1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

High-level Capitol riot defendant Ryan Samsel is accused of writing a jailhouse letter earlier this month.

Samsel is the Pennsylvania man accused of toppling barricade and knocking officer unconscious

Here's the letter... per prosecutors.

[Rick Plant]

New testimony will show how John Eastman continued his plots to overturn 2020 election even after January 6

On Tuesday, POLITICO reported that the January 6 Committee has evidence that pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman continued pushing his schemes to overturn the 2020 presidential election — even after the attack on the U.S. Capitol had taken place.

"Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann told the select committee — in video testimony revealed publicly Tuesday afternoon — that he received an unexpected phone call on Jan. 7, 2021, from John Eastman, the attorney who played an instrumental role in Trump’s last-ditch strategy to subvert the election," reported Kyle Cheney. "In Herschmann’s telling, Eastman immediately asked him about 'something dealing with Georgia and preserving something potentially for appeal.'"

“And I said to him, ‘Are you out of your f’ing mind?’” said Herschmann in the testimony. “I said, ‘I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on: orderly transition.’” According to Herschmann, Eastman eventually agreed to this after being pressed.

"The minute-long clip was primarily a teaser for Thursday’s hearing, which will feature testimony from at least two key allies of former Vice President Mike Pence: former counsel Greg Jacob and retired federal judge Michael Luttig," said the report. "Jacob spent the days before Jan. 6 helping Pence fend off pressure from Eastman to impede the transition of power on Jan. 6, when Pence was required to preside over a joint session of Congress to count electoral votes."

Eastman, who is currently under investigation by the California State Bar, was the legal brains behind a fringe theory that said if Republicans put forward fake slates of "alternate" electors in states President Joe Biden narrowly won, Pence could simply rule these states as having unclear results, not counting them at all and throwing the election to Trump with the only counted electors.

Legal experts have widely panned this plan as illegal, and even Eastman himself privately acknowledged it wasn't consistent with federal law.

Watch video here: https://twitter.com/January6thCmte/status/1536815728208355330

[Rick Plant]

Trump faces 'real danger' after Jan 6. committee revealed evidence of ‘false solicitation of money’: legal expert

During a segment on CNN this Tuesday, anchor Ana Cabrera brought up recent comments made by former Attorney General Bill Barr, who said he's hasn't yet seen the Jan. 6 committee offer up evidence of a prosecutable crime against Donald Trump. But former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Shan Wu disagrees.

"I think we really need to emphasize from a prosecutorial point of view, being detached from reality is not a defense to any crime unless you want to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, which they can do," Wu said. "But the evidence is there and I don't think by excessive hand-wringing over whether there's really intent or not is necessary here. I think there's a lot of circumstantial evidence, and when I was a prosecutor, I would have been salivating about having this much evidence about a defendant's intent."

Appearing Monday in a pre-recorded deposition at a congressional hearing into the 2021 assault on the US Capitol, Barr described his then boss as having no interest in the facts that debunked his groundless narrative.

"I was demoralized because I thought, boy... he's become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff," Barr told the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection by supporters of Trump.

"When I went into this and would tell him how crazy some of these allegations were, there was never an indication of interest in the actual facts," said Barr, who likened addressing Trump's avalanche of false allegations with playing the game "whack-a-mole."

Later in the segment, Wu told CNN that the case where Trump told Georgia's Secretary of State to find more votes to bolster his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results is the strongest case against the former president. But he also thinks new revelations showing Trump raised over $250 million pushing debunked voter fraud allegations for an “official election defense fund” that the committee found did not exist is also a significant legal threat.

"I think that raises real exposure and danger for Trump and those who helped him to do that," Wu said. "And in particular, I think it's more dangerous because of the prosecutorial discretion aspect. That kind of a charge -- wire fraud, basically -- may be more palatable to prosecutors and DOJ and AG Garland than wading into these uncharted waters of charging a former president with trying to overthrow the very government he was in charge of."

The committee says the initial claim of fraud grew quickly into a fundraising campaign that raised millions between election night and the Capitol insurrection.

The committee's senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick said much of the cash was funneled into a political action committee that made donations to pro-Trump organizations.

"As early as April 2020, Mr Trump claimed that the only way he could lose an election would be as a result of fraud," Democratic panel member Zoe Lofgren said Monday.

"The big lie was also a big rip-off," she said, promising to show how the Trump campaign raised hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters who were falsely led to believe their donations would be used for the legal fight over fraud claims.

Watch the video below:

[Rick Plant]

Court schedules initial appearance in Jan 6 case of Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley for Thursday at 1pm

That's the exact time the next Jan 6 Select Committee hearing begins.

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 Panel Puts Trump Fund-Raising Tactics Under Scrutiny
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/us/politics/trump-fundraising-jan-6.html

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 Committee Holds Second Hearing on Capitol Riot

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

'There's no escape, Pelosi!' Jan. 6 committee releases threat-filled video of man who got Capitol tour from GOP lawmaker

On Wednesday, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack sent a letter to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) flagging the suspicious behavior of people he gave a tour of the Capitol one day before the insurrection.

The letter from Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) highlighted, complete with photographs, that the people on this tour appeared to be doing reconnaissance of the Capitol.

"Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints," the letter noted.

NEWS: @January6thCmte ahs sent a letter to @RepLoudermilk about what we broke in @PunchbowlNews this AM

The committee says that one of the people he gave a tour to threatened @SpeakerPelosi, @RepJerryNadler, @AOC, @SenSchumer





Video here https://bit.ly/3Ho4rPy

Although the letter does not specify that the people on the tour actually invaded the Capitol, they were present at Trump's rally on the National Mall immediately preceding it — and one man in the tour was filmed holding a flagpole with a "sharpened end," saying, "It's for a certain person" and warning "There's no escape Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler. We're coming for you ... We're coming to take you out and pull you by the hairs."

"We again ask you to meet with the Select Committee at your earliest convenience," concluded the letter.

Loudermilk initially tried to deny that members of Congress had even given tours of the Capitol on the day before the attack, but walked back his denials weeks ago.

Watch the video below: