The Trump Insurrection: How Donald J. Trump and the right incited insurrection and sedition and attempted a coup d'etat - Page 3
Videos of the riot and violent attack against the 117th United States Congress and the sacking of the United States Capitol.
Trump will be the only president to be impeached twice.
Jason LemonSome legal experts believe the evidence to support a potential criminal case against Donald Trump is mounting as new revelations about January 6, 2021, and the former president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results continue to drop. Hundreds of Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol early last year after the then-president urged them to walk to the federal legislative building and "fight like hell." The riot took place after Trump spent months claiming that the 2020 election was fraudulent, as he and some of his top administration officials attempted to overturn President Joe Biden's win. New York Times' journalist Maggie Haberman reported Friday that Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, warned the Secret Service that he feared that Trump would turn against his No. 2 administration official and there could be a security risk on January 6. Many of Trump's supporters later chanted "Hang Mike Pence" and threatened his life as they attacked the Capitol. Trump continued to tweet criticism of Pence even as the rioters breached the federal legislative building.
By Matthew Chapman | Raw StoryOn CNN Thursday, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman analyzed the claims made by former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), an adviser to the January 6 committee, in an exclusive CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, about former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows's messages about the plot to over turn the 2020 presidential election. "Denver Riggleman there saying that basically the text messages made him sick, they are a roadmap, a roadmap to what?" asked anchor John Berman. "Look, they clearly are a roadmap," said Haberman. "I actually have had this conversation with people both working on the investigation and my own colleagues that if this committee did not have Meadows' texts, I'm not sure what they would have. They paint a very clear portrait of what was being discussed, who he was talking to.
By Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb and Elizabeth Stuart, CNNWashington (CNN) Within minutes of the US Capitol breach on January 6, 2021, messages began pouring into the cell phone of White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Among those texting were Republican members of Congress, former members of the Trump administration, GOP activists, Fox personalities -- even the President's son. Their texts all carried the same urgent plea: President Donald Trump needed to immediately denounce the violence and tell the mob to go home. "He's got to condem (sic) this shit. Asap," Donald Trump Jr. texted at 2:53 p.m. "POTUS needs to calm this shit down," GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina wrote at 3:04 p.m. "TELL THEM TO GO HOME !!!" former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus messaged at 3:09 p.m. "POTUS should go on air and defuse this. Extremely important," Tom Price, former Trump health and human services secretary and a former GOP representative from Georgia, texted at 3:13 p.m. "Fix this now," wrote GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas at 3:15 p.m.
By Jan Wolfe(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Friday extended its streak of victories in jury trials against rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, securing a guilty verdict in its prosecution of a New Jersey man facing a felony charge. After less than a day of deliberation, a federal jury in the District of Columbia found Timothy Hale-Cusanelli guilty of all five counts he faced, including obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony carrying a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden will sentence Hale-Cusanelli on Sept. 16. Hale-Cusanelli is a former member of the U.S. Army Reserves who works as a Navy contractor with a “secret” security clearance and access to weapons, prosecutors said. An informant told investigators that Hale-Cusanelli was “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer” who posts online videos espousing extreme political opinions, the Justice Department alleged in court filings. Hale-Cusanelli was the fifth Capitol riot defendant to take his case to a jury trial. The Justice Department has secured convictions in all five cases.
By Alex Lang | KnewzNew York (Knewz) — A man called 911 more than 140 times and then threatened to harm a dispatcher after the “insurrection act.” The next day the suspect allegedly participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol. The man has pleaded guilty to the threats that seem to indicate a preplanned attack in Washington D.C. that is now part of American history. The suspect now faces up to five years behind bars. Recently, Jonathan Munafo pleaded guilty to communicating a threat in interstate commerce. He entered his plea in a Michigan federal court. On Jan. 5, 2021, Munafo called 911 in Calhoun County, Michigan, nearly 150 times and demanded to speak with a deputy sheriff about various issues but without an emergency, according to federal prosecutors.
Emma RothLarry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people and co-founder of the Oracle software company, was involved in a November 2020 call to develop plans to contest the results of the US presidential election, according to a report from The Washington Post. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Fox News host Sean Hannity, Donald Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow, and True the Vote attorney James Bopp Jr., also participated in the call. As reported by the Post, details of the call surfaced in a court filing associated with a legal battle between True the Vote, a nonprofit organization that promotes baseless claims about election fraud, and Fair Fight, a voting rights organization led by Georgia politician Stacey Abrams. Last year, Fair Fight filed a complaint against True the Vote, alleging the group attacked voter eligibility in Georgia.
Zachary Snowdon Smith, Forbes StaffThe House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot Thursday said Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) gave a tour of the building the day before the riot, strengthening accusations that legislators took groups on “reconnaissance” tours in preparation for the riot.Key FactsThe committee has evidence that Loudermilk led a tour through areas of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021, according to a Thursday letter signed by committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Witness accounts suggest that some people attempted to collect information about the layout of the Capitol in advance of the riot, Thompson and Cheney wrote. Loudermilk strongly denied Democrats’ claims that legislators had led January 5, 2021 “reconnaissance tours,” calling the accusations unevidenced and “morally reprehensible.” May 12, Loudermilk announced he had filed an ethics complaint against 34 Democratic representatives who requested a police investigation into alleged “suspicious” Capitol tours. Thompson and Cheney requested Loudermilk meet with the committee “soon,” and suggested meeting Monday. Loudermilk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Brandon ContesUtah Jazz legend John Stockton has willingly placed himself in controversy once again, writing a letter to a federal judge in support of a woman who was involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Janet Buhler, the woman receiving support from Stockton, pled guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building and is reportedly facing up to six months in prison. Buhler was originally charged with five misdemeanors for her involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, but the additional counts were dropped in her plea deal. According to Stockton’s letter, Buhler is the wife of former Jazz team chiropractor Craig Buhler. The 10 time NBA All-Star categorized Dr. Craig Buhler as one of his closest friends, adding that he’s known the chiropractor’s wife for 17 years. “Janet Buhler is one of the kindest people I have ever known,” Stockton wrote. “She has spent a lifetime helping her family, including her husband, care for their patients. She goes to church regularly, volunteers at the homeless shelter, and teaches music endlessly, piano and violin, to children in her own home.” “I have never heard her raise her voice, or confront anyone. In fact, she is quite reserved,” Stockton continued. “She is intelligent and good company. I frankly cannot imagine that Janet could knowingly break the law, nor be involved in anything destructive, ever, no matter the situation. In my opinion, Janet Buhler is a quality person of high character.”
Ray HartmannA California man who was among the rioters occupying the U.S. Senate chambers during the January 6 has pleaded guilty to felony charges and faces substantial prison time. Christian Alexander Secor, 23, of Costa Mesa, California, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to obstruction of an official proceeding, according to the Department of Justice. Secor, who is to be sentenced on October 7, faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. But under Secor’s plea agreement, the DOJ maintains the defendant should receive a prison sentence of 51-to-63 months, which if imposed would be among the longest handed out to date. But the agreement also states the Secor “does reserve the right to challenge that finding “solely on the grounds that his offense did not involve causing or threatening to cause physical injury to a person or property damage.” If that position prevailed, Secor would face 21 to 27 months in prison under the guidelines.
Rachel OldingPresident Donald Trump was so deeply involved in the desperate, last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election results that he hand-wrote strategy notes, hired at least ten lawyers to work on just one court case, and spoke regularly with one of his lead lawyers both directly and through six conduits. John Eastman, the law professor tapped by Trump to craft a legal strategy to keep him in power, detailed those extensive communications in a new court filing late Thursday as he argued it should all be shielded from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection because of attorney-client privilege or attorney work product protections. Eastman has been battling the House Committee in California federal court in an effort to prevent it accessing tens of thousands of pages of emails from his email address with Chapman University, where he worked as a law professor until shortly after the Capitol riot. But U.S. District Court Judge David Carter has not been impressed with Eastman’s arguments thus far. In one blistering ruling from March in which he ordered Eastman to hand over 101 emails, Carter found that Eastman and Trump “more likely than not” committed a felony by trying to obstruct Congress and overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Dennis Aftergut, Norman L. Eisen, and Stuart GersonThis week multiple outlets reported that the Justice Department has asked the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack to provide transcriptions of the witness depositions and interviews that it has conducted. The specifics have yet to emerge, but the request surely includes testimony and documents from former President Donald Trump’s associates. Importantly, the Department’s letter explained that the transcripts “may contain information relevant to a criminal investigation we are conducting.” While the committee’s resistance to immediate cooperation dominated reporting, it will be worked out in time as these things almost always are. It should not overshadow the real story here: DOJ has signaled a new and significant stage in its investigation. That is our takeaway as a former counsel for the first impeachment and trial of then-President Donald Trump and two former federal prosecutors, one of whom was also an Acting Attorney General. There are three reasons we believe the DOJ revelation is such an important inflection point. First, the investigatory train of accountability for higher ups in the Trump administration appears to have left the station. Finding the truth about those at the top of national leadership who bear the ultimate responsibility for the attempt to overturn the 2020 election is the most important outcome of the Jan. 6 Committee, even as it pursues its parallel purpose of developing legislation that might forestall similar seditious events in the future.
By Bob Brigham | Raw StoryThe efforts by Trump lawyer John Eastman to attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Pennsylvania, a former federal prosecutor explained on Wednesday. "Even by the standards of other ideas promoted by the conservative lawyer John Eastman to keep President Donald J. Trump in the White House after his election loss in 2020, a newly revealed strategy he proposed to take votes from Joseph R. Biden Jr. in Pennsylvania stands out as especially brazen," The New York Times reported Wednesday. "Mr. Eastman pressed a Pennsylvania state lawmaker in December 2020 to carry out a plan to strip Mr. Biden of his win in that state by applying a mathematical equation to accepting the validity of mail ballots, which were most heavily used by Democrats during the pandemic, according to emails from Mr. Eastman released under a public records request by the University of Colorado Boulder, which employed him at the time." The emails were sent to Republican state Rep. Russell Diamond. "The emails were the latest evidence of just how far Mr. Trump and his allies were willing to go in the weeks after Election Day to keep him in power — complete with anti-democratic plans to install fake pro-Trump electors and reject the votes of Biden supporters. Mr. Eastman would go on to champion the idea that Vice President Mike Pence could unilaterally block congressional certification of Mr. Biden’s Electoral College victory, an idea Mr. Pence rejected even as Mr. Trump was promoting the protests that turned into the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol," the newspaper reported.
