1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

Steve Bannon's defense accused of lying to a judge – in after midnight DOJ court filing: report



The U.S. Department of Justice dropped an after-midnight bombshell on former Donald Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon early Monday morning.

Attorney Luppe Luppen said, "DOJ coming in hot with a filing after midnight saying the FBI interviewed a Trump lawyer and determined Bannon’s counsel lied to the J6 Committee."

"On June 29, 2022, former President Donald Trump's attorney, who sent the letter on which the defendant claimed his noncompliance was based, confirmed what his correspondence has already established: that the former president never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials; that the former president's counsel never asked or was asked to attend the defendant's deposition before the select committee, that the defendant's attorney misrepresented to the committee what the former president's counsel had told the defendant's attorney; and that the letter provided no basis for total noncompliance," the DOJ argued.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wrote, "This is consistent with my view of Bannon's ploy. It's a gimmick intended to help his defense in his upcoming criminal trial on the 18th."

"DOJ will try to keep this out of evidence at trial. But the Committee should call Bannon's bluff and get documents and a private interview," he explained.

USA Today columnist Michael Stern thought it was all apart of Bannon's criminal defense strategy.

He wrote that "DOJ is disclosing this (which will undoubtedly be used at trial) for a particular purpose: to stop Bannon from claiming at trial that his current willingness to comply undoes his criminal act in refusing to comply previously."

DOJ coming in hot with a filing after midnight saying the FBI interviewed a Trump lawyer and determined Bannon’s counsel lied to the J6 Committee. https://documentcloud.org/documents/22083076-motion-in-limine-to-exclude-evidence-or-argument-relating-to-the-defendants-eleventh-hour-assertion-that-he-is-willing-to-testify





https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1546358999938916352

[Rick Plant]

Cassidy Hutchinson realized her Trump-paid attorney was only 'there to insulate the big guy'



A new report about Cassidy Hutchinson revealed some of the back story involving her former lawyer and the sudden departure to a new attorney ahead of her public testimony with the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.

In the New York Times, reporter Robert Draper cited pro-Donald Trump lawyer Stefan Passantino, who was being paid for by Trump's Save America PAC to represent Hutchinson and has helped other witnesses as well.

"Mr. Passantino had extensive financial ties to Mr. Trump’s orbit," the Times explained. "Federal Election Commission reports show that his legal compliance firm received more than $1 million from Trump-related political action committees in the 2021-22 election cycle, and that in the previous cycle Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump loyalist and a House candidate at the time, paid him more than $93,000 for his services."

She spoke to the committee for the first time in Feb. 2022, though it wasn't yet clear if Passantino was there on behalf of Donald Trump over her legal interests, two sources told the Times.

Portions of her first three depositions had Hutchinson mentioning Anthony Ornato, a former Secret Service agent Trump appointed to be deputy White House chief of staff. She recalled Ornato warning then-chief of staff Mark Meadows that there were intelligence reports warning of violence on Jan. 6. She also revealed that House Republicans were already pressing Vice President Mike Pence to stop the Jan. 6 Electoral College certification.

Hutchinson grew more "warm" to the idea of helping the committee, but Passantino was not.

“She realized she couldn’t call her attorney to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got more information,’” said a friend. “He was there to insulate the big guy.”

That was when she reached out to Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former White House director of communications, and former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA). The latter said she could have predicted the predicament.

“I said, ‘You’re going to end up paying legal bills,’” Comstock recalled to the Times. She then offered to start a legal defense fund so she wouldn't have to depend on Trump's lawyers for help. That's when Jody Hunt offered to help, he was the former Justice Department head of the civil division under Jeff Sessions. Due to his connection to Sessions, he too was a pariah in Trump World.

Greater cooperation moved forward from there.

Read the full piece at the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/us/politics/cassidy-hutchinson-jan-6-testimony.html


Analyst explains why members of Congress should be held accountable just like the Oath Keepers they inspired



The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and attempt to overthrow the election announced on Sunday that they would have Oath Keepers spokesperson Jason Van Tatenhove testify at the Tuesday public hearing.

"It is critically important that this witness is there, testifying to the really national network of players and people, that not only pushed Jan. 6th forward but have continued to keep up this kind up this white supremacist fervor for a long time," said Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Campaign Zero co-founder and MSNBC analyst. "These are the kind of folks that people should be paying attention to, at the local level, and the state level, as well as the federal level, not just for what they did on Jan. the 6th, but also, for what they could do, moving forward."

She explained, however, that it can't only be up to the rank-and-file members of the Oath Keeper and other militia groups who made Jan. 6 happen, but those elected officials who pushed the lie that the election was fraudulent and inspired people to attack Congress.

"The folks in power, people are sitting in positions, members of Congress, and people at the highest levels need to be held accountable for this," said Cunningham. "And look at Josh Hawley, and Lauren Boebert, and Victory for White Life, Barry Miller, and they're still making laws for this country. Those folks who stormed the Capitol on the 6th would not have been there, had it not been for those members of Congress and other powerful representatives, telling them lies, and stoking the very deepest white supremacist fears. So, we have to make sure that the Oath Keepers, as they're held accountable, that those in power are as well, otherwise, we'll see this happen all over again."

Watch the commentary below:

[Rick Plant]

House Jan. 6 committee reveals when Pat Cipollone's video testimony will become public

The House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 still has at least two more hearings that they intend to hold, and now they're revealing when former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone's testimony could be revealed to the public.

Cipollone appeared behind closed doors on Friday for several hours and the committee revealed that he did confirm some of the information that was already known. Members wouldn't go into detail from there, however.

In a statement Sunday, Tim Mulvey, the committee's spokesman, "Cipollone's videotaped testimony will likely be featured prominently during the final hearing."

"In our interview with Mr. Cipollone, the Committee received critical testimony on nearly every major topic in its investigation, reinforcing key points regarding Donald Trump’s misconduct and providing highly relevant new information that will play a central role in its upcoming hearings," the statement from the committee read.

"This includes information demonstrating Donald Trump’s supreme dereliction of duty," the statement also said.

Tuesday, July 12 at 1 p.m. EST will be the next public hearing.

AFP


Cipollone was pressed on Trump pardons for his family during House committee testimony: CNN

According to a report from CNN's Pamela Brown, former Donald Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone was quizzed about reports that Donald Trump may have asked about pardoning himself and his kids before leaving the White House for good after losing the 2020 presidential election.

Details on what the White House attorney told the committee during his 8-hour interview on Friday have been scarce, but Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) did appear on "Face the Nation" on Sunday to say Cipollone did provide more information about a Dec 18, 2020 meeting with what he called Trump's "Team Crazy."

According to source who spoke with CNN, the topic of Trump pardons was also addressed with Cipollone.

"A House select committee spokesperson told CNN the panel's interview with Cipollone was productive but said there was no agreement made to restrict any questions to avoid potential issues with executive privilege," Brown wrote before adding, "The select committee on Friday also asked Cipollone a series of questions about pardons, including potential pardons for the Trump family and whether Trump wanted to pardon himself."

Also, on Sunday morning, Houe select committee member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) admitted that Cipollone handed over more information about Trump's plans to declare martial law in order to seize voting machines.

AFP


Cipollone provided 'important insight' on Trump's plans to declare martial law: J6 committee member

During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," House Jan 6th committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) was fairly closed-mouthed about what former White House counsel Pat Cipollone told the committee during his 8-hour-along testimony last Friday.

She was a bit more forthcoming when host Jake Tapper narrowed down his questions about Donald Trump's efforts that went beyond the assault on the Capitol building that sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives.

After telling the CNN host that he would have to wait to see what the committee has on tap for Tuesday morning hearing, to be followed by a second public hearing on Thursday in prime time, Lofgren did confirm some topics that were discussed.

"We will have some excerpts of Mr. Cipollone's testimony," she promised. "He was able to provide information on basically all of the critical issues we're looking at, including the president's, what I would call, dereliction of duty on the day of January 6th. So, yes, that was important."

After she added, "As you know, the committee rules don't allow us to disclose the testimony without a vote of the committee, that hasn't happened yet, but it was important testimony," Tapper pressed, "Did he discuss Trump considering seizing the voting machines or Trump considering declaring martial law to seize the voting machines?"

"I think you'll have to wait for the hearing later this week. As i said, we haven't had a vote to disclose the testimony, "she repeated before conceding, "Let me just say this, I think he did provide important insights on those subjects."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Oath Keepers founder tried to get in contact with the White House weeks before the Jan. 6 attack: lawyer



Speaking to NBC News, the general counsel for the Oath Keepers says the far-right militia group's founder, Stewart Rhodes, tried to get her to put him in touch with the White House in the weeks before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Kellye SoRelle, in addition to representing the Oath Keepers, also volunteered for Lawyers for Trump during the 2020 election and was in touch with many of Trump's allied who worked to overturn the election's results.

“[Rhodes] was hitting me up for a contact,” SoRelle told NBC News. “He didn’t have any access points.”

Rhodes wanted SoRelle to send a letter to Trump calling for him to invoke the Insurrection Act in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, but she declined. SoRelle told NBC News that she never put Rhodes in contact with anyone at the White House.

"Nonetheless, she was on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol (though didn’t enter the building) on Jan. 6. And on the night before the attack, she was present in a parking garage as Rhodes met with Enrique Tarrio, the head of the Proud Boys, the other predominant organization in a smorgasbord of extremist groups connected with the Capitol attack," reports NBC News.

Rhodes attorney James Bright told NBC News that he doesn't think it's a big deal that Rhodes was trying to contact the White House and that hundreds of people "try to get in touch with politicians daily."

AFP


Oath Keepers lawyer says Stewart Rhodes wanted her Trump contacts before Jan. 6 Capitol attack

The Jan. 6 committee will explore links between the Trump White House and right-wing militia groups Tuesday. It has spoken to Kellye SoRelle, who might be a key.


Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, left, and Kellye SoRelle, in sunglasses, at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

WASHINGTON — In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes tried to get the organization’s general counsel, Kellye SoRelle, to put him in touch with the White House, she told NBC News.

In addition to her work with the Oath Keepers, SoRelle was a volunteer for Lawyers for Trump during the 2020 election and was in contact with many of the people fighting a doomed legal battle to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election and keep former President Donald Trump in office. The contacts include, she said, people in Rudy Giuliani’s and Sidney Powell’s camps, as well as those inside the administration, although she added that she “wasn’t, like, communicating with Trump directly.”

Rhodes wanted her to put him in touch with the White House. “He was hitting me up for a contact,” said SoRelle, a family law lawyer who previously ran for the Texas state House. “He didn’t have any access points.”

As he prepared an open letter calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Rhodes asked SoRelle to send it to the White House. She says she declined.

As SoRelle tells it, despite her close relationship with Rhodes, she never put him in touch with key figures, putting a firewall between her work with the Oath Keepers and her work to overturn the election results. Nonetheless, she was on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol (although didn’t enter the building) on Jan. 6. And on the night before the attack, she was present in a parking garage as Rhodes met with Enrique Tarrio, the head of the Proud Boys, the other predominant organization in a smorgasbord of extremist groups connected with the Capitol attack.

SoRelle has already spoken extensively with the Jan. 6 committee, and given her overlapping roles, it’s likely that testimony will come up at the panel’s next public hearing Tuesday, much of which the committee has said will focus on the role of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and the goal they shared with Trump to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes.

A source familiar with the Jan. 6 committee’s work said SoRelle was of great interest to the committee given her links both in Trump’s orbit and with members of the alleged seditious conspiracy.

Her dual role could play a part as the committee tries to establish a deeper connection between both camps. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” the person said.

Rhodes attorney James Bright said he didn’t think it was a story that Rhodes — who prosecutors say had organized a militia ready and willing to take up arms on behalf of Trump — was trying to get in touch with the president ahead of Jan. 6.

“Hundreds of people try to get in touch with politicians daily,” Bright said.

Robert Costello, a lawyer for Giuliani, said Giuliani had “no connection” to the Oath Keepers. “I represented Mr. Giuliani at the time, and I don’t believe he had a ‘camp.’ In any event, Rudy Giuliani has no connection to the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys or any other fringe group,” Costello said.

Powell didn’t respond to a request for comment. Last month, a judge ordered Rhodes’ attorneys to disclose whether Powell’s group Defending the Republic was helping to pay their legal fees following reporting from Mother Jones and BuzzFeed News.

The FBI seized SoRelle’s phone last year as part of its seditious conspiracy investigation against several members of the Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.

SoRelle co-signed two of the open letters that prosecutors have cited in that case. Full archived versions of the letters, which are no longer online, were provided to NBC News by one of the online sleuths investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

One open letter dated Dec. 14, 2020, calls on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, saying that “millions of American military and law enforcement veterans, and many millions more loyal patriotic American gun owners stand ready to answer your call to arms, and to obey your orders to get this done.”

The open second letter, dated Dec. 23, 2020, was more explicit, informing Trump that if Congress certified the election on Jan. 6, “tens of thousands of patriotic Americans, both veterans and non-veterans, will already be in Washington D.C., and many of us will have our mission-critical gear stowed nearby just outside D.C., and we will answer the call right then and there, if you call on us.”

Citing George Washington, the letter encouraged Trump to immediately invoke the Insurrection Act and not to “let the fact that it is Christmas stop you.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/oath-keepers-lawyer-says-stewart-rhodes-wanted-trump-contacts-jan-6-ca-rcna37267

[Rick Plant]

Next J6 hearing to focus on Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, QAnon — and GOP members of Congress: select committee aides

Aides to the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol previewed what viewers will see in Tuesday's public hearing during a call with reporters on Monday afternoon.

The hearing will be led by Reps. Elaine Luria (D-VA) and Jaimie Raskin (D-MD).

