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


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Wife of Elderly Oath Keepers Defendant Tells Jury: My Husband Wore ‘Depends’ on Jan. 6, Not Body Armor

 

Over the course of the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial, attorneys for one of the oldest members from the group to be prosecuted have tried to recast him as an elderly bystander to the Jan. 6-related upheaval.

 

The wife of that defendant, Thomas Caldwell, colorfully expanded upon that theme on Monday, when she told a jury her husband wasn’t wearing body armor that day — by one definition.

“If you’re talking about ‘Depends,’ that’s what he was wearing,” Sharon Caldwell said, referring to the adult diapers brand.

 

The Caldwells traveled together to Washington, D.C., where they were both seen sporting an Oath Keepers-banded T-shirt on the National Mall, in photographs entered into evidence by the government.

 

Sharon Caldwell, however, was not a member, and she testified that she only wearing the merchandise because it was a “free shirt” and allowed to obtain admission into the VIP area. She identified her husband in the courtroom as the “handsome man” sitting at the defense table.

 

Her husband is one of five people currently standing trial on multiple serious charges, including seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government or the execution of any of its laws by force. Prosecutors say that Thomas Caldwell contributed to that effort in his capacity as a member of the Oath Keepers’ so-called quick reaction force, which assembled and stashed weapons inside a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Va.

 

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MERRICK GARLAND HASN’T DONE THE SPECIFIC THING YOU WANT BECAUSE DOJ HAS BEEN BUSY DOING THINGS THEY HAVE TO DO FIRST

 

The passage of the election has set off the Merrick Garland whingers again, people who like displaying their ignorance by claiming there has been no sign of progress on the investigations into Trump when (often as not) there were signs of progress that the whingers are ignoring in the last few days.

 

Yes. It has been almost a week since the close of polls last Tuesday. No. Merrick Garland has not carted Trump away in a paddy wagon yet (nor would the FBI, if and when they ever did arrest him).

 

Yes. We actually know why Garland hasn’t done so — and it’s not for want of actions that might lead there.

 

There are still known steps that have to or probably will happen before Trump would be indicted in any of the known criminal investigations into him. For those demanding proof of life from the DOJ investigations into Trump, you need look no further than the public record to find that proof of life. The public record easily explains both what DOJ has been doing in the Trump investigations, and why there is likely to be at least a several month delay before any charges can be brought.

 

The reason is that DOJ is still pursuing the evidence they would need before charging a former President.

 

Here’s an update on the various investigations into Trump (I’ve bolded the two appellate deadlines below).

 

STOLEN DOCUMENTS

The reason I’m particularly crabby about the Merrick Garland whinging is because people were accusing DOJ of inaction hours after DOJ’s most recent step in the investigation into Trump’s stolen documents. On November 3, for example, DOJ compelled Kash Patel to testify before a grand jury under grant of use immunity, testimony that would be necessary, one way or another, before charging Trump, because DOJ would need to rule out or at least account for any claim that Trump mass-declassified the documents he stole.

 

DOJ continues to fight to ensure it can keep the documents it seized on August 8, and to be permitted to use the unclassified documents it seized in the investigation. The most recent filings in that fight, as I wrote up here, were filings about the disputes Trump and DOJ have about the seized documents, which Special Master Raymond Dearie will use to rule on those designations by December 16. After Dearie does that, Trump will dispute some of Dearie’s decisions, and Judge Aileen Cannon will make her own decision de novo. She has not set her own deadline for how long that decision would take. But if the Special Master process is the means by which DOJ guarantees its access to the evidence against Trump, it won’t be resolved until after the New Year, even assuming DOJ won’t have to appeal some ridiculous Cannon ruling.

 

Short of doing a search on another Trump property, preferably in Virginia but possibly in New Jersey or New York, this case cannot be charged until DOJ can present documents the custody of which it has guaranteed to a grand jury. DOJ has to make sure they have the evidence they would use to charge Trump (though adjudicating these disputes now might make any prosecution quicker on the back end).

 

That said, DOJ may guarantee custody of the documents it seized in August more quickly, via its challenge to Cannon’s decision to appoint a Special Master in the first place, in the 11th Circuit. Trump’s response to that appeal, which he submitted on November 10, seemed desultory, as if Chris Kice knows they will lose this appeal (indeed, that seems likely given that both the 11th Circuit and SCOTUS have already declined to see the case in the way Trump would prefer). DOJ’s response is due on November 17. Because of the way the 11th Circuit has scheduled this appeal, the panel reviewing it will be prepared for oral argument on rather quick turnaround. Even so, DOJ is not likely to guarantee access to these documents via any favorable 11th Circuit decision (which Trump will undoubtedly appeal) before December 1, and it would take about a week to present any case to the grand jury. So the very earliest that DOJ could indict this case would be early- to mid- December.