Ryan BortThe Republican National Committee has been trying to prevent the Jan. 6 committee from getting hold of RNC email and fundraising data, as well as similar data from former President Trump’s reelection campaign. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly ruled on Sunday that communications company Salesforce will have to turn it all over to the panel. “House Defendants are not seeking, and Salesforce is not producing, any disaggregated information about any of the RNC’s donors, volunteers, or email recipients, including any person’s personally identifiable information,” Kelly wrote in his opinion.
Former New York City officer Thomas Webster was found guilty on six charges.By Gabe SternA jury on Monday found former New York City police officer Thomas Webster guilty on six charges, including assaulting a police officer, in the first federal assault case stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Webster's trial marks the fourth time a jury has heard a Jan. 6 defendant's case, with all four cases resulting in convictions on all charges. Webster was found guilty of assaulting D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun, who testified at the trial -- as did Webster himself, who often spoke directly to the jury and called Rathbun as a "rogue cop." According to testimony and video of the riot, Webster pushed through a crowd toward bike racks that were acting as a police perimeter. Clad in a bulletproof vest and waving a Marine Corps flag, he arrived at the front of the crowd, yelling, "commie mother-------" at the officers, before zeroing in on Rathbun and yelling, "take your s--- off!"
Lee MoranAretired conservative federal judge appointed by former President George H.W. Bush warned in an opinion piece published by CNN on Wednesday that Republicans are “already a long way toward recapturing the White House in 2024, whether Trump or another Republican candidate wins the election or not.” In his essay, J. Michael Luttig broke down what he called the “Republican blueprint” to steal the 2024 election ― the cornerstone of which, he said, was the Supreme Court’s embrace of the “independent state legislature” doctrine.
A small circle of Republican lawmakers, working closely with President Donald J. Trump’s chief of staff, took on an outsize role in pressuring the Justice Department, amplifying conspiracy theories and flooding the courts in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.By Katie Benner, Catie Edmondson, Luke Broadwater and Alan FeuerWASHINGTON — Two days after Christmas last year, Richard P. Donoghue, a top Justice Department official in the waning days of the Trump administration, saw an unknown number appear on his phone. Mr. Donoghue had spent weeks fielding calls, emails and in-person requests from President Donald J. Trump and his allies, all of whom asked the Justice Department to declare, falsely, that the election was corrupt. The lame-duck president had surrounded himself with a crew of unscrupulous lawyers, conspiracy theorists, even the chief executive of MyPillow — and they were stoking his election lies. Mr. Trump had been handing out Mr. Donoghue’s cellphone number so that people could pass on rumors of election fraud. Who could be calling him now?
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated PressJurors have heard — and rejected — an array of excuses and arguments from the first rioters to be tried for storming the U.S. Capitol. The next jury to get a Capitol riot case could hear another novel defense this week at the trial of a retired New York City police officer. Thomas Webster, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD, has claimed he was acting in self-defense when he tackled a police officer who was trying to protect the Capitol from a mob on Jan. 6, 2021. Webster's lawyer also has argued that he was exercising his First Amendment free speech rights when he shouted profanities at police that day. Webster, 56, will be the fourth Capitol riot defendant to get a jury trial. Each has presented a distinct line of defense. An Ohio man who stole a coat rack from a Capitol office testified he was “following presidential orders” from Donald Trump. An off-duty police officer from Virginia claimed he only entered the Capitol to retrieve a fellow officer. A lawyer for a Texas man who confronted Capitol police accused prosecutors of rushing to judgment against somebody prone to exaggerating. Those defenses didn't sway the juries at their respective trials. Collectively, a total of 36 jurors unanimously convicted the three rioters of all 17 counts in their indictments.
ydzhanova@businessinsider.com (Yelena Dzhanova)Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner believes former President Donald Trump and his former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows "wanted the Capitol to be taken" on the day of the insurrection last year. "Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, and others in Donald Trump's administration deprived the Capitol of the federal law enforcement forces it needed to defend itself," Kirschner said in a video posted to YouTube on Friday. "And that, friends, leads to one pretty compelling inference. We can maybe even call it the only reasonable conclusion: That Donald Trump and Mark Meadows wanted the Capitol to be taken; that Donald Trump and Mark Meadows the angry mob to stop the certification of Joe Biden's win." Kirschner's remarks come after testimony given to the House panel tasked with investigating the Capitol riot revealed that Meadows plotted with Republican lawmakers to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In December 2020, Reps. Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, and other Republican lawmakers participated in calls and meetings with Trump and his aides after he lost the 2020 presidential election, according to testimony given to the committee by Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to Meadows.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant in the Trump administration, told the House panel investigating the Capitol riot it was unclear what Meadows did with that information.By Nicole AcevedoA former White House official warned Mark Meadows, who served as former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, could turn violent, according to a court filing from the House panel investigating the Capitol riot. Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant in the Trump White House, said Meadows received information before the day of the attack that “indicated that there could be violence,” according to transcripts contained in the 248-page filing late Friday. Hutchinson said she remembers “Mr. Ornato coming in and saying that we had intel reports saying that there could potentially be violence on the 6th. And Mr. Meadows said: All right. Let’s talk about it,” in apparent reference to Anthony M. Ornato, a Secret Service official. “I know that there were concerns brought forward to Mr. Meadows,” Hutchinson said, adding she was unsure if he “perceived them as genuine concerns.”
Maya YangOn 6 January 2021, Jerry Braun hailed an Uber in Washington DC and got in the car, nursing a bleeding eye wound. The Uber driver noticed and asked, “So, has it been violent all day?” “Well it started around, right when I got there. I tore down the barricades,” Braun bragged. The conversation, captured on video by the driver’s recording device installed on the dashboard, triggered a 15-month long investigation by the FBI. Earlier this month, on 12 April, Braun was finally arrested by federal authorities and charged with violent entry or disorderly conduct, obstruction during civil disorder, and entering and remaining on restricted grounds, according to an affidavit by Lucas Bauers, FBI special agent.
Marisa SarnoffRobert Gieswein at the Capitol on Jan. 6 (via FBI court documents) After a Colorado man accused of assaulting law enforcement on Jan. 6 indignantly disrupted his pretrial proceedings about his “First Amendment right” to speak on his own behalf, a federal judge informed his attorney that his client’s protections do not extend to ranting out of turn in a courtroom. Accused police assailant Robert Gieswein “will be back in a lockup in a second if he keeps mouthing off,” Senior U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan warned. Already jailed pending trial, Gieswein faces multiple felony charges, including assaulting police officers, civil disorder, and obstruction of an official proceeding. Decked out in military-style gear including a helmet, goggles, and tactical vest, Gieswein allegedly entered the Capitol through a broken window. He allegedly sprayed law enforcement with a chemical spray and brandished a baseball bat as he and other supporters of Donald Trump overran police and swarmed the Capitol building as Congress was certifying Joe Biden‘s win in the 2020 presidential election.
The messages could strengthen a theory being explored by the House committee that January 6 included a coordinated assaultHugo LowellTop leaders in the Oath Keepers militia group indicted on seditious conspiracy charges over the Capitol attack had contacts with the Proud Boys and a figure in the Stop the Steal movement and may also have been in touch with the Republican congressman Ronny Jackson, newly released text messages show. The texts – which indicate the apparent ease with which Oath Keepers messaged Proud Boys – could strengthen a theory being explored by the House January 6 committee and the US justice department: that the Capitol attack included a coordinated assault. Oath Keepers text messages released in a court filing on Monday night showed members of the group were in direct communication with the Proud Boys leader Enqrique Tarrio in the days before the Capitol attack.
By Scott MacFarlane, Robert LegareMembers of the far-right Oath Keepers group allegedly exchanged messages about the safety of Republican Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson — who was also Donald Trump's former White House doctor — during the chaos of the U.S. Capitol riot. The messages, one of which said Jackson must be protected because he has "critical data," were part of a batch of newly released messages from members of the alleged Jan. 6, 2021 conspirators, according to a new court filing from one of the defendants. Accused Oath Keeper Edward Vallejo of Arizona is seeking release from pretrial detention and submitted a lengthy court filing ahead of an Apr. 29 court hearing on his request. The 337-page filing includes dozens of pages of messages allegedly exchanged by members of the Oath Keepers in the days prior to Jan. 6, 2021 and during the peak of the violence that day.
rbarber@businessinsider.com (C. Ryan Barber)An accused Capitol rioter's defense lawyer on Thursday referred to former President Donald Trump as a "gangster" who bears responsibility for whipping up the crowd of supporters that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. In a closing argument at the trial of accused rioter Dustin Thompson, the defense lawyer Samuel Shamansky punctuated his argument that Trump manipulated his supporters on January 6 and deserved blame for the violence at the Capitol that day. "You had, frankly, a gangster who was in power," Shamansky said. In another apparent reference to Trump, Shamansky said the Capitol attack was coordinated by an "evil and sinister man who would stop at nothing to get his way on January 6."
Sara BoboltzFederal prosecutors say that a document found in the possession of Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, contained a plan to occupy several buildings around Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021 ― including the Supreme Court building ― “to show our politicians We the People are in charge.” A report on Monday from The New York Times described the document as “detailed.” Citing sources who had seen it, the Times said the document named seven buildings, including six House and Senate office buildings. It did not specifically mention the Capitol building, which was stormed last year by a mob of thousands bent on overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election. Titled “1776 Returns,” the nine-page document was first described in court filings against Tarrio, who is currently facing charges including conspiracy to obstruct government proceedings in connection with the events of last Jan. 6.
Josephine HarveyAweek before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, a former aide to Republican political consultant Roger Stone joined a conference call with supporters of then-President Donald Trump and urged them to “descend on the Capitol” to pressure lawmakers not to certify the 2020 election, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Jason Sullivan, a right-wing communications specialist and QAnon promoter, reportedly told listeners on a Dec. 30, 2020, call that the 2020 election had been stolen and directed them to go to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 to make members of Congress “sweat” when they convened to finalize the electoral count. “If we make the people inside that building sweat, and they understand that they may not be able to walk in the streets any longer if they do the wrong thing, then maybe they’ll do the right thing,” he said, according to the Times, which obtained a recording of the call. While claiming he was “not inciting violence or any kind of riots,” Sullivan also told listeners that Trump would impose a form of martial law that day and would not be leaving office.
An attorney for Dustin Thompson argued that "vulnerable" people like his client "believed the lies that were fed to them" by Trump.By Ryan J. ReillyWASHINGTON — An attorney for a man who took a coat rack and a bottle of liquor during the U.S. Capitol attack argued to a jury Tuesday that former President Donald Trump "authorized" the assault on the building on Jan. 6, 2021, by convincing "vulnerable" people like his client that the election had been stolen. Dustin Thompson, 38, of Ohio, is the third Jan. 6 defendant to face a trial by jury after the convictions of Guy Reffitt and former police officer Thomas Robertson. Thompson faces six charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding and theft of government property. His co-defendant, Robert Lyon, pleaded guilty last month, admitting that he and Thompson traveled to Washington together and saying stole the coat rack and fled from police when they were confronted on the grounds of the Capitol.
By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN(CNN) A leader of the Proud Boys pleaded guilty on Friday to two felony charges in one of the most prominent criminal cases against an organized far-right group that participated in the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. Charles Donohoe, 34, is the first person in the Proud Boys leadership to plead guilty and to assist the Justice Department's investigation against the pro-Donald Trump group. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting an officer and could provide vital information to prosecutors about what the top members of the organization had planned for the attack. Donohoe, who led the Proud Boys North Carolina chapter, could face more than seven years in prison according to the plea hearing read aloud in court, and agreed to pay $2,000 in restitution for damage done to the Capitol.
Ex-president also rejects suggestions he used ‘burner phones’ on day of the assault in Washington Post interviewOliver LaughlandDonald Trump has said he regrets not marching on the US Capitol building with his supporters on the day of the January 6 insurrection and again rejected suggestions he used “burner phones” on the day of the assault. In a defiant interview with the Washington Post the former president said he had pressed to march with his supporters on January 6, but was blocked from doing so by Secret Service agents. “Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute,” Trump told the Post, later bragging about the size of the “tremendous crowd” at the “Save America” rally that day. Last month CBS News and the Post revealed internal White House phone records from the day of the attack on the Capitol showed a seven-hour-and-37-minute gap in Trump’s phone logs including the period in which the assault occurred. The reports revealed the House committee investigating the attack were examining whether Trump had used burner phones – disposable mobile phones – during that period.
Gerrard KaongaAvideo of a Donald Trump supporter claiming that Antifa was responsible for the January 6 riots on the Capitol has gone viral on social media. One of the members of comedy duo The Good Liars, Jason Selvig, spoke to the man at a Trump rally in Michigan and posted the video to his personal Twitter as well as The Good Liars, Twitter page. The video so far has over 1.9 million views. Referring to the riots, Selvig asked the man why Antifa would they want to prevent Joe Biden, a candidate they supported, from becoming president. "How do you all feel about the events of January 6? Selvig asked. The unnamed man answered: "A lot of that was Antifa."
Erik Larson(Bloomberg) -- A self-styled dating coach from Manhattan who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and gushed online about “seeing cops literally run” was sentenced to 3 1/2 years behind bars after his social-media posts tipped off law enforcement to a stash of firearms. Samuel Fisher, a 33-year-old QAnon conspiracy theorist who ran a Facebook account called “LuxLife Dating Coach” out of his Upper East Side apartment, was sentenced Monday in state court in Manhattan. Fisher wasn’t armed during the attack on the Capitol, but his arsenal back home was illegal. “The defendant chose to arm himself to the teeth with a large variety of dangerous weapons,” Judge Robert Mandelbaum said before handing down the sentence. “The fact that he didn’t take action doesn’t take away from the seriousness of the offense.”
Federal prosecutors have been seeking documents and testimony about the fake electors scheme and the planning for the rally just before the storming of the Capitol.By Alan Feuer, Katie Benner and Maggie HabermanFederal prosecutors have substantially widened their Jan. 6 investigation to examine the possible culpability of a broad range of figures involved in former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, people familiar with the inquiry said on Wednesday. The investigation now encompasses the possible involvement of other government officials in Mr. Trump’s attempts to obstruct the certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory and the push by some Trump allies to promote slates of fake electors, they said. Prosecutors are also asking about planning for the rallies that preceded the assault on the Capitol, including the rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6 of last year, just before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol.
The government is assembling information about an Arizona man who wasn't charged in the attack on the Capitol but interacted with some who were.By Josh Gerstein and Kyle CheneyThe Justice Department is compiling information to share with defendants about Ray Epps, an Arizona man who has been the focus of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories pushed by former President Donald Trump, his allies in Congress and right-wing media figures. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Rochlin said in court on Tuesday that she intended to provide a “disclosure” about Epps, a former Oath Keeper, in response to requests by Jan. 6 defendants accused of leading the breach of police lines — including Ryan Samsel, who briefly huddled with Epps before charging the barricades. Epps, who was seen on video on Jan. 5, 2021, urging Trump supporters to go “into the Capitol” — adding that they should be “peaceful” — became the focus of conspiracy theories pushed by right-wing media outlets.
ssheth@businessinsider.com (Sonam Sheth)Federal prosecutors are zeroing in on a December 2020 tweet from then President Donald Trump that may have been a call for far-right actors to converge on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, The New York Times reported. "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump tweeted on December 19. It was the first time he announced the "Save America" rally, which took place at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, less than two miles from the US Capitol. "Be there, will be wild!" the tweet said. Prosecutors believe far-right and extremist groups immediately interpreted Trump's message as a call to action for them to head to the Capitol and stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that day, The Times said. According to court filings and interview records compiled by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot, multiple people associated with far-right groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys started communicating with each other on messaging apps and gathering arms and protective gear.
