1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 hearing spotlights role of Roger Stone as crucial link between Proud Boys and Trump



The seventh hearing of the January 6th Committee on Tuesday highlighted the role of political consultant Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of Donald Trump, as a link between the former president and the two leading extremist groups that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) noted that President Trump pardoned Stone, along with retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, in the weeks between the Nov. 3, 2020 election and Jan. 6. During the same period, Raskin said, “Stone communicated with both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers regularly.”

Raskin reported that the committee obtained encrypted chats from a private message group called “Friends of Stone,” or “FOS,” that included Stone, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander that “focused on various pro-Trump events in November and December of 2020, as well as January 6th.”

In one chat shared by the committee, Rhodes urged chat members who couldn’t make it to Washington, DC for a Nov. 14 Million MAGA March to attend local events to support the effort to overturn the election.

“Good point,” Rhodes wrote. “Anyone who won’t be in DC needs to be at their state Capitol.”

Grant Smith, an attorney who represents Stone, downplayed his client’s participation in the chat.

“Mr. Stone was included in the group chat by whomever established it at the time,” Smith said in an email to Raw Story. “Mr. Stone did not participate in any discussions in the chat and has no recollection of ever posting anything in the chat. If there had been any postings by Mr. Stone, the committee would have included them in the evidence presented, [and] there was nothing presented. Mr. Stone engaged in only legally protected, First Amendment activities.”

Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have since been indicted in separate seditious conspiracy cases, stemming from their activity on Jan. 6.

The committee presented video showing that during the period when the “Friends of Stone” chat was active, Rhodes called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, and the Proud Boys became increasingly antagonistic towards the police.

“He needs to know from you that you are with him, that if he does not do it now while he is commander in chief, we’re going to have to do it later in a much more desperate, much more bloody war,” Rhodes said, addressing a crowd at the Jericho March in DC on Dec. 12. “Let’s get it on now, while he is still the commander in chief.”

In a separate video shown to the committee, Proud Boys angered at being prevented from assaulting leftwing counter-protesters can be seen taunting police, with one member named “Swamp Cracker” shouting, “Oath breakers! Do your f****ng job! Give us one hour.”

The committee also presented videotaped testimony from Kellye SoRelle, a Texas lawyer who serves as general counsel for the Oath Keepers, that pointed to Stone as one of the key figures, alongside Alexander and InfoWars host Alex Jones, in the rallies that built momentum for Jan. 6.

“You mentioned that Mr. Stone wanted to start the Stop the Steal rallies,” the investigator said. “Who did you consider the leader of these rallies? It sounds like, from what you just said, it was Mr. Stone, Mr. Jones and Mr. Ali Alexander. Is that correct?”

“Those are the ones that became like the center point for everything,” SoRelle responded.

Beyond the “Friends of Stone” encrypted chat, Stone also appeared in public with Proud Boys leaders in the months leading up to the Jan. 6 attack.

A video from the night before the Dec. 12 rally, first reported by Just Security, shows Stone flanked by Tarrio and Nordean, both of whom would become top-tier leaders in the Ministry of Self-Defense group set up as a planning committee for Jan. 6 and now face seditious conspiracy charges. Introduced by Owen Schroyer, an InfoWars media performer who is charged with entering a restricted building or grounds for his activities on Jan. 6, Stone addressed an energetic crowd outside a DC hotel.

“We will fight to the bitter end for an honest recount of the 2020 election,” Stone said. “Never give up, never quit, never surrender, and fight for America!”

As Shroyer introduces him, Stone can be seen giving a friendly nod to Tarrio. Later, as Stone speaks, Nordean appears to place his hand on Stone’s shoulder.

Stone’s relationship with the Proud Boys goes back more than five years. As noted in a report prepared for the January 6th Committee by the Khalifa Ihler Institute, Stone was recorded reciting the “Proud Boys Fraternity Creed” in May 2017, which means he is considered a “1st degree” member according to the group’s custom.

So close were Stone and Tarrio that the Proud Boys national chairman had access to Stone’s phone in early 2019. When Stone got in trouble for tweeting an image of the federal judge presiding over his case next to an image of gun crosshairs, he reportedly disclosed to the court that he had been sent images by multiple volunteers, naming Tarrio alongside Florida Proud Boys founder Tyler Ziolkowski, and InfoWars reporter Jacob Engels. Stone reportedly disclosed to the court that Tarrio and Engels had spent time at his house.

Ties between the Proud Boys and Trump are more nebulous, but the extremist group was galvanized by Trump’s presidential debate statement, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” in response to a call for him to denounce extremists.

Proud Boys predictably responded ecstatically.