 

Update: In a filing submitted on November 8 but only unsealed today, DOJ asked Raymond Dearie to recommend that Judge Cannon lift the injunction on the 2,794 out of 2,916 documents over which Trump is making no privilege claim.

 

JANUARY 6 INVESTIGATION(S)

There are at least four ways that Trump might be charged in conjunction with January 6:

  • For asking Mike Pence to illegally overturn legal votes and then threatening him, including with violence, when he refused
  • For setting up fake electors to contest the election
  • For fundraising off false claims of voter fraud and using the money to benefit those who helped the attack
  • Via people like Roger Stone, in a networked conspiracy with those who attacked the Capitol

DOJ sent out subpoenas in the first three prongs of this just before the pre-election pause. This post summarizes who was included.

 

Click on the link for more

 

 

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11 hours ago, visionary said:

 


GOP is likely to control the house, Trumps lawsuit only has to delay things for a couple months.  He’s used the same delaying tactic to escape accountability repeatedly and it’s worked.  It will end up working this time as well. 

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48 minutes ago, Destino said:


GOP is likely to control the house, Trumps lawsuit only has to delay things for a couple months.  He’s used the same delaying tactic to escape accountability repeatedly and it’s worked.  It will end up working this time as well. 

Son of a **** has all the teflons.  Makes john Gotti look like a piker.

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No, Clarence Thomas Still Isn't Going To Recuse Himself In January 6th-Related Case

 

A lifetime appointment means never having to say you're sorry.
 

Today, Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented (unwritten) in a shadow docket case, and while you’re right to be excited anytime the will of those two *isn’t* imposed upon the country, it’s not all sunshine and sparkles. See, Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward had sought to block a January 6th Committee subpoena seeking records related to her role in the Big Lie of the 2020 election as a fake elector seeking to cast Arizona’s electoral ballots for Donald Trump despite the will of the people.

 

It’s certainly good that Ward’s efforts have been stymied by the Court, but Thomas’s dissent signals he’s learned absolutely nothing from the ethics controversy. Thomas keeps on hearing cases about the January 6th Committee — he was the lone dissent when the Court rejected Trump’s efforts to block the release of presidential records to the committee — despite his wife Ginni Thomas’s role in trying to undo the results of the 2020 election,

 

Because let’s not forget Ginni TESTIFIED IN FRONT OF THE JANUARY 6th COMMITTEE. That’s because she was out there Forest Gumping it — getting her paws all over the effort to keep Donald Trump in the presidency despite the results of the election. She sent a series of text messages to Mark Meadows, Trump’s Chief of Staff; she communicated with Coups 4 Dummies lawyer John Eastman; and pestered Wisconsin lawmakers over the election.

 

And, importantly to the instant case, she blasted emails to Arizona representatives, begging them to overturn the results of the election and appoint a fake GOP elector slate. WHICH INCLUDED WARD.

 

So much for the mere appearance of impropriety. Maybe Alito wants to rant again about how the Supreme Court doesn’t have a legitimacy problem. That’ll definitely fix the Court’s, um, legitimacy problem.

 

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POS tried taking the coward's way out, and killed someone else instead:

 

With alleged plan to kill himself, Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendant now charged with murder in fatal downstate crash on I-55

 

Shane Jason Woods pleaded guilty earlier this year to scuffling with a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack at the U.S. Capitol and faced federal prison time when his case was set for sentencing in January.

 

He never intended to see that court date, authorities alleged Wednesday.

 

Instead, Sangamon County prosecutors said Woods made a drunken suicide attempt on a downstate highway. But instead of killing himself, he took the life of a 35-year-old woman who was born and raised in Skokie.

 

Woods, who turned 44 on Wednesday, was charged in an indictment returned by a Sangamon County grand jury with first-degree murder, aggravated DUI causing death, and DUI, according to prosecutors. He faces a sentencing range of 20 to 60 years in prison if convicted of the murder charge.

 

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Now he'll be serving even a longer sentence behind bars, with a lot of time to live with his cowardice.

 

 

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Trump says he 'won't partake' in special counsel investigation, slams as 'worst politicization of justice'

 

Former President Donald Trump blasted the Justice Department's appointment of a special counsel to take over investigations related to presidential records and Jan. 6, telling Fox News he "won’t partake in it" and calling it "the worst politicization of justice in our country," while urging the Republican Party to take action.

