1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Joe Elliott]

Donald Trump slams Jan. 6 panel after Ivanka Trump interview request: ‘They’ll go after children’

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-slams-jan-6-panel-after-ivanka-trump-interview-request-they-ll-go-after-children/ar-AAT2GKo?ocid=msedgntp

Former President Donald Trump slammed the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol insurrection after it asking his daughter Ivanka Trump to sit for an interview.

"It's a very unfair situation for my children. Very, very unfair," Donald Trump told The Washington Examiner in an interview for an op-ed published Friday.

"It's a disgrace, what's going on. They're using these things to try and get people's minds off how incompetently our country is being run. And they don't care. They'll go after children," Donald Trump said.

I have two words. Hunter Biden.

[Richard Smith]

Donald Trump slams Jan. 6 panel after Ivanka Trump interview request: ‘They’ll go after children’

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-slams-jan-6-panel-after-ivanka-trump-interview-request-they-ll-go-after-children/ar-AAT2GKo?ocid=msedgntp

I have two words. Hunter Biden.

LOL.  Who is going after Hunter?  Instead the DOJ and FBI have covered up for him and the "big guy."   

[Rick Plant]

Bill Barr has spoken with the Jan. 6 committee 'more than once' and without subpoena



Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) revealed in an interview with CNN's Jim Acosta that the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 hasn't just interviewed former Attorney General Bill Barr for a few minutes. According to the report, he has spoken to the committee "more than once" and without a subpoena.

"It was more than once, and it was a voluntary discussion with our staff attorneys, and we appreciate his willingness to help us find the truth," she told CNN.

Acosta asked if Barr knew about the executive order that Trump and his team drafted to have the Pentagon seize all U.S. electronic voting machines. She explained that she can't reveal anything until the committee approves that it can be released.

She also noted that she expects further information from the National Archives to be turned over to the committee in the coming weeks. She too is concerned that there were some documents not turned over to the National Archives, in violation of the Presidential Records Act.

Former chief of staff Mark Meadows was the one who ultimately revealed the draft of the executive order and it's unclear if that document was sent to the archives. Text messages were discovered by the committee in Dec. 2021 that were also not turned over to the National Archives, despite communicating about the election to members of Congress.

It was discovered that several people were using personal email servers, which is what they attacked Hillary Clinton for in 2016. It was also revealed that many members of the Donald Trump White House were using their personal cell phones to talk or text government business, which may not have been turned over to the archives.

See the interview below:

[Rick Plant]

With new subpoenas, Jan. 6 committee closes in on its ultimate target: Donald Trump



Lawyers, investigative reporters and congressional committees have one thing in common: They like to ask questions they already know the answer to. That's the big takeaway from the four subpoenas issued by the House committee investigating the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6 of last year. On Tuesday, the committee subpoenaed former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani; former Michael Flynn lawyer and "election fraud" conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell; former Trump legal adviser and evangelical law professor Jenna Ellis; and former Trump adviser and TV commentator Boris Epshteyn. If this committee's investigation is being run like many others I've followed over the years, they already have the answers to most of the questions they plan on posing to all four of these witnesses.

I realize that everyone they just subpoenaed is a "former" of one kind or another, but that's where the committee is now as it closes in on people close to Trump who were involved in the events leading up to the assault on the Capitol last year. The committee has already subpoenaed a long list of Trump acolytes, hangers-on, former administration officials and former White House employees, including such luminaries as Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino, the former White House director of communications.

That's just the tip of a rather large iceberg. The committee has issued 60 subpoenas, interviewed about 400 witnesses and obtained more than 50,000 pages of documents in its six-month investigation of the Capitol insurrection. Some of the witnesses who didn't appear voluntarily and had to be subpoenaed by the committee include:

Ali Alexander, an organizer of the "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 5.Amy Kremer, founder and chair of Women for America First, involved in planning for the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse, where Trump, Giuliani and many others spoke.Tim Unes, listed on Parks Department paperwork for the Jan. 6 rally as "stage manager."Taylor Budowich, who organized radio and social media advertising for the Ellipse rally, and is now employed as Trump's primary spokesman and communications director for Trump's Save America PAC.Ed Martin, an organizer of the "Stop the Steal" movement and fundraiser for the Jan. 6 rally.
And here's where it gets interesting: There are more than 300 other people who appeared voluntarily and have testified to committee investigators under oath, including at least a dozen former White House employees, some of whom were questioned for as long as five or six hours.

Under oath. Remember those words. All of the 400 people interviewed by the committee have done so under oath. That means they were subject to federal criminal charges for perjury, which means there is real pressure on them to provide truthful answers. At least some of the witnesses who appeared voluntarily also provided at least a portion of the 50,000 documents the committee has assembled, which would give even more credence to their testimony.

It was after hearing testimony for over six months that the committee issued its subpoenas to Giuliani, Powell, Ellis and Epshteyn on Tuesday. Giuliani and Epshteyn are known to have been in the "war room" at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5, the night before the assault on the Capitol. Committee Chair Bennie Thompson announced that the committee already knows that Epshteyn was on a phone call with Trump on the morning of Jan. 6, which means that they were informed of this by another witness. See what I mean about investigators already knowing the answers to questions they intend to ask certain witnesses?

If I were Epshteyn or Giuliani or any of the others, I would be very worried right now. Let me assure you, as a longtime observer of these kinds of investigations, including Watergate, it is never a good sign if you are among the last of the witnesses to be subpoenaed by an investigative committee or a prosecutor. That means that they have already talked to everybody under, across and around you under oath, and you can count on the fact that they have already assembled volumes of information on your activities. Which means it would be a very bad idea to give false testimony, because the investigators you will be talking to already have the truth at their fingertips in the form of testimony by previous witnesses and documents already submitted to the committee.

Because the Supreme Court denied Donald Trump's claim of executive privilege on Wednesday, the committee will now have yet another trove of official documents, visitor lists, call logs, talking points and plans to challenge electoral ballots before they question Giuliani and his compatriots. White House documents released by the National Archives will also produce names of new witnesses the committee will want to question. One document received by the committee, and published by Politico on Friday, exposed a fantastical plan to use the military to seize voting machines and electoral records in all 50 states and have them "analyzed and assessed" by the — get this — director of national intelligence. It was, in effect, a plan for a military coup using a "national security emergency" as a pretext — the "emergency" apparently being Trump's loss in the election.

If the whole thing with the recently subpoenaed witnesses sounds like a trap, that's because it is. Investigators for the Jan. 6 committee are lying in wait for any lies Giuliani and the other witnesses might tell to cover up what they did in the days and weeks preceding the assault on the Capitol. In fact, it may be that the committee doesn't really need the testimony of Giuliani and Powell and the rest of the "elite strike force team" of legal eagles who filed and lost at least 60 lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 election in battleground states. The committee has those lawsuits, as well as the judicial decisions either dismissing them or finding in favor of the defendants. They already have access to a voluminous record of the falsehoods in those lawsuits, all the phony "affidavits" filed on behalf of Trump and his campaign, all the false charges against Dominion Voting Systems and other outfits which have now dragged Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani into court to face charges that they defamed that company and others, charges which have at least temporarily cost Giuliani his law license and clearly threaten the law licenses of Powell and others.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a Democrat who sits on the Jan. 6 committee and is a former prosecutor, was quoted last week saying that the upcoming hearings, likely to begin later this month or early next month, "will blow the roof off the House." I'm beginning to believe it. The problem that Donald Trump and his aides like Mark Meadows and his "elite strike force team" of lawyers and the rest of them have is that lies are not advisable when you are testifying under oath. All the lies they have told since Nov. 3, 2020, about how Joe Biden "stole" the election from Trump won't hold up under the weight of thousands of pages of documents and phone records and text messages and all the other stuff from the National Archives and the documents already submitted to the committee, and they won't hold up in the face of sworn testimony by former White House aides and members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys charged with conspiracy who have already flipped and have been interviewed by prosecutors investigating the assault on the Capitol.

I don't have any evidence for this, but based on what I saw during Watergate and other major investigations I have followed, I would place a large bet that there is a pipeline between the Department of Justice and the Jan. 6 committee, and evidence has been flowing in both directions for months now.

When the committee, and the Department of Justice for that matter, get to the point that they're issuing subpoenas to people who were regularly in the room with the president during the days and weeks leading up to the assault on the Capitol, I would be very, very worried if I were the ultimate target of both investigations. The lid may be getting ready to come off the House of Representatives, but down at Mar-a-Lago, the roof is falling in on Trump's House of Lies.

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2656459272/

[Rick Plant]

Ivanka Trump falling under scrutiny shows ‘puzzle pieces coming together’ in Jan. 6 probe

The House select committee wants to talk to Ivanka Trump, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said that shows the Jan. 6 investigation is starting to come into focus.

