A federal judge has set a March 4 trial date for former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington, D.C.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith proposed starting the trial in January, with the jury selection beginning in December. He estimated the trial would take four to six weeks.
Trump’s legal team, in contrast, requested that the trial start in April 2026, which would be nearly a year and a half after the next presidential election.
Trump faces four federal charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The criminal case is one of four that the 2024 Republican front-runner currently faces.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Federal prosecutors obtained many of former President Donald Trump’s direct messages sent on his Twitter account, as well as drafts and deleted missives, according to court papers unsealed Tuesday.
It’s unclear what information the direct messages may contain or who they were exchanged with. But the revelation, first reported by CNN, adds new details to court documents from last week that first showed Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team had obtained a search warrant for Trump’s Twitter account in January.
The court papers say that federal prosecutors sought “all content, records and other information” related to Trump’s account covering the period from October 2020 to January 2021 — when his @realDonaldTrump handle was permanently suspended — including drafts and any messages that were liked or retweeted. The dates would encompass the run-up to the 2020 election through the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The documents stem from court hearings in February after Twitter tried to resist the search warrant, claiming a linked nondisclosure order would violate the company’s First Amendment rights.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia later fined Twitter — now known as X — $350,000 after it delayed complying. The company later turned over the information to Smith’s team.
But the court filings show U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell excoriated Twitter in February, accusing the company of taking “extraordinary” steps to inform Trump about the search warrant. At one point, Howell asked the company’s lawyers if owner Elon Musk wanted to “make Donald Trump feel like he is a particularly welcomed new renewed user of Twitter?”
The former president was indicted Aug. 1 on four federal charges related to multiple conspiracies surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and his efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Trump attacked Smith on Sunday amid reports of the search warrant, calling the special counsel a “lowlife prosecutor” and accusing the man of breaking into his account “without informing me.”
“What could he possibly find out that is not already known,” Trump asked on Truth Social, the social media account he established after being suspended from Twitter.
WASHINGTON — The judge in Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 coup attempt case on Friday ordered him not to reveal information that prosecutors turn over to his legal team from grand jury testimony, a prohibition that likely will apply to a sizable portion of the discovery material he receives in the coming weeks.
“Sensitive materials … may be used by the defendant and defense counsel (defined as counsel of record in this case) solely in connection with the defense of this case, and for no other purpose, and in connection with no other proceeding, without further order of this court,” U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in her five-page order.
“Sensitive materials” in the case include information gathered from still-sealed search warrants as well as grand jury testimony, according to the order.
Chutkan’s written order mirrored her statements during a hearing Friday morning. Prosecutors had asked Chutkan to stop Trump from speaking about any evidence handed over to his lawyers as part of the pretrial process, while Trump had wanted the right to use all of it as he runs for the White House again.
Chutkan turned down prosecutors’ request for a blanket prohibition, but made it clear to Trump’s lawyers that his desire to run for president will not get him out of following the standard rules imposed upon felony criminal defendants in federal court. She also cautioned that she will take seriously any statements Trump makes that could be construed as intimidating a witness.
Trump a week ago posted on his social media platform, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” Prosecutors pointed it out to Chutkan in a filing hours later.
Trump, as he reviews sensitive material, also will not be permitted to have with him a photocopier or even a phone that he could use to copy or photograph documents. And if he takes notes on what he has seen, they will have to be reviewed by his lawyers to make sure they do not identify a witness.
A courtroom sketch shows former President Donald Trump sitting between his attorneys as he faces charges related to efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, at federal court in Washington on Aug. 3. At far left is U.S. special counsel Jack Smith.
JANE ROSENBERG via Reuters
“During any time that the defendant reviews sensitive materials outside of defense counsel’s presence, the defendant must not have access to any device capable of photocopying, recording, or otherwise replicating the Sensitive Materials, including a smart cellular device,” Chutkan wrote. “Defense counsel must also ensure that all sensitive materials are collected and safeguarded when the defendant is no longer reviewing them.”
Chutkan also agreed to set rules for the relatively small amount of classified material that prosecutors intend to use in this case at an Aug. 28 hearing, after which she is expected to set a trial date.
In this indictment, Trump is charged with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiring to violate civil rights. All the charges are felonies, and all are based on his actions leading up to and during his Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt to remain in power despite losing his election.
Trump is also facing a federal prosecution in South Florida, where he is charged with retaining top-secret documents at his country club and then hiding them from authorities seeking their return. That trial is set for May, but will likely be delayed after Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team charged a third defendant in the case and added two new counts against Trump.