 

"I have been going through this for six years — for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore," Trump told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Friday shortly after the announcement. "And I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this."

 

"I have been proven innocent for six years on everything — from fake impeachments to [former special counsel Robert] Mueller who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?" Trump said. "It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political."

 

"I am not going to partake in it," Trump told Fox News Digital. "I'm not going to partake in this."

 

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Hey, I got news for you dickhead, you don't have a choice.

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Man gets jail for joining Capitol riot after Tinder date

 

A Delaware business owner has been sentenced to 30 days of incarceration for storming the U.S. Capitol after seeing the riot erupt on a Tinder date's television and taking an Uber ride to join the mob's attack, court records show.

 

U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also on Friday ordered Jeffrey Schaefer to pay a $2,000 fine and $500 in restitution for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington.

 

On the eve of then-President Donald Trump's “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, Schaefer drove from Delaware to northern Virginia to spend the night at the home of a woman whom he had met on the Tinder online dating app. The next day, he decided to take an Uber ride to the Capitol after seeing the riot unfold on TV at his date's home in Alexandria.

 

“He had the Uber driver drop him off near the west front of the Capitol and he approached the Capitol from that drop off point,” Justice Department prosecutor Anita Eve wrote in a court filing.

 

Schaefer entered the Capitol though a broken window near the Senate Wing doors, joined other rioters in chanting and spent approximately 28 minutes inside the building before leaving through a door, prosecutors said. He posted several images of the riot on Facebook, including one showing a pile of destroyed media equipment.

 

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Jan. 6 committee to release "all the evidence" within a month, Lofgren says

 

Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, said Sunday that the panel will release "all the evidence" it has collected over the course of its probe "within a month," before Republicans take control of the House.

 

In an interview with "Face the Nation," Lofgren stressed that the House select committee is conducting its own investigation and not sharing information with the Justice Department. But, with the committee set to dissolve at the end of this Congress, the California Democrat said the panel will make public all evidence it assembled along with a report of its findings.

 

"Within a month, the public will have everything that we've found, all the evidence. For good or ill," Lofgren told "Face the Nation." "And I think we've, as we've shown in our hearings, made a compelling presentation that the former president was at the center of the effort to overturn a duly elected election, assembled the mob, sent it over to Congress to try and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. It's pretty shocking."

 

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January 6 defendant who barged into Pelosi offices during attack found guilty of multiple counts

 

Riley Williams, a Pennsylvania woman who barged into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s offices on January 6, 2021, was found guilty on Monday of multiple counts she faced over the Capitol attack.

 

Williams was found guilty of six of the eight counts she was charged with, including assaulting or resisting an officer and disorderly conduct in the Capitol.

 

A mistrial was declared on two of the remaining counts, including the government’s charge that Riley had aided and abetted in the theft of a laptop from Pelosi’s office. The jury also could not come to a unanimous decision on the charge of obstructing the certification of the electoral college, which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years.

 

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22 hours ago, China said:

January 6 defendant who barged into Pelosi offices during attack found guilty of multiple counts

 

Riley Williams, a Pennsylvania woman who barged into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s offices on January 6, 2021, was found guilty on Monday of multiple counts she faced over the Capitol attack.

 

Williams was found guilty of six of the eight counts she was charged with, including assaulting or resisting an officer and disorderly conduct in the Capitol.

 

A mistrial was declared on two of the remaining counts, including the government’s charge that Riley had aided and abetted in the theft of a laptop from Pelosi’s office. The jury also could not come to a unanimous decision on the charge of obstructing the certification of the electoral college, which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years.

 

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MAGA Rioter Who Stormed Pelosi’s Office ‘Surprised’ That Judge Sent Her Directly To Jail After Guilty Verdict

 

Capitol rioter Riley Williams, who stormed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on January 6, 2021, was reportedly “shocked” that a federal judge wasted no time incarcerating her by ordering U.S. Marshals to take into custody the Pennsylvania woman immediately after the jury handed down guilty verdicts in six of the eight charges for her role in the attack.

 

According to CBS News Congressional Correspondent Scott MacFarlane, who’s been extensively covering the January 6 trials, the judge’s swift action was “a surprise” for Williams and her attorneys.

 

“Judge orders Riley Williams go directly to jail. She’ll be in US Marshals custody until her February sentencing. Her defense attorney tells me it’s a surprise to Williams,” MacFarlane reported on Twitter.

