1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

Amazing how all these right wingers feel that they are above the law.   

Jenna Ryan, Texas realtor who tweeted she was 'definitely not going to jail,' gets 60 days in jail

Ryan was one of a group of Texans who took a private plane to Washington, D.C., on January 6 and eventually entered the U.S. Capitol Building.

WASHINGTON — A Texas real estate agent who infamously claimed her blonde hair and white skin would keep her out of jail was sentenced Thursday to 60 days behind bars for her role in the January 6 Capitol riot.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper told Jenna Ryan, of Frisco, Texas, it was clear she knew what she was doing when she left her hotel to travel to the Capitol after watching coverage of the riot on Fox News.

“You knew it when you walked out of your hotel room and said, ‘We’re going to war and we’re going to be breaking windows,’” Cooper said.

Ryan and several friends – including two, Jason Hyland and Katherine Schwab, who have been charged in the January 6 case – took a private jet from Texas to attend former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6. At the Capitol, Ryan entered the building with other members of the mob and was later filmed at the front of a crowd encouraging the assault. She also posed for a photo next to a broken window, which she posted with the caption, “Window at The capital [sic]. And if the news doesn’t stop lying about us we’re going to come after their studios next…”



After returning to Texas, Ryan did a number of interviews with the media, including one with NBC in which she claimed she felt “like a martyr” and another with Fox in which she described her presence at the Capitol as “something noble.” Ryan, who has a large social media following, also posted multiple times about her role in the riot, saying in one message, “I deserve a medal for what I did.”

In her most infamous post, Ryan responded to another Twitter user that she was “definitely not going to jail. Sorry I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I’m not going to jail.”



In court Thursday, her attorney, Guy Womack, attempted to downplay the significance of her posts.

“She’s a social butterfly,” Womack said. “She goes online and posts things.”

Cooper said he had to take those posts – and a letter Ryan wrote to him that talked more about her social media following than her regret for what she’d done – into account, but he also noted that it wasn’t her posts or her interviews that he was sentencing her for.

“No one is being prosecuted for coming to Washington,” Cooper said. “No one is being prosecuted for the belief that the election was stolen. If you had the good sense not to leave your hotel room, or not go in once you saw what was happening, you wouldn’t be here.”

In part because of the attention her own media appearances drew to the case, Cooper said people would be looking to her sentence to see what the penalty was for attacking democratic institutions.

“I think that sentence should show them we take it seriously,” he said.

Cooper ultimately agreed with the Justice Department’s recommended sentence and ordered Ryan to serve 60 days behind bars. She will also have to pay the standard $500 in restitution required in all January 6 misdemeanor plea deals.

Ryan pleaded guilty in August to one Class “B” misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. She is one of more than 100 defendants who have now entered guilty pleas in connection to the riot.

After her sentencing Thursday, Ryan and her attorney spoke with WUSA9 Chief Investigative Reporter Eric Flack. She told him she was remorseful she entered the Capitol "for two minutes," and then blamed the media attention around her case for her sentence.

"I'm disappointed that I’m being used as an example, because other people that walked in for two minutes may not have the same thing, but because I’m a public person and I have a Twitter account, I’m being punished for that," Ryan said. "Because the media are doing what you’re all doing now, I’m being punished for this. And it’s actually causing my incarceration. I think that’s a travesty. I think that everybody should be able to tweet without being persecuted and treated like crap.”

Asked if she wishes she hadn't posted some of the things she did, Ryan said yes.

"Yes, I regret ever tweeting," she said.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/national/capitol-riots/jenna-ryan-texas-realtor-who-tweeted-she-was-definitely-not-going-to-jail-gets-60-days-in-jail-white-skin-blonde-hair-donald-trump-guy-womack/65-fb717bf2-3a07-4581-9486-bb9d8e144abd

[Rick Plant]

Capitol riot investigators to issue 20 new subpoenas — but not to GOP lawmakers ‘yet’



Mississippi Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson, chair of the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, announced Thursday that he has signed 20 new subpoenas that will go out "soon," possibly by Friday.

"Thompson would not confirm if former Trump lawyer John Eastman, who CNN has reported the committee plans to subpoena, is a part of that group, but said of the next batch of the subpoenas: 'Some of the people have been written about. Some of the people haven't been written about,'" according to CNN. "Asked if there are lawmakers the committee is planning to subpoena, Thompson said: 'Not yet.'"