During the briefing, aides said the hearing will focus on how Trump grew more "desperate" as it became clear he had lost the election.

The aides said a "pivotal moment" was a Dec. 19 tweet by Trump.

"Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Trump tweeted.

The hearing will also focus on extremist groups in Trump's MAGA base. A Jan. 6 aide specifically listed the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and QAnon. Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been charged with seditious conspiracy in relation to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

There will be a focus on the the extremist groups' "ties" to Trump advisors Roger Stone and Mike Flynn, an aide said.

The hearing will also focus on members of Congress who were involved, including efforts to pressure Mike Pence to overturn the election.

The hearing is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast live at RawStory.com.

https://www.rawstory.com/jan-6-hearing-2657649599/

[Rick Plant]

Jamie Raskin’s 5-year battle against white nationalism comes to head at Tuesday’s J6 hearing: NYT



On Monday, The New York Times reported that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) will take the lead in Tuesday's hearings of the House Select Committee on January 6 — and that he will bring to bear five years of experience investigating white nationalist and far-right extremist groups in the committee's assessment of Trump's ties to same.

"Long before the Jan. 6, 2021, assault, Mr. Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, had thrown himself into stamping out the rise of white nationalism and domestic extremism in America," wrote Luke Broadwater. "He trained his focus on the issue after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., five years ago. Since then, he has held teach-ins, led a multipart House investigation that exposed the lackluster federal effort to confront the threat, released intelligence assessments indicating that white supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement and strategized about ways to crack down on paramilitary groups."

"Now, with millions of Americans expected to tune in, Mr. Raskin — along with Representative Stephanie Murphy, Democrat of Florida — is set to take a leading role in a hearing that promises to dig deeply into how far-right groups helped to orchestrate and carry out the Jan. 6 assault at the Capitol — and how they were brought together, incited and empowered by President Donald J. Trump," the report continued.

Raskin, who is Jewish and has personal motivations to investigate these groups due to many of them expressing anti-Semitic ideology, laid out what he plans to show to the Times.

“There were Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, the QAnon network, Boogaloo Boys, militia men and other assorted extremist and religious cults that assembled under the banner of ‘Stop The Steal,’ ” said Raskin. “This was quite a coming-out party for a lot of extremist, antigovernment groups and white nationalist groups that had never worked together before.”

"As he has studied the rise of right-wing extremism, Mr. Raskin has noticed a pattern in the countries that are able to stamp out creeping authoritarianism: Liberals must unite with the center-right," said the report.

"Much of the Jan. 6 committee’s work has been geared toward creating such a consensus, by highlighting the testimony of Republicans who stood up to Mr. Trump and the effort to overturn the 2020 election," it added. "'When you look at it historically, liberal and progressive parties generally don’t defeat authoritarian and fascist assaults on democracy by themselves,' Mr. Raskin said. 'Where democracy survives, it’s because the center-right and the center-left come together to defend it.'"

You can read more here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/11/us/jamie-raskin-jan-6-hearing.html

[Rick Plant]

Pro-Trump groups planned to gather in DC for inauguration — then switched to J6 after his tweet



On Monday, Axios reported that the January 6 Committee will present evidence at Tuesday's hearing that pro-Trump groups originally planned to converge on D.C. on the date of President Joe Biden's inauguration — but changed their plans after a Trump tweet directing them to gather on January 6 instead.

"One of the central questions in the investigation has been how directly culpable Trump was in the violence committed by his supporters — something impeachment managers sought to answer in the weeks after the assault," reported Andrew Solender. "But the committee has substantial resources the impeachment managers lacked, including subpoena power and more than a year to gather evidence."

"The committee has evidence that some pro-Trump groups had initially planned to be in D.C. in the days after President Biden's inauguration to kick off the opposition to his administration, according to a source familiar with the findings," said the report.

The report added, "The panel will contend that a Dec. 19, 2020, tweet from Trump calling supporters to the nation's capital for a 'big protest' on Jan. 6 — the now-infamous day Congress was set to certify electors — spurred supporters to change their plans, the source said."

According to the report, "At least one pro-Trump group allegedly changed its rally permit."

Trump appeared at a "Stop the Steal" rally on the National Mall immediately prior to the attack, and while he did not participate, he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified he actually wanted to join the rioters and attacked his security detail when they wouldn't take him there.

This comes as a former associate of Steve Bannon, Dustin Stockton, told MSNBC's Ari Melber that the organizers of the "Stop the Steal" rally were seeking to distance themselves from the extremists converging on the Capitol — and resentful that Trump got in the way of their efforts to diffuse tensions.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2022/07/12/jan6-committee-extremist-trump-proud-boys