Meanwhile, the Fulton County district attorney in Georgia is expected to file an indictment against Trump next week over his attempts to coerce elections officials into overturning his 2020 loss in that state.
Trump already faces 34 felony counts in New York City for falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to a porn start in the days leading up to the 2016 election. A trial in that case has been set for March.
Former President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that he is anticipating another potential criminal indictment, this time related to the special counsel probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that “Deranged Jack Smith,” the special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, sent his attorneys a letter saying he is “a TARGET” of the investigation and has “a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.”
But his criminal investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election has yet to yield charges. Trump’s statement suggests that may be about to change.
Trump’s attorneys delivered the “HORRIFYING NEWS,” as the ex-president put it, on Sunday evening.
This story is developing. Please check back soon for more.
A host of the conspiracy network Infowars is expected to plead guilty to at least one charge related to his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Owen Shroyer is expected to plead guilty Friday in Washington, D.C., according to a Tuesday order scheduling the change-of-plea hearing.
Shroyer, a longtime host of Infowars and right-hand man to the outlet’s owner, Alex Jones, was charged with four misdemeanor counts in August 2021 for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6. The latest order doesn’t indicate which charges ― including a charge of disorderly conduct ― Shroyer plans to plead guilty to.
Shroyer was captured on video that was later posted to Infowars showing him in restricted areas of the Capitol grounds, according to charging documents. Shroyer also called into an Infowars live broadcast while on the Capitol grounds and said “probably about 100,000 people” had surrounded the Capitol.
“We literally own these streets right now,” Shroyer said on the broadcast.
Owen Shroyer, an InfoWars host and sometimes reporter who is a frequent guest on “The Alex Jones Show,” testifies in court Friday, July 29, 2022, at the Travis County Courthouse in Texas.
After Shroyer was eventually charged, he took to Infowars to declare his innocence.
“There’s a lot of questions — some I have answers to, some I don’t,” Shroyer told viewers at the time. “I plan on declaring innocence of these charges because I am.”
A February bankruptcy filing for Jones revealed he was holding guns for Shroyer and Montoya while they faced the charges.
“Both their lawyers respectively asked us if they could store those guns here while the cases were going on,” Jones told HuffPost at the time. “Due to the request of their lawyers we have … stored the guns here.”
Shroyer is being represented by Norm Pattis, a Connecticut lawyer who has previously represented Jones and members of Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist gang. Last year, Pattis was captured on video saying the N-word during a comedy routine.
Actor Jay Johnston, best known for his roles on Bob’s Burgers and Arrested Development, has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
Johnston, 54, was arrested Wednesday on three charges, including a felony charge of civil disorder, according to court documents. He’s been accused of unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol complex and confronting police officers as part of a mob of Donald Trump supporters in 2021.
Jay Johnston approaching the lower west terrace tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021.
U.S. Justice Department
ABC News reported Johnston, who voiced the character Jimmy Pesto on Bob’s Burgers, turned himself in to police on Wednesday.
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After a court appearance in California, Johnston was released on US$25,000 bond.
The actor has not commented publicly on the charges against him or his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riot.
Prior to his arrest, Johnston was one of hundreds sought out by the FBI in connection to the riot. With the help of social media users who recognized Johnston from his many TV cameos, the FBI was able to make the arrest.
The #FBI is still seeking information on people who took part in the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. If you know this individual, visit https://t.co/iL7sD5efWD. Refer to photo 247 in your tip. pic.twitter.com/CetMHzU190
In court documents, officials claimed Johnston was seen in front of the lower west terrace of the Capitol, one of the most violent locations during the riot. Authorities wrote Johnston used a stolen Capitol Police shield to create a “wall” to cover himself and other rioters from police.
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Jay Johnston holding a Capitol Police shield in the lower west terrace tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021.
U.S. Justice Department
“Johnston then participated with other rioters in a group assault on the officers defending the LWT entrance,” the document reads.
While the mob attacked police in the tunnel with pepper spray and other weapons, Johnston helped other rioters near the tunnel pour water on their faces and then joined in pushing against the line of officers, the FBI says.
Jay Johnston and others present on Jan. 6 made a “shield wall” to cover rioters from Capitol Police.
U.S. Justice Department
Johnston eventually passed the police shield to another rioter when he left the area.
The court documents also claim an unnamed former or current associate of Johnston provided a text message allegedly from the actor acknowledging he was present at the Jan. 6 riot.
“The news has presented it as an attack. It actually wasn’t,” Johnston allegedly wrote in the text. “Thought it kind of turned into that. It was a mess. Got maced and tear gassed and I found it quite untastic [sic].”
Two other former or current associates also identified Johnston from the FBI photos.
The FBI additionally obtained United Airlines records that show Johnston booked a round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. and arrived on Jan. 4, 2021. He returned to Los Angeles on Jan. 7, 2021.
Jan. 6 committee votes unanimously to refer Donald Trump for criminal charges
In 2021, The Daily Beast reported Johnston was “banned” from Bob’s Burgers over claims he was spotted at the Jan. 6 riots. The outlet reported Johnston would no longer voice the character of Jimmy Pesto. Johnston completed voice work for 43 episodes of the successful animated series.
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More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct at the Capitol on Jan. 6. More than 500 of them have been sentenced, with over half getting terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 18 years, according to an Associated Press review of court records.
Johnston’s acting credits also include the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and the TV shows Mr. Show with Bob and David, Better Call Saul and The Sarah Silverman Program.
The Charlotte FBI suspended an analyst after his actions and comments about the Capitol riot raised questions about his “allegiance” to the country. Meanwhile, Bank of America is under fire by Republicans who claim the bank shared confidential data placing customer near the Capitol on Jan. 6.
FBI
A suspended FBI employee from Charlotte who gave whistleblower testimony Thursday to a Republican-led congressional subcommittee had his security clearance revoked over his handling of a Jan. 6-related investigation, and amid questions from his superiors about his “allegiance to the United States.”
Meanwhile, an interim subcommittee report released earlier in the day accuses Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte, of targeting conservatives by turning over confidential consumer data from customers who used their credit cards in Washington, D.C., around the time of the Capitol attack.
Marcus Allen, a staff operations specialist with the FBI Charlotte Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, was to testify before the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government over how the FBI is allegedly “purging” agents and other employees with conservative political views.
However, in a letter to the subcommittee’s chairman, Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, FBI Assistant Director Christopher Dunham said Allen’s top-secret security clearance had been revoked by his Charlotte superiors this month after he had “expressed sympathy for persons or organizations that advocate, threaten or use force or violence,” the New York Times and other outlets reported.
Allen’s actions, according to Dunham, raised security concerns in the Charlotte Field Office about his “allegiance to the United States.” Allen has been suspended without pay since February 2022.
The subcommittee’s report claims that Allen and several other FBI employees scheduled to testify were punished for either doing their jobs or speaking out against “the politicization” of the bureau.
In an email to The Charlotte Observer on Thursday, the FBI said the retaliation claims are not true.
“The FBI’s mission is to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people,” the bureau said. “The FBI has not and will not retaliate against individuals who make protected whistleblower disclosures.”
The subcommittee’s report also alleges that Bank of America “voluntarily and without any legal process,” gave the Washington office of the FBI “a list of individuals who made transactions in the Washington, D.C., area using a BoA product” between Jan. 5-7, 2021.
Customers in the D.C. area at the time who had used a BoA credit card to buy a gun in the past were “reportedly elevated to the top of the list,” according to a now retired FBI analyst who testified to the subcommittee in March, the report states.
Under questioning by the subcommittee, however, the retired analyst, George Hill, acknowledged that he merely had seen a record about the bank’s activities in the FBI’s case-management system but did not open it, CNN reported.
The FBI Office in Charlotte says it suspended an analyst last year after his actions concerning the investigation of the Capitol riot raised questions about “his allegiance to the United States.” Charlotte Observer file image Charlotte Observer file image
Based on court files tied to its Jan. 6 investigation, the FBI frequently received court approval to acquire banking and communications records to pinpoint the locations of suspects or to search for evidence of crimes.
The subcommittee’s report, however, described Bank of America’s actions in more critical terms — as “an invasion of the privacy of American citizens (that is) decidedly concerning.”
In response to the subcommittee’s allegations, a spokeswoman for Bank of America told the Observer on Thursday that the bank “follows all applicable laws and regulatory requirements to receive, evaluate, process, safeguard, and narrowly respond to law enforcement requests.”
The weaponization subcommittee was formed by the House Republican majority to investigate purported corruption and bias in the federal government — from the so-called “Deep State” probes of former President Donald Trump to alleged improper business activity by Hunter Biden as well as the FBI’s supposed “anti-parent” investigations into angry school protests over books, curriculum and pandemic response.
Its FBI whistleblower report involving Jan. 6 comes the same week as the release of the findings of a Trump administration-appointed special prosecutor that criticizes the FBI’s probe of possible links between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Nonetheless, Russell Dye, a spokesman for Jordan, dismissed Dunham’s letter as a “last-minute Hail Mary” by the FBI “to salvage their reputation after John Durham illuminated their election interference and before brave whistleblowers testify about the agency’s politicized behavior and retaliation against anyone who dares speak out.”
The report and subcommittee hearing spotlights the roles of Charlotte and other FBI field offices in the massive federal investigation of Jan. 6., when thousands of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol to block congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s election win.
More than 1,000 arrests have been made to date. At least 28 have come from North Carolina. Ten N.C. residents have already been sentenced to prison.
‘Excercise extreme caution‘
Allen, according to Dunham’s letter, sent an email from his bureau account to co-workers several months after the Capitol attack, urging them to “exercise extreme caution and discretion in pursuit of any investigative inquiries or leads pertaining to the events” of Jan. 6.
He also sent an email linking to a website stating that “federal law enforcement had some degree of infiltration among the crowds gathered at the Capitol,” which Allen said raised “serious concerns” about the U.S. government’s participation in the riot, according to The Times.
In addition, when Allen was asked to conduct “open source searches on a Jan. 6 subject” from North Carolina, he reported that he found nothing to show that the suspect “engaged in criminal activity nor did he find a nexus to terrorism.”
As a result of Allen’s summary, the case was closed. It was reopened when another FBI employee provided “readily available” information that the subject in question had assaulted a Capitol police officer on Jan. 6 — “information … that should have been obtained by Mr. Allen when he conducted his search,” according to Dunham.
At least seven N.C. defendants have been convicted or accused of assaulting police on Jan. 6. Overall, 140 officers were injured defending the Capitol from the mob.
When asked by the Observer for the identity of the target of Allen’s investigation and whether that person has been charged, the FBI did not respond.
In a federal lawsuit filed in South Carolina, Allen said his suspension letter on Jan. 10, 2022 — which he says he received in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant off Carowinds Boulevard — accused him of espousing “conspiratorial views” and promoting “unreliable information which indicates support for the events of January 6th.”
Allen, who lives in Lancaster, S.C., denies the allegations.
He joined the FBI in 2015 after previous serving as a Marine intelligence specialist in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He received the “Employee of the Year Award” from the Charlotte Field Office in 2019.
In his complaint against Christopher Wray, he accuses the FBI director of multiple First Amendment violations, including “content- and viewpoint-based discrimination,” as well as retaliation.
Allen also wants his security clearance restored and to be returned to his job.
This story was originally published May 18, 2023, 5:18 PM.
Michael Gordon has been the Observer’s legal affairs writer since 2013. He has been an editor and reporter at the paper since 1992, occasionally writing about schools, religion, politics and sports. He spent two summers as “Bikin Mike,” filing stories as he pedaled across the Carolinas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Kentucky man with a long criminal record was sentenced Friday to a record-setting 14 years in prison for attacking police officers with pepper spray and a chair as he stormed the U.S. Capitol with his wife.
Peter Schwartz’s prison sentence is the longest so far among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The judge who sentenced Schwartz also handed down the previous longest sentence — 10 years — to a retired New York Police Department officer who assaulted a police officer outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 24 years and 6 months for Schwartz, a welder.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Schwartz to 14 years and two months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Mehta said Schwartz was a “soldier against democracy” who participated in “the kind of mayhem, chaos that had never been seen in the country’s history.”
“You are not a political prisoner,” the judge told him. “You’re not somebody who is standing up against injustice or fighting against an autocratic regime.”
Schwartz briefly addressed the judge before learning his sentence, saying, “I do sincerely regret the damage that Jan. 6 has caused to so many people and their lives.”
The judge said he didn’t believe Schwartz’s statement, noting his lack of remorse.
“You took it upon yourself to try and injure multiple police officers that day,” Mehta said.
Schwartz was armed with a wooden tire knocker when he and his then-wife, Shelly Stallings, joined other rioters in overwhelming a line of police officers on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where he threw a folding chair at officers.
“By throwing that chair, Schwartz directly contributed to the fall of the police line that enabled rioters to flood forward and take over the entire terrace,” prosecutor Jocelyn Bond wrote in a court filing.
In this image from a Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer’s body-worn video camera, released and annotated by the Justice Department in the Government’s Sentencing Memorandum, Peter Schwartz circled in red is shown using a canister of pepper spray against officers on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Schwartz on Friday, May 5, 2023, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attacking police officers with pepper spray as he stormed the U.S. Capitol with his wife. (Justice Department via AP)
Schwartz, 49, also armed himself with a police-issued “super soaker” canister of pepper spray and sprayed it at retreating officers. Advancing to a tunnel entrance, Schwartz coordinated with two other rioters, Markus Maly and Jeffrey Brown, to spray an orange liquid toward officers clashing with the mob.
“While the stream of liquid did not directly hit any officer, its effect was to heighten the danger to the officers in that tunnel,” Bond wrote.
Before leaving, Schwartz joined a “heave ho” push against police in the tunnel.
Stallings pleaded guilty last year to riot-related charges and was sentenced last month to two years of incarceration.
Schwartz was tried with co-defendants Maly and Brown. In December, a jury convicted all three of assault charges and other felony offenses.
Mehta sentenced Brown last Friday to four years and six months in prison. Maly is scheduled to be sentenced June 9.
Schwartz’s attorneys requested a prison sentence of four years and six months. They said his actions on Jan. 6 were motivated by a “misunderstanding” about the 2020 presidential election. Then-President Donald Trump and his allies spread baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the election from the Republican incumbent.
“There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the ‘great lie’ that Trump won the election, Donald Trump being among the most prominent. Mr. Schwartz is not one of these individuals; he knows he was wrong,” his defense lawyers wrote.
Prosecutors said Schwartz has bragged about his participation in the riot, shown no remorse and claimed that his prosecution was politically motivated. He referred to the Capitol attack as the “opening of a war” in a Facebook post a day after the riot.
“I was there and whether people will acknowledge it or not we are now at war,” Schwartz wrote.
Schwartz has raised over $71,000 from an online campaign entitled “Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC.” Prosecutors asked Mehta to order Schwartz to pay a fine equaling the amount raised by his campaign, arguing that he shouldn’t profit from participating in the riot.
Schwartz was on probation when he joined the Jan. 6 riot. His criminal record includes a “jaw-dropping” 38 prior convictions since 1991, “several of which involved assaulting or threatening officers or other authority figures,” Bond wrote.
Schwartz was working as a welder in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, before his arrest in February 2021, but he considers his home to be in Owensboro, Kentucky, according to his attorneys.
The 10-year prison sentence that Mehta handed down in September to retired NYPD officer Thomas Webster had remained the longest until Friday. Webster had used a metal flagpole to assault an officer and then tackled the same officer as the mob advanced toward the Capitol.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Southern California man who assaulted police with pepper spray during the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, federal authorities announced.
Jeffrey Scott Brown, 56, of Santa Ana received a sentence of 54 months in federal prison for felony and misdemeanor charges related to the mob attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a Friday press statement.
More than 1,000 individuals have been arrested, including more than 320 people who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, the DOJ said. Trump supporters that day tried to stop Congress from certifying presidential election results for Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, a Republican.
Brown and two co-defendants were found guilty at trial in December.
Peter J. Schwartz of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, is scheduled to be sentenced in May. It was not clear why Markus Maly of Fincastle, Virginia, was not sentenced Friday as scheduled.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 70 months for Brown, who they say dove toward the front of a makeshift police line and used on officers a stolen can of pepper spray handed to him by Schwartz.
Brown’s attorney, Samuel C. Moore, sought 40 months in prison, according to court documents.
Moore said that the conduct involved “less than 10 minutes of Mr. Brown’s life” and the alleged pepper spray “did not make contact with any specific victim.” Still, Moore wrote, Brown admits he should never have been in the Capitol tunnel that day and that he takes responsibility for doing so.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday night moved former Vice President Mike Pence closer to appearing before a grand jury investigating efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, rejecting a bid by lawyers for former President Donald Trump to block the testimony.
It was not immediately clear what day Pence might appear before the grand jury, which for months has been investigating the events preceding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and efforts by Trump and his allies to subvert the election outcome. But Pence’s testimony, coming as he inches toward a likely entrance in the 2024 presidential race, would be a milestone moment in the investigation and would likely give prosecutors a key first-person account as they press forward with their inquiry.
The order from the three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was sealed and none of the parties are mentioned by name in online court records. But the appeal in the sealed case was filed just days after a lower-court judge had directed Pence to testify over objections from the Trump team.
A lawyer for Pence and a spokesman for Trump did not immediately return emails seeking comment, and a spokesman for the Justice Department special counsel leading the investigation declined to comment.
The appeal was decided by Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, and judges Patricia Millett and Gregory Wilkins, both appointees of former President Barack Obama. It was not clear if lawyers for Trump might ask the entire appeals court to hear the matter.
