1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

The Republicans' January 6 resolution is an invitation for more mob violence

The Republican National Committee on Friday censured Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, arguing that they "support Democrat(ic) efforts to destroy President (Donald) Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022." Their shame-worthy act? Participating in the January 6 select committee currently investigating last year's attack on the Capitol. According to the committee, aiding the investigation is an offense not just against the Trump-supporting GOP but against the republic itself, because it involves an unjust persecution of people engaged in "legitimate political discourse."

This phrase is an odd way to describe the actions of a mob that chanted "Hang Mike Pence" as it clashed with police before breaking through the doors and windows of the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. And while, after widespread ridicule, the RNC insisted that it was referring only to the nonviolent protesters supporting Trump's lie that the election was stolen from him, its attempt to whitewash right-wing violence is part of an ongoing pattern on the right.

The GOP's effort to minimize the horrifying events of January 6 has been well-documented: from the attempts to shift blame to left-wing protestors in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection, to a House Republican likening some of the insurrectionists seen that day to "a normal tourist visit," to the widespread campaign to paint the insurrectionists as peaceful patriots. But it's important to place those efforts to erase the violence on January 6 in the recent history of right-wing politics in the US, to illuminate an arc of radicalization and official sanction that makes future political violence more likely.

Attempts to redefine violence as "legitimate political discourse" have been central to the Trump-era right. As a candidate and then president, Trump regularly sanctioned violence, whether encouraging his fans to pummel protesters or police officers to rough up suspects ("When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, please don't be too nice."). These statements were often shrugged off as Trumpian excesses, but they were part of a broader blurring of political discourse and political violence.

Trump's comments after Charlottesville, his reflexive defense of some mysterious faction of "very fine people" mixed in with the neo-Nazi and White-power organizers of the Unite the Right rally in 2017, also fits this pattern. But more importantly, the way the organizers framed that rally demonstrated the tactical relationship between "legitimate political discourse" and political violence. Attempts to move the planned rally were thwarted by a court order issued the night before.

Yet, even as lawyers were arguing in court, the rallygoers were gathering tiki torches in preparation for a march through Charlottesville. That torchlit march, an act of both intimidation and violence, went hand in hand with the organizers' appeals to free speech: protected political discourse was covered in the news in the aftermath of the deadly political violence in Charlottesville.

The RNC's appeal to "legitimate political discourse" is an effort to engage in the same water-muddying exercise. By attempting to make the investigations into January 6 an attack on discourse rather than a response to violence, the party is trying to cram the insurrection into a culture-wars framework. Instead of an attack on Congress and an effort to overthrow the election, the story instead becomes one of the persecution of hundreds of patriots simply trying to voice their views and instead of running into a censorious, ruinous cancel-culture mob.

A classical reversal: the mob becomes the victim, the victims the mob.

The right is attempting the same sort of reversal with the racial justice protests of 2020. Though there was some support for them from conservatives in May and early June 2020, that is now almost entirely absent. Instead, the protests have become a counterpoint to the insurrection: those violent protesters were excused as racial justice advocates, while these peaceful protesters have been painted as insurrectionists. You'll find that comparison regularly invoked on right-wing broadcasts and podcasts over the past year.

Yet there is an erasure of violence there as well. Because what is never mentioned in those conversations is what the racial justice protesters were responding to: rampant and lawless police violence. That violence was regularly on display in 2020, not just in the murder of George Floyd but also in the clashes with peaceful protesters across the country.

But in right-wing narratives of 2020, law enforcement violence has largely disappeared, leaving the occasional acts of property destruction that happened alongside the nationwide peaceful demonstrations to stand in, not as the equivalent of the insurrection, but something much worse.

The end result of these efforts to minimize, excuse, and erase right-wing violence is an environment that invites even more of it. Because if a mob can ransack the Capitol while hunting for members of Congress in an effort to overthrow an election -- an effort that Trump and his administration both encouraged and attempted through their own antidemocratic efforts -- only to emerge as something between political protesters and persecuted heroes, then why would they swear off violence in the future? Why wouldn't they see mob attacks as a form of "legitimate political discourse"?

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/08/opinions/rnc-censure-cheney-kinzinger-political-discourse-hemmer/index.html

[Rick Plant]

MAGA rioter who bragged he was fighting 'the commies' nabbed by feds in New York: report



On Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported that the Justice Department has arrested another January 6 Capitol rioter in New York.

According to the press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, Eric Gerwatowski played a key role in rallying the other rioters to force their way inside the barricaded Capitol.

"On Jan. 6, Gerwatowski was at the front of a crowd just outside the Upper House Doors," said the release. "U.S. Capitol Police were attempting to close these doors to prevent further rioters from getting into the building. Gerwatowski pulled open one of the doors that the Capitol Police had just closed. Two officers were standing directly inside and had just tried to secure the entrance, in plain sight to Gerwatowski and others. Once he pulled open the door, Gerwatowski turned to the crowd and yelled, 'Let’s go!.' He directed more rioters inside and went in, too."

Per the Beast report, "He also appeared in multiple videos outside of the Capitol building, allegedly telling one interviewer that he entered the Capitol because 'the commies are trying to steal the country.'"

The FBI complaint reveals that a Capitol Police officer who encountered Gerwatowski as he was rallying the crowd into the building stood down because he had just came from the gallery where rioter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot while trying to force her way through a broken window. Babbitt's death has become a rallying point and a source of conspiracy theories for supporters of the January 6 perpetrators.

More than 750 people have been charged for their role in the attack.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/capitol-rioter-eric-gerwatowski-who-rallied-other-rioters-arrested-on-civil-disorder-charges

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Trump adviser Peter Navarro
Navarro wanted Mike Pence to challenge the counting of votes on Jan. 6.



The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday subpoenaed Trump White House official Peter Navarro for records and testimony.

Navarro, who served as President Donald Trump's trade adviser, supported the former president's unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump through widespread voter fraud.

In addition to producing multiple reports of unproven voter fraud claims for Trump, Navarro, in his memoir, claimed to have come up with a plan with Trump ally Steve Bannon to contest the election results by delaying the Jan. 6 certification of the Electoral College vote in order to keep Trump in office.

"Mr. Navarro appears to have information directly relevant to the Select Committee's investigation into the causes of the January 6th attack on the Capitol," said committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. "He hasn't been shy about his role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and has even discussed the former President's support for those plans."

Under Navarro's plan, dubbed the "Green Bay Sweep," former Vice President Mike Pence was to send disputed election results back to the states, thereby forcing hours of debate on Capitol Hill.

"It was a perfect plan," Navarro said in an interview late last year with the Daily Beast. "And it all predicated on peace and calm on Capitol Hill. We didn't even need any protesters, because we had over 100 congressmen committed to it."

But rioters disrupted the official count, and when the proceedings resumed, Pence certified the vote count over the objections of Trump and his allies who claimed he could have challenged the results.

"More than 500 witnesses have provided information in our investigation, and we expect Mr. Navarro to do so as well," said Thompson.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jan-committee-subpoenas-trump-adviser-peter-navarro/story?id=82781132

[Rick Plant]

Ron Johnson was one of 3 GOP lawmakers who attended Mike Lindell's meeting to obstruct Jan. 6 vote



Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) was one of three Republican lawmakers who attended MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's virtual meeting to discuss how they could possibly delay the election certification affirming President Joe Biden's win.

According to The Washington Post, the meeting took place just two days before the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. The group of individuals who met in person assembled at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Speaking to The Post, Lindell reportedly said that the meeting was for the purpose of discussing the possibility of delaying the election certification.

Other attendees also shared details about the meeting as they revealed a presentation was provided to highlight unfounded claims of alleged voter fraud. However, Johnson appears to be denying the claims.

During a recent radio interview, Johnson also spoke out about the meeting as he attempted to dismiss the reports about the topics discussed during the meeting. Speaking to Wisconsin's WTMJ, the Republican lawmaker insisted he didn't "believe that (delaying the certification of the election) was ever discussed. They were talking about what machines might have done."

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who attended Lindell's meeting in-person, also made remarks similar to Johnson's.

The Post's report also offered details about a memo that was sent to Johnson's office that called for former President Donald Trump to use the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Security Agency (NSA) to "run targeted inquires of NSA raw signals."

Johnson's office also addressed that report. In a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a spokesperson for the senator's office said, "Staff received the memo on January 13 and took no further action," a spokesperson from Johnson's office told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "The request from the Washington Post was the senator's first knowledge of this memo, he has not seen it."

https://www.rawstory.com/ron-johnson-was-one-of-3-gop-lawmakers-who-attended-mike-lindell-s-meeting-to-obstruct-jan-6-vote-report/

[Rick Plant]

‘It is not legitimate political discourse!’: Judge slams RNC in blistering statement at MAGA rioter's sentencing



A federal judge took aim at the Republican National Committee during a blistering statement from the bench during a Capitol rioter's sentencing hearing on Thursday.

Last week, the RNC approved a resolution censuring Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) that referred to the Jan. 6 insurrection as "legitimate public discourse."

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson invoked that phrase when she sentenced Mark Leffingwell, a disabled Iraq war vet, to six months in jail. Leffingwell pleaded guilty to assaulting police after admitting to punching two officers during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

"So, it needs to be crystal clear that it is not patriotism," Jackson told Leffingwell, according to a transcript posted by ABC News' Alex Mallin. "It is not standing up for America. It is not 'legitimate political discourse,' and it is not justified to descend on the nation's Capitol at the direction of a disappointed candidate and disrupt the electoral process."

Jackson, an Obama appointee, also noted that "the heated rhetoric" that "riled up" Leffingwell "has not subsided."

"Disinformation is not only available, it's getting louder and louder every day," the judge said. " You weren't the only person to fall for it or embrace it, and some have embraced it who don't even believe it. The lie that the election was stolen and illegitimate is still being perpetrated. Indeed, it is being amplified, not only on social media, but on mainstream news outlets, and worse, it's become heresy for a member of the former president's party to say otherwise."

"Cancelling out the votes of other people with a show of force is the opposite of what America stands for," Jackson added. "It was the definition of tyranny, of an authoritarianism. Attacking law enforcement officers trying to preserve order and our seat of government, trying to protect the public servants in the building, isn't patriotism either. It's not what the military trained you to do and it's contrary to the whole notion of supposedly caring about 'blue lives.' You don't care about them when they're standing in your way instead of in somebody's else's."

Despite her scathing statement, Jackson's sentence was considerably less than the 27 months that federal prosecutors had requested for Leffingwell.

According to the Seattle Times, Jackson took into account Leffingwell’s military service, family situation and lack of any prior criminal record. She reportedly called it “one of the most difficult” decisions she's made regarding a sentence.

“You punched the first officer and then you punched another officer who was trying to restrain you,” Jackson said. “More than one punch, more than one officer. It was wrong, it was unconscionable, and I think you know that.”

Leffingwell told Jackson he was “embarrassed and ashamed of myself for what happened.”

“It was not something that I planned to do,” he added. “And looking back on it, it’s just a nightmare. …I wish I could go back and make it not happen.”

Leffingwell was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and serve 24 months of supervised probation, in addition to community service.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-man-sentenced-to-xx-years-for-punching-officer-in-jan-6-insurrection/


Liz Cheney fires off a warning to Trump and his allies in scathing Wall Street Journal column



Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) vowed to continue the House select committee's investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The Wyoming Republican published a defiant op-ed in the Wall Street Journal standing up to threats and attacks from Donald Trump and his allies and calling out fellow Republicans who enable their efforts to undermine the rule of law.

"Republicans used to advocate fidelity to the rule of law and the plain text of the Constitution," Cheney wrote. "In 2020, Mr. Trump convinced many to abandon those principles. He falsely claimed that the election was stolen from him because of widespread fraud. While some degree of fraud occurs in every election, there was no evidence of fraud on a scale that could have changed this one."

The committee has found no evidence to back Trump's fraud claims, and she said the former president knows he's lying.

"Almost all members of Congress know this — although many lack the courage to say it out loud," Cheney wrote. "Mr. Trump knew it too, from his own campaign officials, from his own appointees at the Justice Department, and from the dozens of lawsuits he lost. Yet, Mr. Trump ignored the rulings of the courts and launched a massive campaign to mislead the public."

The committee will hold hearings later this year to show the lies that provoked the violent insurrection, Cheney said, and she warned that other Trump allies will pay the price, as Rudy Giuliani has by losing his law license, for helping spread falsehoods.

"Those who do not wish the truth of Jan. 6 to come out have predictably resorted to attacking the process — claiming it is tainted and political," Cheney said. "Our hearings will show this charge to be wrong. We are focused on facts, not rhetoric, and we will present those facts without exaggeration, no matter what criticism we face."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/january-6-committee-electoral-votes-college-mike-pence-certify-2020-presidential-election-trump-liz-cheney-riot-protest-insurrection-11644510638

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 Committee investigator: 'Once you see the data, you can’t unsee it'



Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), a top investigator for the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, hinted over the weekend that the American public will be shocked when they see the results of the committee's investigation.

"Once you see the data, you can’t unsee it," Riggleman tweeted on Saturday. "And if you understand the data, you want others to see and understand it."

He suggested that the general public would see the data "when it's time."

Riggleman, a former Republican congressman, was hired by the Jan. 6 Committee as a senior staff member in August.

“Doing this might be one of the biggest things I’ve ever done in my life,” Riggleman said after taking the job. “We can’t worry about the color of the jerseys anymore or whether we have an R or a D next to our name. It’s time for us to look in a fact-based way at what happened on January 6 and to see if we can prevent this from ever happening again in the future.”

https://www.rawstory.com/denver-riggleman-january-6/

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 panel 'fully' expects Giuliani to cooperate with subpoena, Kinzinger says
The committee subpoenaed Giuliani last month along with three other Trump allies



WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Sunday that he "fully" expects Rudy Giuliani, an ally of former President Donald Trump, to cooperate with its subpoena.

The committee subpoenaed Giuliani last month, and "our expectation is he is going to cooperate because that’s the law, that’s the requirement, same as if somebody subpoenaed to court," Kinzinger said on CBS' "Face the Nation" after host Margaret Brennan asked him whether Giuliani was cooperating following a New York Times report that he was in talks about testifying.

"There may be some changes and dates and moments here as, you know, lawyers do their back and forth. But we fully expect that, in accordance with the law, we'll hear from Rudy," said Kinzinger, who is one of two Republicans on the panel.

A committee aide told NBC News on Sunday: “Mr. Giuliani’s appearance was rescheduled at his request. He remains under subpoena and the Select Committee expects him to cooperate fully.”

In addition to Giuliani, the panel issued subpoenas for three other Trump allies in January, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn, who were involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The four people, the committee said at the time, “publicly promoted unsupported claims about the 2020 election and participated in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of election results."

The panel said Giuliani “actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of the former President and sought to convince state legislators to take steps to overturn the election results. He was reported to have been in contact with then-President Trump and various Members of Congress regarding strategies for delaying or overturning the results of the 2020 election.”

The committee is getting a lot of information, and "we're looking forward to wrapping this up at some point when that is right, showing it to the American people, but not rushing it, not hurrying this," Kinzinger said Sunday. "We want everybody to have the full story."

The Republican National Committee voted this month to formally censure two of its own party’s members — Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — because of their work on the panel.

Several Republicans have denounced the censure, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who said last week it isn't the job of the RNC to single out members "of our party who may have different views from the majority."

Kinzinger praised McConnell for his statement. He also said: "I have lost faith in some of the courage of my colleagues. I thought that every person when they swore an oath had some version of a red line they would never cross. But certainly, Mitch McConnell’s statement was important."

Kinzinger, who has said he is retiring from Congress, also expressed his belief that every Republican needs to come forward and be clear about their positions on what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.

"Every Republican has to be clear and forceful on the record. Do they think January 6th was legitimate political discourse? Don’t let them avoid it. Don’t let them hem haw, and don’t let them transition to some other subject they’d rather talk about," he said.

"This is an answer every one of them have to give, and then we can move on once they’re clear and on the record. But this is definitive to our democracy. How do you feel? Was it legitimate?"

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/jan-6-panel-fully-expects-giuliani-cooperate-subpoena-kinzinger-says-rcna16059