Donald Trump raged against the committee's request for an interview with his eldest daughter, saying the panel was willing to "go after children," but "Morning Joe" panelists pointed out that the former White House adviser was indeed an adult with valuable information to share about the insurrection.

"She is 40 years old and she served four years in the White House as adviser, along with her husband Jared Kushner," said MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire. "She by no estimation is a child. She also was one of the leading voices in the administration and, frankly, one of the last senior advisers still left as Jan. 6 rolled around. Chief of staff [Mark] Meadows was still there, but so much of that West Wing had hollowed out. People left for other jobs because they believed the race was indeed over and Donald Trump lost. There also had been a couple of COVID outbreaks in the building and a lot of folks were working from home."

Witnesses have told investigators that Ivanka Trump unsuccessfully tried to get her father to call off his mob of supporters, and Lemire said she could describe those discussions and explain why the former president decided not to act.

"Her testimony would, of course, be of great interest to the Jan. 6 select committee," Lemire said. "It comes, as we mentioned earlier, at a very tough stretch for the president with the National Archives turning over thousands upon thousands upon thousands of documents to the committee, which is also looking to ramp up the public face of these investigations, looking to have televised hearings, potentially even in primetime some time this spring."

Scarborough said all these developments showed the investigation had reached an inflection point.

"Over the past two weeks the momentum has picked up on the Jan. 6 committee despite all of the arguments, despite all of the Republicans trying to block this, the law is the law is the law," Scarborough said. "They've got a Supreme Court ruling that says Jan. 6 committee has the right to get the information. They've got volumes of documents, had volumes of documents before that. They have former Trump White House people like Kayleigh McEnany and others who were working with this committee, trying to get information. They certainly weren't in support of the Jan. 6 commission."

"It seems to me they're going to be able to piece together whatever timeline they want to piece together," Scarborough added, "not only on Jan. 6 but in the days leading up to Jan. 6. I mean, you can see the puzzle pieces really coming together here."

[Richard Smith]

Yes, it's all "coming together."  Any day now.  Like Russia collusion and every other fake anti-Trump conspiracy theory.  The goal here is to undermine the democratic process by keeping Trump from running again in 2024.  That's the real insurrection.  The American public can't be trusted to elect the "right" candidate.  They need a Stasi-like process to help them out.  The red tsunami is coming, though.  Closer every day to the mid-term elections and 2024.  Old Joe has reached historic lows in the polls not seen since Watergate.  The bottom is dropping out.  And it has only been one year!

[Rick Plant]

Oath Keepers leader and 10 others charged with 'seditious conspiracy' related to US Capitol attack



The Justice Department escalated its January 6 investigation by bringing seditious conspiracy charges against 11 defendants, including the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes.

The latest accusations -- with a charge that had not previously been brought in the department's US Capitol attack prosecutions -- remove any sense that prosecutors believe the riot emerged from just a group of overzealous protestors, with new details about the planning and logistics alleged to have predated the Capitol breach.
The Justice Department until now had been careful not to push the idea of sedition, instead charging defendants affiliated with right-wing groups with conspiracy to obstruct the congressional proceeding on January 6. The seditious conspiracy charge carries the same possible consequence as an obstruction charge, but is rarely used, politically loaded and has been difficult for the Justice Department to use successfully against defendants in the past.

Attorney General Merrick Garland had balked at the earlier efforts to bring the seditious conspiracy charge. But in the months since, people briefed on the matter say FBI investigators and DC federal prosecutors have spent much time building the case, at least in part with the help of cooperators and the benefit of internal communications among the Oath Keepers.

The new indictment brings to light planning the Oath Keepers are accused to have done ahead of the Capitol attack, as they allegedly recruited members, stocked up on weapons and organized to disrupt Congress' certification of the 2020 election. Prosecutors say they also continued to plot "to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power" after the Capitol riot failed to block the electoral college vote, according to a Justice Department statement on Thursday.

One Oath Keeper claimed to travel to Washington, DC, for a scouting trip ahead of January 6, according to the indictment. The new court filings also detail accusations that the defendants stashed weapons at a Virginia hotel and that they were prepared to "rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington, D.C." to support the efforts to stop the presidential certification vote.

Rhodes was arrested Thursday in Little Elm, Texas.

Allegedly opposing 'by force' the lawful transfer of power

The new indictment, approved by a grand jury on Wednesday and made public Thursday, alleges that Rhodes and his co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to "oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force, by preventing, hindering, or delaying by force execution of laws governing the transfer of power."