Tom BoggioniIn an interview with Rolling Stone's Andrew Cohen, historian Jeff Shesol said he has no doubt that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas are in "lockstep" when it comes to believing Donald Trump should still be in the White House and claimed they see what they are doing as a "holy war." With Cohen writing, "You don’t need to be a legal expert to know that one spouse shouldn’t sit in judgment in a case in which the other spouse is a witness — or a suspect. That’s as classic a conflict of interest as one can imagine and by refusing to acknowledge it Justice Thomas has brought great discredit on himself and his colleagues on the Court," he asked the author of “Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs The Supreme Court,” what he thinks is going on after revelations about Ginni Thomas' texts urging overturning the 2020 presidential election results.
The Jan. 6 select committee has evidence that Eastman expected Justice Clarence Thomas to back his dubious legal theory to block Joe Biden's victory.By Kyle CheneyGinni Thomas’ unfettered access to Donald Trump’s chief of staff — and potentially others in his West Wing — raises new questions about another figure at the center of Trump’s gambit to subvert the 2020 election: attorney John Eastman. Eastman spent the final weeks of Trump’s presidency driving a strategy to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory, a plan that relied on legal theories so extreme the Jan. 6 select committee says they could amount to criminal conspiracy and fraud.
The conservative activist and wife of a Supreme Court justice said in a November 2020 email that Republicans weren't doing enough to help Trump and needed to be "out in the streets."By Scott WongWASHINGTON — Shortly after the 2020 election, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent an email to an aide to a prominent House conservative saying she would have nothing to do with his group until his members go “out in the streets,” a congressional source familiar with the exchange told NBC News. Thomas told an aide to incoming Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks, R-Ind., that she was more aligned with the far-right House Freedom Caucus, whose leaders just two months later would lead the fight in Congress to overturn the results of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. The RSC was long representative of the most conservative House members, but in the past several years, it has been replaced by the tea party-driven Freedom Caucus.
The Texas senator’s effort alienated some allies and sparked questions about ties to John Eastman, a longtime friend and author of key legal memos in Trump’s efforts.By Michael KranishSen. Ted Cruz was dining near the Capitol on the evening of Dec. 8, 2020, when he received an urgent call from President Donald Trump. A lawsuit had just been filed at the Supreme Court designed to overturn the election Trump had lost, and the president wanted help from the Texas Republican. “Would you be willing to argue the case?” Trump asked Cruz, as the senator later recalled it. “Sure, I’d be happy to” if the court granted a hearing, Cruz said he responded. The call was just one step in a collaboration that for two months turned the once-bitter political enemies into close allies in the effort to keep Trump in the White House based on the president’s false claims about a stolen election. By Cruz’s own account, he was “leading the charge” to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as president.
By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN(CNN) The FBI is offering a $15,000 reward for information on a January 6 fugitive accused of assaulting multiple officers during the attack on the US Capitol, who the agency has been trying to arrest since June. Jonathan Daniel Pollock -- one of a group of Floridians accused of attacking police at the Capitol -- faces multiple charges including assaulting several officers, theft of government property and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Pollock is one of only a small group of people who went on the run after being charged in the Capitol riot and have yet to be apprehended by authorities. According to court documents, Pollock took several weeks off to travel to DC around January 6. Coworkers told investigators that when Pollock returned, he initially bragged about his involvement in the riot.
Andrew StantonCouy Griffin, the founder of "Cowboys for Trump" who on Tuesday was convicted of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 riot, slammed GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for missing his trial. After his ruling on Tuesday, Griffin addressed supporters and media outside of the courtroom, where he denounced the conviction and called out several Republican lawmakers for not showing up to the trial. "I know Marjorie Taylor Greene personally," he said. "I didn't see Marjorie one time around this trial right here that's affecting January 6. I didn't see Louie Gohmert here. I didn't see Matt Gaetz." He went on to question if the lawmakers believe "they're too good to come down to the federal place where all of this is taking place, or going to the jail where those guys are still locked up."
By MICHAEL KUNZELMANWASHINGTON (AP) — An elected official from New Mexico went to trial Monday with a judge — not a jury — set to decide if he is guilty of charges that he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol grounds on the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. That’s not the only unusual feature of the case against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, whose trial in Washington, D.C., is the second among the hundreds of people charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. Griffin is one of the few riot defendants who isn’t accused of entering the Capitol or engaging in any violent or destructive behavior. He claims he has been selectively prosecuted for his political views. Griffin, one of three members of the Otero County Commission in southern New Mexico, is among a handful of riot defendants who either held public office or ran for a government leadership post in the 2 1/2 years before the attack.
Guy Reffitt was a member of ‘Three Percenters’, a militia group named after American colonists who defeated the British during the Revolutionary War.Justin Vallejo | New YorkProsecutors won a landmark ruling in the first case of the 6 January US Capitol riot to go before a jury trial. Texas man Guy Reffitt was found guilty on five felony charges including obstructing an official proceeding and bringing a gun onto the grounds of the US Capitol. more...
Enrique Tarrio will face a detention hearing on Friday in South Florida.By Kyle Cheney and Josh GersteinEnrique Tarrio, the national leader of the Proud Boys, has been indicted on conspiracy charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. A grand jury indictment, docketed Tuesday, charges Tarrio with conspiracy to obstruct Congress. Prosecutors have already leveled conspiracy charges against four Proud Boys leaders — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Charles Donohoe and Zachary Rehl — who the Justice Department says played a central role in fomenting the breach of the Capitol. IN addition to Tarrio, prosecutors added another Proud Boy to the conspiracy indictment: Dominic Pezzola, who breached the Capitol when he shattered a Senate-wing window with a riot shield. more...
Ryan LucasNearly 14 months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, the first trial of a defendant charged in connection with the deadly attack opens Monday in federal court. Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who authorities say belongs to the self-styled Three Percenter militia movement, is charged with five counts, including obstruction, civil disorder and entering Capitol grounds with a firearm. He has pleaded not guilty. The trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is a milestone in the Capitol riot investigation, which officials say is one of the largest and most complex in American history. So far, almost 750 people have been charged and around 220 have pleaded guilty. Of those, more than 100 have already been sentenced. more...
By Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz and Casey Gannon, CNN(CNN) The man photographed carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's lectern during the January 6 riot was sentenced to 75 days in jail Friday after the judge warned about political divisions in the US, pointing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a cautionary example. "We're on a dangerous slide in America," Judge Reggie Walton said during the sentencing of Adam Johnson, "when one side of our country, when the other side wins, rather than accepting it as the American way, believes that they can do whatever to get who they want in power sitting in the White House. "That's what we see in countries like what we're experiencing now in Ukraine," Walton added. "That's where we're heading if we don't do something about it." more...
Former judge J. Michael Luttig shares the story of the run-up to the insurrection, and why he thinks it’s time to reform the Electoral Count Act.By POLITICO StaffFor most of his life, J. Michael Luttig has operated behind the scenes at the top of the conservative legal world. He started his career as a young aide at the U.S. Supreme Court, worked as an attorney in the Reagan White House, clerked for Judge Antonin Scalia before he was a legal icon, helped guide the appointment of two other Supreme Court justices and was appointed to a federal judgeship by former President George H.W. Bush. During Luttig’s time on the bench, one of his clerks was a young attorney named John Eastman. In recent months, Eastman’s name has become inextricably tied to the legal advice he offered to then-President Donald Trump in December 2020 and January 2021: In a now-infamous legal memo, Eastman argued that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the ability to discard certified electoral votes from contested states — a notion that has been roundly debunked, but which Trump’s closest allies clung to (and which helped to inspire some of his supporters to storm the Capitol in rage). more...
By Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand, and Tierney Sneed, CNN(CNN) The Justice Department has charged 11 defendants with seditious conspiracy related to the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, including the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes. The new indictment, handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday and made public Thursday, alleges that Rhodes and his co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to "oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force, by preventing, hindering, or delaying by force execution of laws governing the transfer of power." The latest court filings revealed that Oath Keeper Thomas Caldwell, who was arrested in January, claimed to take a reconnaissance trip to Washington, DC, before January 6. The indictment also surfaces previously unknown communications Rhodes is alleged to have sent that prosecutors say encouraged the use of force to oppose the lawful transfer of power. more...
Facing a lawsuit for his Jan. 6 attack speech, Rep. Mo Brooks has put himself in a bind of his own creation: He potentially violated his oath—or misused congressional resources.Jose Pagliery Political Investigations ReporterSomeone may need to tell Rep. Mo Brooks to stop talking. The Republican congressman from Alabama keeps defending himself in court against accusations that he helped incite the Jan. 6, 2021 riot—and it’s not helping the former prosecutor in the slightest. The particular defense Brooks has chosen seems aimed at having Justice Department lawyers mount a legal defense for him. He is arguing that his incendiary speech on Jan. 6 was part of his official duties as a congressman, a crusade he continued in federal court on Monday. If that is the case, Brooks may have opened himself up to potential removal from office. And if it’s not the case—as prosecutors are trying to prove—then Brooks has handed prosecutors all the ammunition they’d need to charge him with misusing congressional resources. more...
Ed PilkingtonMore than 1,000 Americans in positions of public trust acted as accomplices in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, participating in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January or spreading the “big lie” that the vote count had been rigged. The startling figure underlines the extent to which Trump’s attempt to undermine the foundations of presidential legitimacy has metastasized across the US. Individuals who engaged in arguably the most serious attempt to subvert democracy since the civil war are now inveigling themselves into all levels of government, from Congress and state legislatures down to school boards and other local public bodies. The finding that 1,011 individuals in the public realm played a role in election subversion around the 2020 presidential race comes from a new pro-democracy initiative that launched on Wednesday. more...
At least 57 individuals who played a role in the day’s events — including some who were arrested on charges related to the Capitol attack — are running for office in 2022.By BRITTANY GIBSONThe Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol is remembered as one of the darkest and most shameful episodes in American history. But at least 57 individuals who played a role in that day’s events — either by attending the Save America rally that preceded the riots, gathering at the Capitol steps or breaching the Capitol itself — are now running for elected office. Rather than disqualifying them from public service, the events of Jan. 6 appear to have served as a political springboard for dozens of Republicans who will be on the ballot this year for federal, state and local offices. It’s difficult to state with precision just how many of those who participated in the rally on the Ellipse, marched to the Capitol or stormed the building will be on the ballot in 2022 — in many states, candidate filing deadlines are months away. more...
NewsroomFormer Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) were the only two Republicans on the House floor during a remembrance of the January 6th riot. CNN's Manu Raju reports. video...
The former president’s callousness toward his real and perceived enemies is standard fare for Trump, who frequently revels in their pain and misfortune in public and in private.Asawin Suebsaeng Senior Political Reporter, Will Sommer Politics ReporterThere are a number of things that make Donald Trump happy when he thinks of Jan. 6, and the long-term consequences of the riot. But it’s the anguish and trauma that has really sparked his joy. In the full year since the deadly, Trump-inspired assault on the U.S. Capitol, several lawmakers, police officers, and reporters who were there have publicly opened up about the lingering distress they still feel stemming from the anti-democratic violence and body count of the day. According to three people with direct knowledge of the matter, the twice-impeached former president has noticed the emotional accounts, particularly that from Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Some he has found annoying. Others, however, have become targets of mockery and casual hilarity for him. more...
For most Democrats, the biggest affront wasn’t even the violence by Donald Trump’s supporters. It was the votes more than 140 of their GOP colleagues took afterward.By SARAH FERRISThe violent attack on the Capitol cost lives, threatened the transition of presidential power and forever changed the way Congress does its work. One year later, we at POLITICO are looking back at those changes and how Washington is moving forward. Rep. Cheri Bustos still remembers her husband’s warning after she and her colleagues were trapped in the House chamber by violent rioters. “‘It is not going to get better out there,’” the Illinois Democrat recalled her county sheriff spouse telling her. The following year proved him right, Bustos added: “It’s only gotten worse.” Bustos is one of several retiring Democrats who told POLITICO that the insurrection, and the months of personal vitriol in the House that followed, propelled their decision not to seek reelection next November. more...
Some of the longest sentences have gone to rioters charged with ‘assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon’Maya YangJudges across the US have been handing down stiff sentences and hard words in recent weeks for extremist supporters of Donald Trump who took part in the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol. Since a federal judge sentenced Jacob Chansley, the US Capitol rioter nicknamed the “QAnon shaman” for his horned headdress, to 41 months in prison last month, more US judges have been delivering strict sentences to defendants charged over their roles in the attacks earlier this year. Since the riots, federal prosecutors have brought cases against 727 individuals over their involvement in the deadly riots. With hundreds facing criminal charges, Trump has come under growing scrutiny from the House select committee investigating the attacks. more...
The same lawmakers who obsessed over Benghazi are downplaying the attack on the Capitol.By William SaletanNine years ago, terrorists attacked U.S. diplomats and contractors in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans died, and Republicans spent years investigating why. Those investigations found no wrongdoing by President Barack Obama or then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but they succeeded in painting Clinton as soft on terrorism, thereby damaging her 2016 presidential campaign. Now the same Republicans who decried Benghazi are downplaying President Donald Trump’s culpability—and their own—in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.The Republican frenzy over Benghazi spanned two presidential elections. In October 2012, Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, opened hearings on the Obama administration’s “security failures.” In a letter issued two weeks before that year’s presidential election, Issa and a fellow Republican lawmaker accused the administration of “endangering American lives” by ignoring the “escalating violence” that had preceded the attack. The letter also criticized Obama’s team for blaming the attack, erroneously, on unrelated protests over an anti-Muslim video. more...
Robert Palmer, of Tampa, was sentenced to 63 months for repeatedly assaulting police officers at the Capitol.By Pete WilliamsWASHINGTON — A Florida man was sentenced Friday to just over five years in prison for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. The sentence, of 63 months, was the longest one yet imposed among the more than 150 defendants who have pleaded guilty to taking part in the siege. "It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment," said U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. more...
By Roger ParloffOn Friday, Dec. 10, the government won a key early ruling concerning a legal issue affecting hundreds of Jan. 6 Capitol Riot prosecutions. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich found that a central felony charge in a large subset of the Jan. 6 cases—“corruptly obstructing an official proceeding” —had been properly invoked and was not unconstitutionally vague. The provision has been lodged against about 270 of the more than 690 Capitol Riot defendants accused so far in federal court (about 40 percent of all cases). In many prosecutions, it is the only felony charged. Jacob Chansley, for instance—the so-called QAnon Shaman—pleaded guilty to a single charge of corruptly impeding an official proceeding. He is now appealing his 41-month sentence. more...
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said a sentence that didn't include time behind bars wouldn't be a sufficient deterrent against calls to subvert democracy.Jordan Fischer, Eric Flack, Stephanie WilsonWASHINGTON — An Ohio husband and wife will each serve jail time for their role in the January 6 Capitol riot after a federal judge ruled Wednesday that the government’s home detention request was insufficient. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered Brandon Miller to serve 20 days behind bars for live streaming himself after climbing through a broken window into the besieged U.S. Capitol Building on January 6. His wife, Stephanie Miller, was ordered to serve 14 days in jail for also entering the building. Both will have to complete 60 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution. more...
CBS NewsOne year after a mob of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election, officers are calling for accountability and recounting their trauma. Another three officers are suing former President Donald Trump related to the insurrection. CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge joins "CBSN AM" to discuss her interview with a veteran Capitol Police officer who was there and more. video...
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