forward with criminal contempt charges against Clark on Wednesday, the former Trump official is nonetheless slated to appear before the committee soon, where he is expected to assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Burnett pointed out that "it's going to sound damning" if Clark pleads the Fifth on every question at the hearing, and Honig replied that this is exactly why the Capitol riot committee wants to make him do it.

"The committee wants to make Jeffrey Clark own it," he explained. "The want to hang that Fifth Amendment [response] around his neck. Make him said it over and over, 'I take the Fifth, I take the Fifth, I take the Fifth.'"

Honig went on to explain that Clark is well within his rights to assert his Fifth Amendment rights -- but only if he believes that speaking truthfully could implicate him in a crime.

Burnett then played a supercut of all the times former President Donald Trump attacked aides of one-time Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for asserting their Fifth Amendment rights.

Watch the video below: