The Trump Riot Aftermath (Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Proud Boys join the club)

[China]

Indiana Rep. Banks facing 'insurrection' ballot challenge

 

An Indiana congressman who was rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the top Republican for the committee investigating last year’s U.S. Capitol insurrection is fending off an effort to remove his name from this year's election ballot.

 

The challenge to Rep. Jim Banks’ candidacy is at least the second across the country against a Republican House member citing a portion of a post-Civil War amendment to the U.S. Constitution pertaining to insurrections against the United States.

 

Banks, an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump and leader of the influential Republican Study Committee, has denounced the ballot challenge as frivolous.

It was filed by a long-shot Democratic candidate for Banks’ congressional seat and likely has little chance of success when it goes before the state election commission on Friday, a former longtime commission member said.

 

A similar challenge is pending against North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who spoke at the rally supporting Trump before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot that interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

 

The Indiana challenge petition filed by Democrat Aaron Calkins claims Banks is ineligible to be a candidate because of a “violation of the 14th Amendment supporting an insurrection.” The filing with the state election commission didn’t include additional information supporting the claim against Banks and Calkins didn’t return a telephone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Calkins should have provided more supporting information, otherwise it just appears as a frivolous political tactic, and weakens the ability to legitimately use the 14th amendment.

[China]

US Capitol attack panel discusses subpoena for Ivanka Trump

 

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is considering issuing a subpoena to Ivanka Trump to force her cooperation with the inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to return himself to power on 6 January, according to a source familiar with the matter.

 

Any move to subpoena Ivanka Trump and, for the first time, force a member of Trump’s own family to testify against him, would mark a dramatic escalation in the 6 January inquiry that could amount to a treacherous legal and political moment for the former president.

 

The panel is not expected to take the crucial step for the time being, the source said, and the prospect of a subpoena to the former president’s daughter emerged in discussions about what options remained available after she appeared to refuse a request for voluntary cooperation.

 

But the fact that members on the select committee have started to discuss a subpoena suggests they believe it may ultimately take such a measure – and the threat of prosecution should she defy it – to ensure her appearance at a deposition on Capitol Hill.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Oath Keepers Attorney: If Trump Had Invoked Insurrection Act, My Client Would Have Been Ready

 

An attorney for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes told a federal judge on Wednesday that President Trump invoking the Insurrection Act would have made the group’s Jan. 6 plans legal.

 

In a hearing deciding whether Rhodes should remain behind bars pending trial, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta asked Oath Keepers lawyer James Lee Bright why the group had what they described as a Quick Reaction Force, referred to as a “QRF,” camped out in a hotel as the insurrection unfolded.

 

“This, your honor, is where we cross into some differing belief systems that not everyone will agree on,” Bright told Mehta.

 

The Oath Keepers positioned the heavily armed QRF at a Comfort Inn across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia. Federal prosecutors have said that it was stationed there to respond with arms to the Capitol.

 

Bright told Mehta that the group existed so that if Black Lives Matter or Antifa members “went kinetic” and Trump activated the Insurrection Act, the QRF could then legally enter the district.

 

Mehta initially reacted with a question, asking Bright if he believed that Trump’s invoking the insurrection act meant that “private groups using arms to protect him” would be protected by law. Mehta also asked whether the Oath Keepers believe that they’re the militia of any state.

 

The Insurrection Act provides for the “use of militia and armed forces to enforce federal authority.”

 

Bright replied that members of the Oath Keepers came from several states.

 

“Just because they say they are from a state doesn’t make it so,” Mehta remarked.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘I’m Ready to Testify to Clear This Up’: Oath Keepers Founder Tries to Speak Out at Detention Hearing, Gets Shut Down by Attorney and Judge

 

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, now accused of spearheading a seditious conspiracy against the United States, lost his opportunity to show off his Yale Law School training on Wednesday, when a federal judge and his lawyer tamped down on his bid to testify his way out of jail.

 

Leaving the arguing to Rhodes’s counsel, the judge reserved decision on his lawyer’s motion to release his client.

 

Rhodes, 56, is now disbarred and fighting for his freedom after a different federal judge deemed him a “credible threat” based on his reported spending spree on weaponry, alleged plotting with an extremist militia before the Jan. 6 attack, and his estranged wife’s accusations of domestic abuse. It was not entirely surprising that he would want to put his Ivy education to use in the very court hearing that will determine whether he stays behind bars for the foreseeable future.

 

“Your Honor, I’m ready to testify to clear this up,” Rhodes, appearing via video, said, interrupting a back-and-forth between his attorney and U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta about a three-way phone call on Jan. 6 between Rhodes and two fellow militia members at the Capitol that could prove to be crucial to the prosecution’s case.

 

Mehta, a Barack Obama appointee, told Rhodes that testifying at Wednesday’s hearing could open him up to potential cross-examination from prosecutors.

 

Rhodes’ lawyers agreed with Mehta, and the hearing moved forward.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Chief D.C. Judge Sternly Suggests Prosecutors Have Contributed to Notion That Jan. 6 Was Merely ‘Legitimate Political Discourse’

 

Dealing another Jan. 6 defendant a brief stint in the slammer, the chief judge of the key D.C. district hearing criminal prosecutions of the attack on the U.S. Capitol held the Justice Department’s feet to the fire on Thursday, asking them to consider whether their routine charging of petty offenses helped some view the siege as “legitimate political discourse.”

 

The judge’s use of the phrase had obvious and pointed echoes. Official GOP leadership stoked outrage earlier this month when they apparently used it to characterize the attack on the Capitol, when they censured two Congress members of their party for investigating it: Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

 

At Stenz’s sentencing hearing Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell indicated that prosecutors may be sending the wrong message by accepting so many pleas to the relatively light misdemeanor charge.

 

“Does the government accept some responsibility in its charging and plea offer decisions in all these cases arising out of Jan. 6 for helping to foster some confusion about whether what occurred on Jan. 6 was a ‘protest’ or ‘legitimate political discourse’?” Howell asked shortly after the sentencing hearing started.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TK]

[China]

Vincent Gillespie, Of Athol, Arrested And Charged With Assaulting Police In US Capitol Riot

 

The Justice Department on Friday announced the arrest of an Athol man in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. Sixty-year-old Vincent J. Gillespie is charged with assaulting law enforcement and accused of using a police shield “to ram into officers.”

 

Prosecutors said Gillespie was among the rioters “who engaged in pushing, shoving, yelling, and fighting with law enforcement officers.”

 

“At one point, he gained control of a police shield as he approached the officers. Gillespie used the shield to ram the law enforcement officers, continuing to scream ‘traitor’ and ‘treason’ at the police,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “He also grabbed a law enforcement officer by the arm and attempted to pull him into the crowd.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Tennessee Father and Son Arrested on Charges For Assault on Law Enforcement During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach

 

A Tennessee man and his son were arrested yesterday for assaulting law enforcement during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

 

            Mark Waynick, 51, and his son, Jerry McKane Waynick, 19, both of Charlotte, Tennessee, are charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, civil disorder, and related offenses. They were arrested in Charlotte, Tennessee, and made their initial appearances yesterday afternoon in the Middle District of Tennessee.

 

            According to court documents, the Waynicks were among those interfering with law enforcement inside and outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. Both were wearing tactical helmets, tactical vests, and tactical gloves with knuckle protectors. They joined other rioters in an effort to break the law enforcement perimeter on the West Front of the Capitol. At approximately 1:36 p.m., they rushed toward a line of police officers and pushed and reached toward the officers. Jerry McKane Waynick attempted to grab an officer’s baton. At approximately 1:40 p.m., Jerry McKane Waynick picked up a large barrier/cone and threw it at officers who were holding the riot line.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Judge says Trump could be culpable for January 6 and says lawsuits against the former President can proceed

 

Civil lawsuits seeking to hold Donald Trump accountable for the January 6, 2021, insurrection can move forward in court, a federal judge said Friday in a ruling outlining how the former President could conceivably be responsible for inciting the attack on the US Capitol.

 

Trump's statements to his supporters before the riot "is the essence of civil conspiracy," Judge Amit Mehta wrote in a 112-page opinion, because Trump spoke about himself and rallygoers working "towards a common goal" of fighting and walking down Pennsylvania Avenue.

"The President's January 6 Rally Speech can reasonably be viewed as a call for collective action," Mehta said.

 

Democratic members of the House and police officers who defended the US Capitol on January 6 sued Trump last year, claiming he prompted his supporters to attack. Friday, Mehta wrote that the three lawsuits could move to the evidence-gathering phase and toward a trial -- a major loss in court for Trump.

"To deny a President immunity from civil damages is no small step. The court well understands the gravity of its decision. But the alleged facts of this case are without precedent," Mehta wrote.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LadySkinsFan]

Looks like the heavier charges are rolling out now. Good.

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

He looks like a stereotypical cartoonish villain.

[The Evil Genius]

We now know what became of young Ralphie Parker.

Edited February 19, 2022 by The Evil Genius

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

 

[China]

Right-wing media’s January 6 propaganda campaign now claims the FBI planted pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC

 

Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson and top right-wing media allies in his propaganda campaign claiming the January 6 insurrection was a false flag operation are now pushing a new set of conspiracy theories focused on the pipe bombs discovered that day outside both the Republican and Democratic national committee offices — which they want you to believe may have been planted by the FBI.

 

CNN and Politico reported this past January that Vice President Kamala Harris, then the vice president-elect, had to be evacuated from the DNC headquarters when a pipe bomb was discovered outside. CNN later added more to the story, revealing that Harris had been within yards of the bomb when she initially arrived at the building.

 

About a month after this news broke, Carlson and his compatriots in the January 6 Truth movement began to push back with unfounded conspiracies. Carlson insinuated the reports about the pipe bombs were false on the February 9 edition of his Fox show: “Now, everyone has assumed those bombs were planted by a Trump supporter. The media have told us that. But who was this person?” During a more than 8-minute rant, Carlson suggested virtually every detail of the pipe bomb news was suspicious, including the placement of the bombs, the construction of the devices, and the facts of their discovery. He even implied it was suspicious that the bomb suspect had still not been caught. Furthermore, according to Carlson, there must be some crucial information that Kamala Harris hasn’t been talking about — and “this is not a conspiracy theory.”

 

Contrary to Carlson’s conspiracy theory, the FBI has publicly said that both bombs found at the DNC and RNC offices “were viable and could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death.” Carlson falsely claimed the bombs had been “designed to be found, not to explode” and misleadingly used quotes from police officials in 2021, who said that the bombs had potentially been meant to be a diversion to draw police away from the Capitol.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Captain Wiggles]

The "torture" was Jenna being denied using her phone. 🤣

 

What time is her Hannity interview? 🤪

[China]

Some serious grift here:

 

 

[LadySkinsFan]

Another new conspiracy theory.

[Corcaigh]

The tear gas was so bad the poor terrified patriots had to smash windows and crush police lines to get away from it.

[China]

Prominent Republican Throws Jim Jordan Under The Bus: ‘He Knows Exactly’ What Trump Told Him During MAGA Riot

 

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, of Ohio, has come under intense scrutiny for his role in the January 6 insurrection. Jordan not only propagated Donald Trump’s “BIG LIE” that led to the violent attack on the US Capitol, but he was also in communication with then-President Trump as the attack unfolded. Now he claims he doesn’t remember when or what he spoke about with the president that day.

 

Jordan’s evasiveness about his conversation with Trump on January 6 drew strong pushback from former Congressman Joe Walsh (R-IL), a Tea Party conservative and presidential candidate who became one of Trump’s most outspoken critics from the right.

 

“I know Jim Jordan,” said Walsh during an interview on CNN. “Jim Jordan knows exactly when he spoke to Donald Trump on January 6th and he knows exactly what Donald Trump said to him. Jim Jordan doesn’t stammer like that. I’ve rarely seen Jim Jordan stammer like that … this is why it’s so important that Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy and Mark Meadows and all of these guys get subpoenaed and get their butts in front of that select committee.”

 

“They’re not going to talk, though, Joe,” said anchor Brianna Keilar. “Do you expect they actually will?”

 

“No. I don’t think they’ll show or adhere to a subpoena, but they should still be issued and delivered those subpoenas,” said Walsh. 

 

Click on the link for the full article and video

[China]

United States v. Donald Trump: A "Model Prosecution Memo" on the Conspiracy to Pressure Vice President Pence

 

The following memorandum is a model “prosecution memo” analyzing potential charges against former President Donald Trump for his efforts to pressure Mike Pence to abuse his authority as vice president in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecution memos are prepared by attorneys in criminal cases at the Department of Justice to summarize the evidence and their legal theories for prosecution. Prosecution memos enable supervisors and others in the chain of command to review the evidence, anticipate defenses, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of a criminal prosecution. The Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election[1] prepared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, for example, was a kind of prosecution memo, though it refrained from reaching a conclusion as to whether a crime was committed and charges should be filed. Prosecution memos generally do so explicitly.

 

Report on the Investigation into the 2020 Presidential Election: Pressuring Vice President Mike Pence

Public reporting, including governmental documents, indicate that following the 2020 election, President Donald Trump exerted pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certificates of electors from certain states won by Joe Biden and declare Trump the winner. Under the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution[2] and the Electoral Count Act,[3] the vice president, as president of the Senate, is responsible for opening the certificates and counting the votes on the sixth day of January following a presidential election. While facts are still being uncovered, public reporting and some of the evidence obtained by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol show a relentless campaign to coerce Pence into helping Trump retain the presidency. This effort may have been only one of many schemes within a larger strategy to overturn the election.

 

Looking solely at this aspect of the strategy, at least two federal criminal statutes may have been violated in this episode alone: conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding. Depending on the facts that emerge, other statutes may also have been violated, such as the federal voter fraud statute and seditious conspiracy. Publicly available information also indicates potential violations of state law. This report focuses solely on potential violations of federal law.

 

Click on the link for the full memo

[TheGreatBuzz]

Still betting he is never actually going to face charges for…….well anything really.  The NYAG seems to have a chance but he’ll run out the clock on it or get it dismissed on some bogus crap.  In the rare chance something ever goes to trial, there will be enough MAGA idiots on the jury to let him walk.

[China]

Supreme Court turns away Trump’s appeal in dispute with House Jan. 6 panel

 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal by former President Trump in his dispute with congressional investigators who have sought access to Trump-era records as part of a House panel’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

 

The court’s move, which came in a brief unsigned order issued without comment, comes after the justices denied Trump’s emergency request to block the transfer of his White House records from the National Archives to the House select committee, a process that began last month.

 

Tuesday’s development formally ends Trump’s legal effort to stymie lawmakers’ efforts to obtain a batch of schedules, call logs, emails and other requested documents that the committee says could illuminate key circumstances surrounding the deadly Capitol riot.

 

The order leaves intact a lower federal appeals court ruling that found Trump’s assertion of executive privilege and other legal theories unpersuasive in light of President Biden’s refusal to invoke privilege, as well as the House panel’s pressing task.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Rudy Giuliani poised to cooperate with January 6 committee

 

Donald Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani is expected to cooperate with the House select committee investigating January 6, and potentially reveal his contacts with Republican members of Congress involved in the former president’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

 

The move by Giuliani to appear before the panel – in a cooperation deal that could be agreed within weeks, according to two sources briefed on negotiations – could mark a breakthrough moment for the inquiry as it seeks to interview key members of Trump’s inner circle.

 

That is the case because even though Trump’s allies and Republican members of Congress already known to have been involved in such efforts have refused to help the panel, Giuliani is now in a position to inform House investigators about any possible culpability.

 

Broadly, Giuliani has indicated through his lawyer to the select committee that he will produce documents and answer questions about Trump’s schemes to return himself to office on 6 January that House investigators had outlined in a subpoena issued to him last month.

 

The former president’s attorney is prepared to reveal his contacts and the roles played by Republican members of Congress in the scheme Giuliani helped orchestrate to have then-vice-president Mike Pence stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.

 

Giuliani is also prepared to divulge details about Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence to adopt the scheme, and the effort coordinated by him and the Trump White House to have legislatures certify slates of electors for Trump in states actually won by Biden.

 

But the former president’s attorney has indicated that he will assist the select committee only if his appearance is not pursuant to his subpoena, and does not have to give records or discuss his contacts with Trump over executive and attorney-client privilege concerns.

 

Click on the link for the full article