 

“Williams, who’d successfully secured court permission to travel to multiple ‘Renaissance fairs’ pending trial & had brought pink purse to court, goes to jail. A man who was sitting in courtroom for her trial carried her purse outside. Her defense says the ruling was a shock to them,” he added.

 

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If she likes Renaissance Fairs, perhaps they can arrange a Bridge of Sighs re-enactment for her.

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Trump Lawyers Face Plant Into Eleventh Circuit. Again.

 

Donald Trump had a very bad day yesterday in a whole bunch of courts, up to and including the Supreme Court, which vacated the temporary stay of the DC Circuit’s order and allowed the House Ways and Means Committee to finally get his tax returns. But nowhere was the beatdown more brutal than at the Eleventh Circuit, where Trump’s lawyer Jim Trusty got ritually pantsed in his effort to defend US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s claim of equitable jurisdiction over the warrant to search Mar-a-Lago and seize government documents stored there.

 

The panel consisted of Chief Judge William Pryor, as well as Judges Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher, the two Trump appointees who ruled in favor of the government in the last round. Just two months ago, they signed on to an epic benchslap of Judge Cannon’s inclusion of classified documents in the special master review and injunction on the government using them in its criminal investigation.

 

Including the Chief Judge on the panel did not make it less hostile to Trump’s position. Within seconds of beginning his argument, Trump’s lawyer Jim Trusty was chastised by Judge Grant for calling the execution of a judicially authorized warrant a “raid.”

 

And it did not get better from there!

 

As before, the court’s analysis focused on the four-factor test for equitable jurisdiction set out in Richey v. Smith, 515 F.2d 1239, 1243 (5th Cir. 1975). There has been no suggestion that the government acted with “callous disregard” of Trump’s rights in seeking or executing the warrant, the first and most important Richey factor, so one might be forgiven for thinking that this alone should be dispositive. But Trusty, a former prosecutor, seemed to suggest that Judge Cannon needed to exercise jurisdiction first to determine if there had been an illegal search … which would then retroactively justify her jurisdiction.

 

When Judge Pryor asked Trusty how to square this with circuit precedent which requires a demonstration of illegal government conduct before the imposition of jurisdiction — “If it’s our circuit precedent, it binds us.” — Trusty responded, “Well, I understand what the court means. But…” and then launched into a disquisition on why the precedential decision was wrong, actually.

 

Trusty tried the same arguments that have worked with Judge Cannon, characterizing the government’s remit as a “general warrant” and accusing the FBI of inappropriately seizing piles of personal items as part of a fishing expedition. To which Judge Pryor remarked dryly “I don’t think it’s the fault of the government if someone has commingled classified and other government documents with personal property.”

 

Asked by Judge Grant what besides his position as former president entitled Trump to relief, Trusty attacked the “raid” (again!) as being staged by a “political rival.” Unsurprisingly, Judge Grant did not appear to be mollified, and Judge Pryor called the answer “not responsive.”

 

The Chief Judge also pointed out that, applying this logic, “We would have to be concerned about the precedent we create that would allow any target of a federal investigation to go into a district court and have it entertain this.”

 

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Justice Dept. Seeking to Question Pence in Jan. 6 Investigation

 

The Justice Department is seeking to question former Vice President Mike Pence as a witness in connection with its criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter.

 

Mr. Pence, according to people familiar with his thinking, is open to considering the request, recognizing that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation is different from the inquiry by the House Jan. 6 committee, whose overtures he has flatly rejected.

 

Complicating the situation is whether Mr. Trump would try to invoke executive privilege to stop him or limit his testimony, a step that he has taken with limited success so far with other former officials.

 

Mr. Pence was present for some of the critical moments in which Mr. Trump and his allies schemed to keep him in office and block the congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. An agreement for him to cooperate would be the latest remarkable twist in an investigation that is already fraught with legal and political consequences, involving a former president who is now a declared candidate to return to the White House — and whose potential rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination include Mr. Pence.

 

Thomas Windom, one of the lead investigators examining the efforts to overturn the election, reached out to Mr. Pence’s team in the weeks before Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special counsel on Friday to oversee the Jan. 6 investigation and a separate inquiry into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. Mr. Garland has said that the appointment of the special counsel, Jack Smith, will not slow the investigation.

 

The discussions about questioning Mr. Pence are said to be in their early stages. Mr. Pence has not been subpoenaed, and the process could take months, because Mr. Trump can seek to block, or slow, his testimony by trying to invoke executive privilege.

 

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If he's willing to tell his story to sell a book, then he can damn well tell the DOJ what he knows.

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