Pence was subpoenaed to testify earlier this year, but lawyers for Trump objected, citing executive privilege concerns. A judge in March refused to block Trump’s appearance, though he did side with the former vice president’s constitutional claims that he could not be forced to answer questions about anything related to his role as presiding over the Senate’s certification of votes on Jan. 6.
A spokesman for Pence subsequently said that the former vice president would not appeal and that his arguments about the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from being questioned about official legislative acts, had been vindicated.
“We’ll obey the law, we’ll tell the truth,” Pence said in an interview with CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday. “And the story that I’ve been telling the American people all across the country, the story that I wrote in the pages of my memoir, that’ll be the story I tell in that setting.”
Pence has spoken extensively about Trump’s pressure campaign urging him to reject Biden’s victory in the days leading up to Jan. 6, including in his book “So Help Me God.” Pence, as vice president, had a ceremonial role overseeing Congress’ counting of the Electoral College vote, but did not have the power to affect the results, despite Trump’s contention otherwise.
Pence has said that Trump endangered his family and everyone else who was at the Capitol that day and history will hold him “accountable.”
“For four years, we had a close working relationship. It did not end well,” Pence wrote, summing up their time in the White House.
The special counsel leading the investigation, Jack Smith, has cast a broad net in interviews and has sought the testimony of a long list of former Trump aides, including ex-White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former adviser Stephen Miller.
Smith is separately investigating Trump over the potential mishandling of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, as well as possible efforts to obstruct that probe. On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers in that investigation called the Justice Department investigation “severely botched” and “politically infected” and urged the House Intelligence Committee to step in by holding hearings and introducing legislation to correct classified document handling procedures in the White House and standardize procedures for presidents and vice presidents for when they leave office.
“DOJ should be ordered to stand down, and the intelligence community should instead conduct an appropriate investigation and provide a full report to this Committee, as well as your counterparts in the Senate,” the lawyers wrote.
It is not clear when either of the special counsel’s investigations will end or who, if anyone, will be charged.
Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
In a recorded conversation with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) laid out a plan to create a “commission” to help him overturn the 2020 election to keep Donald Trump in the White House.
“I think that the country deserves to have a credible assessment of these claims and what the evidence shows, and the mechanism to try to force that is denying certification on the 6th,” Cruz says in the Jan. 2, 2021, recording, obtained and aired Tuesday by MSNBC’s Ari Melber.
Cruz played a starring role on Jan. 6, 2021, when he led a group of Republican senators in objecting to certain states’ Electoral College counts in the 2020 presidential election. He then continued to support Trump’s lies about widespread electoral fraud even after a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to disrupt the certification of the electoral votes, which confirmed Joe Biden had won the presidency.
According to Melber, the tape showed how Cruz planned to help Trump seize power and overthrow the election after all of the former president’s challenges had been thrown out in court.
“He literally explains it that way,” Melber said. “Basically they would hijack the certification and use their own made-up, fake commission to declare that the Biden win was fraudulent and then that would decide who was inaugurated.”
In the conversation with Bartiromo, Cruz said that if a majority of the House and Senate objected to the electoral certification on Jan. 6, then an electoral commission could be created, ultimately deciding who would be inaugurated.
If the commission “found credible evidence of fraud that undermines confidence in the electoral results in any given state,” Cruz said, it would be able to recertify the results.
Notably, in a November 2020 call with Bartiromo that MSNBC aired last week, Cruz suggested Trump’s team of lawyers lacked “actual evidence” of electoral fraud that would hold up in court.
On the same day as his call with Bartiromo, Cruz and 10 other Senate Republicans unveiled a plan to reject the certification of results in states where Trump contested his defeat unless an “emergency 10-day [congressional] audit” of results was completed.
Cruz lashed out at Melber’s reporting Tuesday, arguing that his plan to overthrow the election was not a secret:
This @msnbc 🤡 is breathlessly reporting that I “secretly” said in a phone call…the EXACT same thing I said on national television the next morning!
MSNBC obtained the recordings from Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer for Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson who is suing the network over workplace misconduct allegations. Listen to them below.
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s actions leading up to and during his mob’s assault on the Capitol will get access to key evidence after his former vice president decided not to pursue an appeal to avoid testifying.
Mike Pence aide Devin O’Malley said that a judge’s ruling had agreed with him on the key issue that Pence had objected to regarding his role on Jan. 6 itself as presiding officer of the Senate. “Having vindicated that principle of the Constitution, Vice President Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” O’Malley said.