The latest court filings revealed that Oath Keeper Thomas Caldwell, who was arrested in January, claimed to take a reconnaissance trip to DC before January 6. The indictment also surfaces previously unknown communications Rhodes is alleged to have sent that prosecutors say encouraged the use of force to oppose the lawful transfer of power.

"We aren't going through this without civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body and spirit," Rhodes allegedly said in a November 5, 2020, Signal message. In December, Rhodes -- according to the indictment -- wrote of the electoral college certification that "there is no standard political or legal way out of this."
Prosecutors have previously said that Rhodes used Signal during the attack to communicate with other members of the Oath Keepers who were at the Capitol.

"All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no intent by him to do anything," Rhodes allegedly wrote. "So the patriots are taking it into their own hands. They've had enough," he allegedly said on Signal at 1:38 p.m. that day, shortly after the siege had begun.

Additionally, the indictment says that Oath Keepers from three different states, including newly charged Edward Vallejo, stashed weapons in a Virginia hotel as part of a quick reaction force.

"Quick reaction force teams were prepared to rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington, D.C., in support of operations aimed at using force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power," the indictment said.

On his way to DC on January 3, Rhodes allegedly bought an AR-platform rifle and other firearms equipment, including sights, mounts, triggers, slings, and other firearms attachments in Texas. The next day, he allegedly bought more firearms equipment in Mississippi including sights, mounts, an optic plate, and a magazine, according to the filings.

Accusations of plotting before and after the Capitol attack

The Rhodes indictment walks through public and private statements the Oath Keeper leader made, starting just days after the election, that prosecutors say illuminate the plot to oppose by force the transfer of presidential power.

Those alleged discussions include a November readout that Caldwell reached out to provide Rhodes about a November 9 trip he had taken to DC to do recon for an upcoming "op." Communications about the "bloody" "fight" and "revolution" were accompanied by logistical planning, prosecutors alleged, with defendants discussing obtaining and bringing weapons to the Washington area. Rhodes allegedly spent thousands on firearms equipment en route to DC, prosecutors allege.

On January 6, prosecutors allege that Oath Keepers stationed themselves around the DC area -- some near the Capitol, others providing security and a third group waiting across the river in a Virginia hotel with a cache of weapons. At the Capitol, some members moved in a military "stack" formation into the Capitol where they fought with police, and a small group unsuccessfully looked for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to court documents.

The plotting didn't end with the Capitol riot, prosecutors say, alleging Rhodes and other co-conspirators met in Virginia to "celebrate" the attack and "discuss next steps." In a Signal chat to other members of Oath Keepers leadership, Rhodes allegedly said that "Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what's coming."

In the week after the riot, Rhodes allegedly spent more than $17,500 on weapons, equipment, and ammunition. One member, according to the filings, said Rhodes should stay "below the radar," while another brought what he called "all available weapons" to Rhodes' home in Texas.

Around Inauguration Day, January 20, Rhodes allegedly told associates to organize local militias to oppose the Biden administration. Another member allegedly said, "After this... if nothing happens...its war...Civil War 2.0."

Change in approach

The charges mark a dramatic change in the Justice Department's January 6 probe.

Previously, some Biden administration officials believed using the sedition charge could politicize the Justice Department's prosecution of the Capitol attackers, and the department recoiled after the former top prosecutor over the investigation, Michael Sherwin, said on CBS' "60 Minutes" he believed seditious conspiracy could be charged.
Garland said in a speech last week commemorating the Capitol attack that the department was "committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law -- whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy."

Rhodes has also been of interest to the House's January 6 investigation, which issued subpoenas in November for him and his organization for a deposition and documents related to the events of that day.

In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper Thursday night, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who serves on the January 6 committee, said he hopes the newly filed charges will "shut up those of our colleagues who keep saying, 'Well if it was a conspiracy, how come there are no conspiracy charges? If it was seditious, how come there were no sedition charges?'"

"So, there we go," he continued. "We've got those with, undoubtedly, a lot more to come soon."
CNN reported in July that Rhodes gave a voluntary interview to the FBI and that investigators seized his cell phone. He has denied all wrongdoing.

According to previous court filings submitted by the Justice Department in other cases, Rhodes said at a November 2020 online meeting, "We're going to defend the president, the duly elected president, and we call on him to do what needs to be done to save our country. Because if you don't guys, you're going to be in a bloody, bloody civil war and a bloody -- you can call it an insurrection, or you can call it a war or fight."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/politics/oathkeeper-rhodes-arrested-doj/index.html