“Standing by sir,” Tarrio wrote on Parler.

Joe Biggs, who would also become a top-tier leader of the Ministry of Self-Defense and lead the Proud Boys to the Capitol along with Nordean, wrote, “Trump basically said to go f*** [antifa] up! This makes me so happy!”

On the day after the debate, Trump attempted to distance himself, telling reporters: “I don’t know who the Proud Boys are. You’ll have to give me a definition because I really don’t know who they are. I can only say they have to stand down and let law enforcement do their work.”

Other reporting has suggested Trump and his inner circle were more aware of the Proud Boys than they publicly acknowledged.

When Proud Boys marched outside a venue during Trump’s reelection campaign launch in Orlando, Fla. in June 2019, New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel tweeted: “From a disillusioned GOP operative: ‘The Trump campaign is well aware of the organized participation of Proud Boys rallies merging into Trump events. They don’t care. Staff are treating it like a coalition they can’t talk about.”

Trip Gabriel @tripgabriel

From a disillusioned GOP operative: ‘The Trump campaign is well aware of the organized participation of Proud Boys rallies merging into Trump events. They dont care. Staff are to treat it like a coalition they can’t talk

Proud Boys and white power signs in Orlando.

Watch: https://twitter.com/PhilipinDC/status/1141067843905249283

On Dec. 12, 2020, before Proud Boys clashed with counter-protesters, Tarrio and Latinos for Trump president Biana Gracia received a tour of the White House.

“Last minute invite to an undisclosed location,” Tarrio wrote on Parler, displaying photos of the White House steps, according to a report in USA Today.

Tarrio’s host hinted at special access, but Gracia told reporter Will Carless that “the tour was arranged through channels open to anyone by applying via a member of Congress.” But she also hinted that she received an assist to ensure that the tour took place when they were in town for the pro-Trump rally.

“We received a little help from people,” she told the newspaper.

Watch video here: https://www.justsecurity.org/74579/exclusive-new-video-of-roger-stone-with-proud-boys-leaders-who-may-have-planned-for-capitol-attack/

Read more here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/19/latinos-trump-group-tied-proud-boys-leader-enrique-tarrio/3931868001/

[Rick Plant]

Ex-Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said Trump’s ‘civil war’ rhetoric ‘killed someone’ on Jan. 6

Ex-Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale blamed then-President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for the death of a woman involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The House select committee investigating the riot showed screenshots of text messages between Parscale and Trump surrogate Katrina Pierson on the evening of the riot.

“A sitting president asking for civil war,” Parscale wrote in the texts. “This week I feel guilty for helping him win.”



Ex-Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale blamed then-President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for the death of a woman involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to evidence shared Tuesday by the House select committee investigating the insurrection.

In text messages sent on the evening of Jan. 6, longtime Trump supporter Parscale said that the riot was “about trump pushing for uncertainty in our country.”




Text from former Campaign Manager Brad Parscale during a January 6th investigation hearing on July 12th, 2022

“A sitting president asking for civil war,” Parscale said in texts to Katrina Pierson, a former Trump campaign official who was reportedly involved in organizing the pre-riot rally.

Screenshots of the texts were displayed during the select committee’s latest public hearing Tuesday afternoon, which focused largely on the involvement of domestic violent extremist groups in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“This week I feel guilty for helping him win,” Parscale wrote.

Pierson replied: “You did what you felt was right at the time and therefore it was right.”

Parscale responded, “Yeah. But a woman is dead,” adding with apparent shock, “Yeah. If I was trump and knew my rhetoric killed someone.”

Pierson told him, “It wasn’t the rhetoric.”

But Parscale shot back: “Katrina. Yes it was.”

Neither Parscale nor Pierson immediately responded to CNBC’s requests for comment on the texts.

Parscale appeared to be referring to Ashli Babbitt, the pro-Trump rioter who was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol police officer on Jan. 6, 2021, as she attempted to crawl through a doorway leading toward the House chamber. Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who shot Babbitt, was cleared of wrongdoing.

Parscale worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and his 2020 reelection effort. He was demoted in the summer of 2020 as Trump’s poll numbers lagged behind those of Democrat Joe Biden, and stepped back from the campaign effort in October of that year after he was hospitalized.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/12/ex-trump-campaign-aide-parscale-said-trumps-rhetoric-killed-capitol-rioter-on-jan-6.html

[Rick Plant]

WATCH: Trump aides describe ‘unhinged’ White House meeting in lead-up to Jan. 6

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., spoke on July 12 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public. The focus of the hearing was on extremist far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and the role they played in the Capitol insurrection.