Pence had originally said he would take his battle to quash the grand jury subpoena to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. But a week ago, he said that he was “pleased” that James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., had agreed with his argument that the “speech and debate clause” in the Constitution applied to him in his role as president of the Senate.
Prosecutors’ main interest in Pence’s testimony, though, is not in his dealings with members of Congress. Rather, it is in his interactions and conversations with Trump and his aides, who had been pushing him for weeks to use his role as presiding officer at the election certification ceremony on Jan. 6, 2021, to award Trump a second term, even though he had lost his re-election bid to Democrat Joe Biden two months earlier.
Trump attempted to claim “executive privilege” to prevent Pence from revealing that information, but Boasberg rejected that argument in his still-sealed ruling.
It is unclear whether Trump will appeal Boasberg’s ruling to keep Pence from testifying. Trump’s staff did not immediately respond to a HuffPost query, but his lawyers a week ago filed a similar appeal in an attempt to prevent other senior White House aides, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, from having to answer questions before the grand jury. That appeal was denied Tuesday.
Norm Eisen, a former White House lawyer in the Obama administration who worked with House leaders on Trump’s first impeachment for extorting Ukraine, said Pence’s testimony would be “of the utmost importance” to special counsel Jack Smith.
“He is a critical firsthand witness to Trump’s statements as the attempted coup evolved,” Eisen said. “The most important testimony that Pence has to offer begins on Dec. 5, when Trump first raised the idea of challenging the Electoral College with him, and rolls through the remainder of that month and into Jan. 6 itself.”
While Boasberg’s ruling, according to Pence and others, says Pence is not required to reveal his interactions with members of Congress, it does not shield him from discussing Trump and other executive branch officials.
“Pence will likely be required to testify about everything outside his official duties in Congress on the 6th, so all of those conversations will likely be up for grabs,” Eisen said.
Trump and his inner circle began planning to use fraudulent slates of Trump “electors” well before the Electoral College met on Dec. 14, 2020, to ratify Biden’s victory. Indeed, that very morning, senior Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller appeared on Fox News and boasted of how pro-Trump slates of “alternate” electors were being chosen as he spoke so that Congress would have competing slates from key states, handing Trump’s allies the opportunity to give him a second term.
Trump and his aides began pressuring Pence to go along with the scheme in early December and ramped up their efforts after Christmas, according to former Pence advisers, and testimony revealed at the House Jan. 6 committee hearings.
The pressure campaign culminated in Trump’s Jan. 6 pre-insurrection speech near the White House, where he again called on Pence to do as he had demanded, even though Pence had already told Trump that he had no constitutional authority to do so. That afternoon, Trump attacked Pence for not having the “courage” to do what Trump wanted, and his mob responded by storming into the Capitol en masse.
Four of Trump’s followers died on Jan. 6, as did five police officers in the following days and weeks. Another 140 officers were injured, and the Justice Department is prosecuting over a thousand rioters, with at least hundreds more cases expected.
Despite this, Trump is running for the presidency again and is currently leading his rivals for the GOP nomination in polls. And while he initially denounced those who committed violence on Jan. 6, he has more recently embraced their actions and has promised to pardon them if elected. At a recent rally, he even featured a recording of Jan. 6 detainees – the vast majority charged with assaulting police officers – singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” interspersed with Trump’s reading of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Ken Sicknick, brother of late U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, went after a recent Fox News take from former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) who claimed Republicans bring American flags to protests whereas progressives bring gas masks.
The comments from Sicknick, whose brother died following two strokes in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, arrive after the Fox News contributor said progressives have gas masks as they “knock some people and knock some heads” at protests whereas conservatives support law enforcement.
Sicknick, during an MSNBC appearance on Friday, gave Chaffetz a history lesson on the events surrounding the Capitol riot.
“He actually said they bring flags – yeah, they did bring flags, with pointed ends on it that they attacked policeofficers with,” said Sicknick.
Ken Sicknick: There’s a former congressman that mentioned that conservatives don’t wear gas masks and bring weapons to protests. He says they bring flags. They did bring flags with pointed ends that they attacked police officers with pic.twitter.com/r8V8DNm5bf
Sicknick appeared on the network after a number of lawmakers, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), stopped by a D.C. jail to check on Jan. 6 rioters’ treatment.
Greene has compared rioters’ treatment to that of “political prisoners” and Sicknick, on Friday, said the trip was a way to show “fealty” to former President Donald Trump along with insurrectionists.
He noted that nearly 1,000 people have been arrested in connection to the attack and 20 people have been charged for what Just Security notes are “serious criminal offenses” related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
“At least 17 of them have been charged with violent crimes against police officers, this is a party that claims they back the blue yet 140 police officers were injured,” Sicknick said.