Also Thursday, Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee, said members have already interviewed 150 people.

"We've had, actually, over 150 interviews with a whole range of people connected to the events, connected to understanding what happens, so that just gives you a sense," Cheney told Politico. "It is a range of engagements — some formal interviews, some depositions … There really is a huge amount of work underway that is leading to real progress for us."

According to Politico, Cheney's comments suggested that the public has seen only "the tip of the iceberg" in terms of the committee's investigation.

"This new number is an indication that the vast majority of the committee's work is happening out of public view," the site reported. "Though the panel has announced a flurry of subpoenas against former top aides to President Donald Trump and organizers of a rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection, little is known about the voluntary interviews that have been conducted so far."

https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-riot-committee-subpoenas-2655497415/

[Rick Plant]

MAGA rioter gave House committee evidence of contacts with 'state-level GOP officials': report

A MAGA rioter has reportedly told the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th riots at the United States Capitol that they had contacts ahead of the riot with "state-level GOP officials who worked with former President Donald Trump as he attempted to overturn the 2020 election."

According to Politico, the rioter has interviewed with the committee twice within the last week and "described knowledge of contacts between GOP officials in a key state Trump lost and allies of the former president in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack."

The rioter is scheduled to talk with the committee again in the coming days and Politico's sources say they have already been asked questions that "ranged from the defendant's knowledge of those who organized travel to Washington for the Jan. 6 event as well as details about the preparation of legal affidavits in support of Trump's false claims of voter fraud."

The Capitol riot committee so far has interviewed more than 150 people in its efforts to uncover the full picture about what led up to the deadly events on January 6th.

https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-riot-committee-testimony-2655498095/


Committee interviews Jan. 6 rioter who witnessed state GOP contacts with Trump allies

Investigators are trying to connect the dots between protesters who broke into the Capitol and whether they coordinated with Republican officials.

Congressional investigators probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are examining the contacts between one of the rioters who breached the Capitol and state-level GOP officials who worked with former President Donald Trump as he attempted to overturn the 2020 election.

The rioter, who interviewed with the committee twice in the past week, described knowledge of contacts between GOP officials in a key state Trump lost and allies of the former president in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. The person interviewed was one of the 650-plus defendants charged in the attack, and discussed those contacts in a voluntary interview with congressional investigators.

A source familiar with the previously unreported interviews said committee investigators asked the defendant to return for a second interview after discussing details about these pre-Jan. 6 interactions. Questions from investigators ranged from the defendant’s knowledge of those who organized travel to Washington for the Jan. 6 event as well as details about the preparation of legal affidavits in support of Trump’s false claims of voter fraud.

POLITICO has agreed not to identify the defendant or state, out of the defendant’s fear of retaliation. Still, it’s a sign that the Jan. 6 committee is obtaining facts about Trump’s activities from unexpected sources: The defendants who breached the Capitol in his name.

More than 100 Capitol riot defendants have pleaded guilty for their roles in the attack, most to misdemeanor crimes. The Jan. 6 select committee began soliciting voluntary testimony last month from these rioters . That request appears to have begun bearing fruit. At least three convicted rioters have cooperated or signaled their intent to speak to the committee, including Leonard Gruppo, who provided testimony on Oct. 12, according to court records. And more may be coming: Judge Beryl Howell, chief of the district court of Washington D.C., recently credited Gruppo during his sentencing for cooperating with Congress.

The defendants’ interviews are part of more than 150 that the committee has conducted in recent days as it seeks details about Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results. The panel has taken an expansive approach to its probe, subpoenaing top Trump aides like former chief of staff Mark Meadows, demanding testimony from the organizers of a Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally that preceded the Capitol attack and interviewing former DOJ officials who Trump pressured to help reverse his defeat.

According to the source familiar with the testimony of the defendant who interviewed this week, the defendant was also pressed to describe reasons for attending Trump’s Jan. 6 rally and then marching to the Capitol — and the answers made clear that the defendant and others traveled in response to Trump and marched to the Capitol at his direction. Many also left after he told them to go home — an invocation that came hours after lawmakers begged him to call off his supporters but got no response.

Gruppo’s attorney, Daniel Lindsey, offered a similar accounting of his client’s interview with the panel.

"He gave them specifics about why he went to Washington, what he did and all the events of that day,” Lindsey said. “Mr. Gruppo is a great man and it was an honor to represent him. Even the greatest of us make mistakes. Former President Trump has left chaos, damage and heart ache in his wake and he has shown no responsibility for all the lies.”