He laid out a video montage from former White House administration staff, top officials, among others surrounding former President Donald Trump about what avenues he had to fight the election results in a meeting on Dec. 18, 2020, that went into the early morning of December 19. The meeting included lawyer Sidney Powell, White House lawyer Rudy Giuliani and White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

Derek Lyons, former White House staff secretary, said in a taped testimony that the meeting, which ended shortly after midnight, was chaotic.

“At times there were people shouting at each other, hurling insults at each other,” he said. “It wasn't just sort of people sitting around on the couch like chit chatting.”

Raskin showed text messages from former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson who texted that “the West Wing is UNHINGED.”

At one point in the meeting, the president asked if he could appoint Sidney Powell as a special advisor with security clearance, but it was never formally approved, according to taped testimony from Cipollone.

Raskin said once the meeting was over and Powell, Giuliani and others “left the White House in the early hours of the morning, President Trump turned away from both his outside advisers most outlandish and unworkable schemes and his White House counsel's advice to swallow hard and accept the reality of his loss.”

[Rick Plant]

WATCH: Rep. Raskin says Trump actively fired up supporters on social media ahead of Jan. 6

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., spoke on July 12 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public. The focus of the hearing was on extremist far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and the role they played in the Capitol insurrection.

Raskin said that the purpose of former president Donald Trump’s activity on Twitter was to mobilize a crowd, and that his December 2020 tweet inviting his supporters to a protest scheduled in Washington, D.C., for Jan. 6, 2021, in particular galvanized his followers, unleashed “a political firestorm” and changed “the course of our history as a country.”

The representative then played a profanity-laced montage of prominent Trump supporters including Alex Jones using their platforms to encourage viewers to attend the protest on Jan. 6 that would result in the insurrection.

He added that the Jan. 6 committee interviewed a former Twitter employee who testified that the company considered adopting a stronger content moderation policy after Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a presidential debate prior to the 2020 election, but chose not to do so.

“My concern was that the former president — for, seemingly, the first time — was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives,” the former employee, who remained anonymous to protect their identity, testified. ”We had not seen that sort of direct communication before.”

[Rick Plant]

DOJ alerted after Trump called unseen Jan. 6 witness, says Cheney

Former President Trump tried to call a witness expected to appear at a future hearing for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said Tuesday, raising further questions about potential witness tampering.

“After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation, a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings,” Cheney said at the conclusion of Tuesday’s hearing. “That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump’s call and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us, and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice.”

"We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, added.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told reporters after the hearing that he did not have more details or know personally which witness Cheney was referring to. But he said more broadly the committee was trying to send a message that witness tampering is a crime, and “people should not be approaching witnesses to try to get them to alter their testimony.”

At a hearing late last month with former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Cheney displayed a text message sent to one undisclosed witness that read, “[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”

Cheney also showed a statement at the previous hearing from a witness in which the witness recalled being told that as long as they remained loyal to Trump and his team, “I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just to keep that in mind as I proceeded through my depositions and interviews with the committee.”

One of the witnesses involved in the previous messages is reportedly Hutchinson.

But Cheney’s comments on Tuesday are the first public confirmation that Trump has personally reached out to those who are communicating with the committee.

The committee has kept the identities of witnesses at future hearings under wraps, partly due to increased security concerns.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3556256-doj-alerted-after-trump-called-unseen-jan-6-witness-says-cheney/

[Rick Plant]

WATCH: Former Oath Keeper spokesperson fears for next election cycle if Trump runs for office

Jason Van Tatenhove, former spokesperson for the far-right military group the Oath Keepers, testified on July 12 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public. The focus of the hearing was on extremist far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and the role they played in the Capitol insurrection.

He spoke about his view that the group hoped to become a paramilitary force. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., asked Van Tatenhove about whether the group had discussed committing violence against elected political leaders. Van Tatenhove said the Oath Keepers leader he spoke with wanted to make up a deck of cards of “key players that they wanted to take out,” similar to military cards, which Van Tatenhove did not do.

“I do fear for this next election cycle because who knows what that might bring? If a president that's willing to try to instill and encourage to whip up a civil war amongst his followers, using lies and deceit and snake oil, regardless of the human impact, what else is he going to do if he gets elected again? All bets are off at that point,” Van Tatenhove said. “And that's a scary notion.”

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

What we learned on Day 7 of the Jan. 6 hearings

The Jan. 6 committee held its seventh public hearing Tuesday afternoon with a focus on connections between extremist groups and the Trump White House. The hearing ended with a dramatic revelation that former President Trump recently called a witness the panel was talking to, an action referred to the Justice Department. Lisa Desjardins and Laura Barrón-López join Judy Woodruff to discuss.

Watch: