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

[China]

One More Sign That Special Counsel Jack Smith Is Dead Serious

 

This weekend brought the strange news that Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating Donald Trump, asked the grand jury to issue a subpoena to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office for an empty folder. Why?

 

The Guardian reports that last month, Smith subpoenaed the folder, marked “Classified Evening Briefing,” even though Trump’s lawyers told him it had nothing in it. This tells us something important: that Smith is serious about pressing forward with a case against Trump for his 18 months of obstructing government efforts to get back all government documents he stashed at his Florida estate.

 

When zealous prosecutors are intent on bringing a case, they leave no stone unturned. Trump has told reporters that he thought keeping folders marked classified was “cool.”

 

That admission, along with the reported hesitation to return this folder, may reflect the same mental state that led him to unlawfully resist returning some of the 300-plus documents with classified markings that were seized in August’s court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Pence to Oppose Subpoena Seeking Testimony in Jan. 6 Inquiry

 

Former Vice President Mike Pence is planning to fight a federal grand jury subpoena compelling him to testify in the investigation into President Donald J. Trump’s actions leading up to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a person familiar with Mr. Pence’s plans.

 

Mr. Pence is expected to argue that the vice president’s role as the president of the Senate means that he is protected from legal scrutiny of his official duties by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, intended to protect the separation of powers.

 

Such an approach would be novel and a departure from the more traditional argument that a vice president’s interactions with a president would be subject to executive privilege.

Mr. Pence’s plans were first reported by Politico.

 

The “speech or debate” clause shields members of Congress from law enforcement scrutiny over their statements and actions related to their legislative responsibilities. It specifically states that lawmakers “shall not be questioned in any other place” about their legislative duties.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[China]

Could Donald Trump Really Be This Stupid?

 

What is Donald Trump doing now? Donald Trump’s attorneys in the classified documents case just gave a doozy of an excuse for the president’s alleged misconduct with the secret papers.

 

On February 10, Trump’s lawyers handed over one empty folder to the Department of Justice that had “Classified Evening Summary” written on it. The explanation for this submission is that Donald Trump used the folder to cover the light on a telephone landline in his bedroom that kept him up at night.

 

This explanation is doubtful and even comical. It shows that Trump may not be taking the situation seriously. Even one of Trump’s attorneys, Timothy Parlatore, said this discovery was “one of the more humorous aspects of this whole thing” and that “there is nothing illegal about it.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Bang]

Seriously, they are never going to arrest him.

What a ****ing joke. They spit and laugh, and our 'justice' does nothing. I don't give a **** if it "moves slowly". let is ****ing crawl with him in a holding cell.

 

This mother****er needs arrested, rough ridden and rubber ****ing hosed until he ****s his pants and cries in a freezing cold cell.

 

What the living ****. We have NO backbone in ths country. 

 

~Bang

Edited February 15, 2023 by Bang

[Captain Wiggles]

He's using classified document folders as lampshades? 🤣

[China]

Prosecutors Seek Trump Lawyer’s Testimony, Suggesting Evidence of Crime

 

Federal prosecutors overseeing the investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents are seeking to pierce assertions of attorney-client privilege and compel one of his lawyers to answer more questions before a grand jury, according to two people familiar with the matter, adding an aggressive new dimension to the inquiry and underscoring the legal peril facing Mr. Trump.

 

The prosecutors have sought approval from a federal judge to invoke what is known as the crime-fraud exception, which allows them to work around attorney-client privilege when they have reason to believe that legal advice or legal services have been used in furthering a crime. The fact that prosecutors invoked the exception in a sealed motion to compel the testimony of the lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, suggests that they believe Mr. Trump or his allies might have used Mr. Corcoran’s services in that way.

 

Among the questions that the Justice Department has been examining since last year is whether Mr. Trump or his associates obstructed justice in failing to comply with demands to return a trove of government material he took with him from the White House upon leaving office, including hundreds of documents with classified markings.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

Reference the above hat:

 

Third Trump attorney appears before federal grand jury investigating Mar-a-Lago documents

 

Alina Habba, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, appeared last month before a federal grand jury investigating the mishandling of classified documents from his time in the White House, two sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.

 

Habba is the third Trump lawyer known to have been brought before the DC-based grand jury, which is investigating obstruction in addition to criminal violations of government records laws.

 

While Habba has not played the prominent role that other Trump attorneys have played in responding to the documents probe, which spilled out in public view with an August FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, she has made notable TV appearances defending Trump and criticizing the federal documents probe.

 

She was tasked with recovering any Trump Organization documents that James was seeking but told a New York court she didn’t find any records covered by the subpoena from the attorney general.

 

Habba’s spokesperson declined to comment on her recent appearance in the federal documents probe.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[EmirOfShmo]

 

Court nixes Fox News' bid to end voting tech firm's suit

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News lost an attempt Tuesday to shut down a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit that accuses the network of spreading lies that a voting-technology company helped “steal” the 2020 election from then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

New York's Supreme Court Appellate Division, a mid-level appeals court, ruled against the network, which wanted judges to dismiss the $2.7 billion defamation case.

The company that brought the case, Smartmatic, has said it played a valid and small role in the election. It hailed the ruling as a step toward holding Fox News accountable for amplifying unsupported and damaging claims from Trump's lawyers.

Fox News cast the case as an attempt to chill journalism, expressing confidence the network ultimately would prevail.

Tuesday's decision means Smartmatic's suit continues against Fox News, hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, former host Lou Dobbs, and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. A claim against Trump lawyer Sidney Powell was dismissed earlier because she doesn't have ties to New York, where the case was filed.

The five-judge ruling concluded there were “significant allegations” that Giuliani and Powell defamed the company.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/ny-court-nixes-fox-news-185714447.html

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

If both Meadows and Pence are being subpoenaed then they're finally moving to the higher ups.  Took them long enough.  They should've been this far a year ago.

[EmirOfShmo]

Decent read on why Pence has no chance of succeeding in his challenge...🤷‍♂️

 

Mike Pence’s Real Reason for Challenging His Trump Special Counsel Subpoena

 

On Tuesday, it was reported that former Vice President Mike Pence will challenge special counsel Jack Smith’s subpoena surrounding the events of Jan. 6. Former President Donald Trump’s “quiet coup” in the lead-up to Jan. 6 failed when Pence refused to do Trump’s bidding in rejecting or delaying the certification of President Joe Biden’s election.

The legal claim Pence reportedly intends to make should go nowhere. Even his own written statements fatally undermine it. That suggests another motive. It’s no mystery that as a potential presidential candidate, he doesn’t want to offend Trump’s ponderous Republican base.

Pence’s reported claim to be free from an obligation to testify comes under the Constitution’s “speech and debate” clause. It provides that “Senators and representatives … shall not be questioned in any other Place” than Congress about “any Speech or Debate in either House.” Courts have regularly made clear, however, that the protection extends only to questioning about legislative acts.

 

 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/mike-pence-challenging-trump-special-counsel-subpoena-fail.html

Edited February 16, 2023 by EmirOfShmo

[Chachie]

12 hours ago, EmirOfShmo said:

Decent read on why Pence has no chance of succeeding in his challenge...🤷‍♂️

 

Mike Pence’s Real Reason for Challenging His Trump Special Counsel Subpoena

 

 

 

This article's reasoning is probably the most down to Earth suggestion and I'm sure it's a little closer to home than my opinion, but--

 

Pence cannot possibly believe he would become the nominee after January 6th. There's simply no way Trump's base or even the milder faction of Trump voters will ever forget the way he "betrayed" them and a nomination to republican presidential candidate is a pipe dream now. He's got to know this.

 

Honestly, I suspect that Jan6 is the precise reason he's resisting the subpoena. That mob was ready to drag him out into the streets, string him up and hang him at the gallows they built. He was in so much danger that he could not even trust his own security team to whisk him away in a limousine. If he turns around now and testifies against Trump, he and his family will be in constant danger of assassination. Every time he steps out into the public he'll be risking his own life and will constantly have to worry about the lives of his wife, children, relatives, etc.

 

Mike Pence is a dead man walking if he takes to the courts to describe the way his president ridiculed him in front of the White House staff and then threw him to the pack of rabid wolves that stormed our capitol. Even if he successfully avoids the subpoena, he's insane to take any public-speaking podium in an effort to compete with the Orange Traitor for leadership of our country. The target on his back would be flashing bright neon colors. No way he ultimately declares.

 

 

 

[China]

DC officer warned Proud Boys leader of potential upcoming arrest, FBI agent testifies

 

An FBI agent testified Wednesday that a Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department officer told the leader of the Proud Boys that he might be arrested in the days before January 6, 2021.

 

Agent Peter Dubrowski told a jury in the seditious conspiracy trial against five members of the far-right group about Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio’s relationship with Metropolitan Police Lt. Shane Lamond, whom Tarrio spoke with several times before the US Capitol riot.

 

Their relationship, Dubrowski testified, went beyond what was appropriate for a law enforcement agent talking to a source.

 

His testimony is part of a core disagreement between prosecutors and defense attorneys as to whether Tarrio, and the Proud Boys as a whole, wanted to help law enforcement or were prepared to be violent against them.

 

The defendants have all pleaded not guilty.

 

In several instances, Lamond appeared to warn Tarrio about aspects of the investigation into whether Tarrio burned a DC church’s Black Lives Matter flag in December 2020, Dubrowski testified. Tarrio was later charged with destruction of property for the flag burning and pleaded guilty.

 

Lamond was placed on administrative leave by the Metropolitan Police Department in February 2022, and was still on leave as of December 2022. MPD has not commented on the reasons why Lamond was placed on leave and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

 

“Lt. Lamond’s duties as the commander of the MPD Intelligence Branch required him to establish lines of communications with every group that came to protest or march in Washington, DC,” Lamond’s attorney Mark Schamel, a partner at Venable LLP, told CNN. Schamel said Lamond was “only communicating with these individuals because the mission required it. Lt. Lamond was instrumental in the arrest of the defendant for his burning of the BLM flag and there is no legitimate law enforcement officer who is familiar with the facts of this case who would opine otherwise.”

 

According to messages shown by the government, Lamond told Tarrio he would “check with our [investigative] people to see if they have you on video” and told Tarrio which law enforcement agencies were investigating the flag burning.

 

Tarrio told other Proud Boys members about the investigation, prosecutors said, claiming he got information from “my contact at DC metro.”

 

Leading up to Tarrio’s arrest on January 4, 2021, Lamond told Tarrio an arrest could be coming, Dubrowski testified.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

Appeals court to hear dispute over Rep. Scott Perry’s phone in January 6 special counsel probe

 

A federal appeals court will hear a dispute over Justice Department investigators accessing Rep. Scott Perry’s cell phone in a case that could affect special counsel Jack Smith’s ability to get information from him and other members of Congress.

 

The case, currently before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, will test crucial questions for both the ongoing grand jury probe and for the separation of powers, according to a newly released court filing – the first made public in the sealed case.

 

The legal dispute arises from prosecutors’ inquiries around Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican who played a central role in supporting former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

 

A three-judge appellate panel will consider whether the Constitution protects US senators and representatives from scrutiny of their “informal” legislative efforts and whether constitutional protections around Congress mean members’ communications with private parties and members of the executive branch can be kept secret.

 

The line of questioning disclosed in a court order on Thursday implies that Perry’s lawyers are arguing that prosecutors shouldn’t be able to access communications he may have had with the White House at the end of Trump’s presidency and any record of steps he may have taken in advance of the January 6, 2021, congressional vote to certify the presidential election.

 

In the lead-up to January 6 after the election, Perry was in contact with Trump and texted with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, pushing to replace the US attorney general with an election fraud sympathizer.

 

CNN previously confirmed that the case is over the Justice Department’s ability to access data from Perry’s cell phone. The circuit court hasn’t disclosed that the court fight involves Perry, and much of the documents in the case are still under seal.

 

Federal investigators had seized Perry’s phone last August, imaging it then seeking a second search warrant to access its contents.

 

But Perry challenged the investigators’ ability to take that step, citing protections around Congress under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which says senators and representatives cannot be questioned.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LadySkinsFan]

Insurrection is a ****ing crime. Any legislator, federal or state, shouldn't be a recipient of special privileges for any type of communications when under investigation. WTF?!

[Chachie]

4 hours ago, LadySkinsFan said:

Insurrection is a ****ing crime. Any legislator, federal or state, shouldn't be a recipient of special privileges for any type of communications when under investigation. WTF?!

 

 

 

That Speech and Debate clause only muddies the transparency that congressfolk should be held to by stricter measures than any citizen. For god's sake, it's public SERVICE. At some point they all just became the protected and privileged who rule OVER us. 

[The Evil Genius]

So Fox News viewers lead an insurrection that Fox News caused based on information that Fox News knew was incorrect?

 

I'm sensing a problem...

[Bang]

It sounds like fomenting insurrection to me.

 

How far does the First go?

serious question for constitutional types.. it's too bad @predicto is not here. How much does it protect. "Freedom of speech" is designed to prevent the gov't from stopping speech against them, but to use known lies and stir up actual violent revolt .. which they continue to do... is this covered? Speech and debate is one thing, with the good faith expectation of FACT is the basis, or at least opinion not based in completely ridiculous and easily and constantly disproven conspiracist falsehoods. To knowingly create the atmosphere for what almost all of us KNEW would happen for several years.. how is this protected?

 

~Bang

Edited February 18, 2023 by Bang

[Larry]

Not exactly a constitutional expert here. 
 

But. It's the Internet. So who cares?  
 

But observing that the US (and I assume, everywhere else) has a lot of history of deliberate lying being allowed, by the press. 

[Bang]

47 minutes ago, Larry said:

Not exactly a constitutional expert here. 
 

But. It's the Internet. So who cares?  
 

But observing that the US (and I assume, everywhere else) has a lot of history of deliberate lying being allowed, by the press. 

A fair and balanced (ha!) point.
But usually in favor of the state.

 

~Bang

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

 

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

This entire Twitter thread is insane lol...

 

 

Fox got into Dominion conspiracy theories in the first place because Sidney Powell got a deranged email from someone who thought she was a ghost, and Antonin Scalia was murdered in a Most Dangerous Game-style "human hunting expedition."

 

 

[China]

New Mexico Supreme Court reaffirms dismissal of Griffin insurrection appeal

 

The New Mexico Supreme Court yesterday affirmed its decision to dismiss Couy Griffin’s appeal of a court’s decision to remove him from office for participating in an insurrection. The ruling, which affirmed the dismissal of Mr. Griffin’s appeal on procedural grounds, means that Judge Mathew’s decision that the January 6th attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and that Mr. Griffin engaged in it stands. Following the ruling, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel Donald Sherman released the following statement:

 

“The New Mexico Supreme Court’s decision means that Judge Mathew’s ruling – that Mr. Griffin engaged in insurrection on January 6th and disqualified himself from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment – will stand.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Califan007 The Constipated]