Prosecutors charged Gruppo with misdemeanor offenses for entering the Capitol illegally. In their sentencing recommendation, prosecutors say Gruppo drove with his wife from New Mexico to attend Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on the morning of Jan. 6.

The retired army lieutenant colonel, entered the Capitol despite obvious signs that police were attempting to turn them back, and prosecutors say Gruppo deleted evidence from his phone after seeing negative press coverage of the attack.

During sentencing, Howell rejected prosecutors’ request to sentence him to 30 days in prison. Rather, she gave him a sentence of probation and said he had demonstrated remorse “particularly by talking to members of Congress on the select committee.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/04/january-6-committee-rioter-interview-519580

[Rick Plant]

LISTEN: Judge laughs as Trump’s attorney defends claim that FBI cleared ex-president of wrongdoing on Jan 6

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump filed a legal brief this Tuesday falsely claiming that the FBI and the Senate have cleared him of wrongdoing in regards to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

The attorneys say that Trump did nothing wrong by falsely claiming two separate investigations came to that conclusion.

"Notwithstanding their allegations and insinuations of conspiracy," the legal brief says of the bipartisan special committee, "investigations by the FBI and the Senate Committee on Government Affairs and Homeland Security rebuff their contentions of wrongdoing by Trump Administration officials."

While the lawyers presented their argument to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on Thursday, her response indicated that she wasn't buying their argument.

"What's your basis for that assertion?" she asked Trump's lawyers.

"Just a published article," one of the lawyers said, "from Reuters ... quoting the FBI..."

"You cite an article ..." Chutkan began before chuckling in apparent disbelief. "I mean, that's your only support for that statement?"

Listen to the audio below:

https://www.rawstory.com/judge-laughs-at-trumps-attorney/

[Rick Plant]

Jeffrey Clark refused to answer questions during Capitol riot testimony -- and contempt charges 'on the table'



Former Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division Jeffrey Clark, a key figure in former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, apparently refused to answer questions during his Friday testimony before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots.

Politico reports that Clark cited attorney-client privileges and former President Donald Trump's assertions of executive privilege as justifications for refusing to answer the committee's questions.

However, as Politico notes, "any such privilege lies with the client to assert, and even if Trump were Clark's client under these circumstances, the former president has already declined to block Clark's testimony."

Select Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) tells Politico's Kyle Cheney that criminal contempt charges against Clark are "on the table" after his refusal to cooperate.

The House of Representatives last month referred criminal contempt charges against Trump ally Steve Bannon after he completely refused to comply with its subpoena.

The committee subpoenaed Clark last month on the grounds that he was "reportedly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and interrupt the peaceful transfer of power."

According to the subpoena, Clark "proposed delivery of a letter to state legislators in Georgia and others encouraging to delay certification of election results" and he also "recommended holding a press conference announcing that the Department was investigating allegations of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence that such fraud was present."

https://www.rawstory.com/jeffrey-clark-capitol-riot-2655506122/

[Rick Plant]

Trump's Willard hotel 'war room' targeted in new round of Capitol riot subpoenas

House investigators are zeroing in on former president Donald Trump's so-called "war room" at the Willard hotel with their latest latest round of subpoenas in the Capitol riot probe.

"The subpoenas, which could be issued as soon as next week, reflect the select committee's interest in events at the hotel just across from the White House, where Donald Trump's most loyal aides plotted to keep him in office," the Guardian reported Saturday, citing a source familiar with the matter. "The select committee is targeting about 20 individuals connected to the Trump command center at the Willard, among them the legal scholar John Eastman, who outlined ways to deny Joe Biden the presidency, the source said."

The source told the Guardian that House investigators are seeking to uncover the "centers of gravity" from which Trump and his allies conspired to block certification of President Joe Biden's victory.

"The select committee appears to be seeking a full account of what transpired in several suites at the Willard in the days leading up to 6 January and during a final 'war room' meeting the night before the Capitol attack," the Guardian reports. "The new line of inquiry centered on the Willard comes after the chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, last week told reporters that he intended to subpoena Eastman, before later revealing that he had signed about 20 subpoenas."

The Washington Post reported last month that the war room, which Trump allies referred to as a "command center," was led by the former president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

In addition to Eastman, the war room reportedly included former chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was there as an investigator, and One America News reporter Christina Bobb, a lawyer who was volunteering for the campaign.

"Kerik said his firm billed the Trump campaign more than $55,000 for rooms for the legal team," the Post reported. "The three people familiar with the operation described intense work in the days and hours leading up to and even extending beyond 1 p.m. on Jan 6, when Congress convened for the counting of electoral votes."

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2655514234/

[Rick Plant]

Trump allies Michael Flynn, Jason Miller, John Eastman subpoenaed in Jan. 6 House probe

The House committee investigating the deadly Capitol invasion said it issued subpoenas to several high-profile allies of former President Donald Trump.

Also subpoenaed was John Eastman, who wrote a legally dubious memo arguing that Vice President Mike Pence could reject Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 election.

The group of six Trump allies named in the latest round of subpoenas issued by the Jan. 6 select committee are “tied to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” the panel said.

The House committee investigating the deadly Capitol invasion said Monday it issued subpoenas to several high-profile allies of former President Donald Trump, including former national security advisor Michael Flynn and former campaign advisor Jason Miller.

Also subpoenaed was John Eastman, the lawyer who spoke at Trump’s rally outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 before the riot began. Eastman is the author of an infamous memo that laid out a legally dubious case for Vice President Mike Pence to reject Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 election.

The other Trump associates to be issued subpoenas were Bill Stepien, the Trump 2020 campaign manager; Angela McCallum, national executive assistant to that campaign; and Bernard Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner who reportedly participated in a meeting at a Washington hotel the night before the invasion, wherein Trump’s allies brainstormed efforts to overturn the election.

Miller, along with former senior Trump advisor Steve Bannon and Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, was also reportedly involved in that Jan. 5 meeting at D.C.’s Willard hotel.

The group of Trump allies, the latest to be subpoenaed for documents and testimony by the Jan. 6 select committee are “tied to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” the panel said.

The six figures’ depositions are scheduled to take place between the end of November and mid-December. MacCallum is set to be deposed first on Nov. 30, followed by Kerik, Flynn, Eastman and Miller, with the final deposition for Stepien scheduled for Dec. 13.

The committee “needs to know every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress, what connections they had with rallies that escalated into a riot, and who paid for it all,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement.

Thompson said the committee expects all witnesses to cooperate with its probe to “help ensure nothing like January 6th ever happens again.”

Less than three weeks earlier, the House voted to hold former Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena to hand over documents to the committee and sit for a deposition.

Robert Costello, an attorney for Bannon, had told the committee that Bannon would not comply with the subpoena in accordance with a directive from Trump’s counsel, who argued that the materials were protected by executive privilege.

The select committee rejected that claim. The Biden administration declined to invoke that privilege to prevent the Archivist of the United States from sending a tranche of records to the House investigators.

Trump has sued to block the congressional committee’s requests for records from the White House during his single term in office.

The committee leaders said at the time of the contempt vote that dozens of witnesses and entities have been contacted as part of the probe, but that Bannon was the only person to completely defy one of its subpoenas.

On Friday, the panel warned ex-Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark that it will take “strong measures to hold him accountable” after he allegedly refused to answer any questions during a closed-door interview.

After the 2020 race was called for Biden, Clark had proposed that the Justice Department encourage key states to reject their presidential electors, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee report titled “Subverting Justice: How the Former President and His Allies Pressured DOJ to Overturn the 2020 Election.”

The select committee is tasked with investigating the facts and causes of the Jan. 6 invasion, when hundreds of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol and forced a joint session of Congress to flee their chambers.

Shortly before the rioters broke into the building, Trump, who had spent months spreading a wide array of election-fraud conspiracy theories, told throngs of his supporters to march to the Capitol and pressure Republicans to reject the election results.

The attack led to multiple deaths and temporarily stopped lawmakers from confirming Biden’s electoral victory. Trump has never conceded to Biden, and he continues to proliferate debunked and baseless claims about the 2020 election being rigged against him — a falsehood dubbed the “Big Lie” by his critics.

The panel, comprising seven Democrats and two Republicans, was formed over the summer by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. An earlier bill to set up a “9/11-style” commission would have allowed Democratic and Republican leaders to each appoint half of the members, but Senate Republicans shot down that proposal.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/08/trump-allies-michael-flynn-jason-miller-john-eastman-subpoenaed-in-jan-6-house-probe.html