Ken Sicknick: At least 17 of them have been charged with a violent crime against police officers. This is a party that claims they back the blue. pic.twitter.com/Dq2tPfeehc
A former top editor of an Orthodox Jewish newspaper in New York City was arrested Thursday on charges that he interfered with police officers who were trying to protect the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.
Elliot Resnick, 39, was chief editor of The Jewish Press when he joined the crowd of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Videos show Resnick grabbing and holding the arm of a Capitol police sergeant who was spraying a chemical irritant to prevent rioters from entering the building, the affidavit says. Another officer tried to remove Resnick’s hand from the sergeant’s arm, the agent wrote.
The FBI arrested Resnick in New York City on charges including civil disorder and assault of or interference with law enforcement. Clay Kaminsky, an attorney representing Resnick in New York, declined to comment on the charges.
Elliot Resnick, circled, a former top editor of an Orthodox Jewish newspaper in New York City, was arrested Thursday on charges he interfered with police officers who were trying to protect the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.
The Jewish Press, based in Brooklyn, bills itself as the largest independent weekly Jewish newspaper in the U.S. A statement on its website says it is “known for its editorial feistiness” and “was politically incorrect long before the phrase was coined.”
Politico reported in April 2021 that video showed Resnick inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. Resnick later wrote an article defending the Capitol riot without acknowledging his presence in the building that day, Politico’s report noted.
At the time, The Jewish Press publisher Naomi Mauer told Politico that the newspaper believed Resnick “acted within the law.”
A statement from The Jewish Press editorial board confirmed Resnick was in the Capitol on Jan. 6 and had been “covering the rally and the rest of the day’s terrible events” for the newspaper.
The editorial board wrote, “The Jewish Press does not see why Elliot’s personal views on former President Trump should make him any different from the dozens of other journalists covering the events, including many inside the Capitol building during the riots.”
Then-President Trump addressed a crowd of his supporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. The mob that stormed the Capitol disrupted a joint session of Congress that was certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Before the riot, Resnick posted social media messages echoing Trump’s baseless claims that Democrats stole the election from him, according to posts cited by the FBI affidavit.
Resnick had been a reporter and editor at The Jewish Press since 2006. He left the newspaper in May 2021, before the FBI says it began investigating him.
The Jewish Press staff didn’t immediately respond to email and telephone messages seeking comment on Resnick’s arrest.
Approximately 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Several riot defendants have claimed that they were acting as journalists when they joined the mob in entering the Capitol, but prosecutors and judges have routinely rejected those claims.
For the past two years, the FBI has been fanning out across the county to arrest Capitol riot suspects. The cases are often based on tips that they received in the first months after the riot.
The FBI agent’s account of Resnick’s actions on Jan. 6 portray him as an active participant in the riot.
Video showed Resnick repeatedly gesturing for others to come upstairs toward the Capitol after rioters broke through a line of police officers, the agent’s affidavit says.
Renick was one of the first rioters to enter the Capitol through the East Rotunda doors, according to the FBI. After entering the building, Resnick joined others in attempting to push open a door that a police officer was trying to keep closed, the FBI said. Another officer who tried to stop Renick was thrown to the ground by a different rioter.
Resnick grabbed and pulled other rioters into the Capitol after he failed to open the door, according to the affidavit. It says he spent roughly 50 minutes inside the Capitol before leaving.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday harshly criticized former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, widening the rift between the two men as they prepare to battle over the Republican nomination in next year’s election.
“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said during remarks at the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner attended by politicians and journalists. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Pence’s remarks were the sharpest condemnation yet from the once-loyal lieutenant who has often shied away from confronting his former boss. Trump has already declared his candidacy. Pence has not, but he’s been laying the groundwork to run.
In the days leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Trump pressured Pence to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory as he presided over the ceremonial certification of the results. Pence refused, and when rioters stormed the Capitol, some chanted that they wanted to “hang Mike Pence.”
The House committee that investigated the attack said in its final report that “the President of the United States had riled up a mob that hunted his own Vice President.”
With his remarks, Pence solidified his place in a broader debate within the Republican Party over how to view the attack. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for example, recently provided Tucker Carlson with an archive of security camera footage from Jan. 6, which the Fox News host has used to downplay the day’s events and promote conspiracy theories.
“Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace,” Pence said in his Gridiron Dinner remarks. “And it mocks decency to portray it any other way.”
Trump, meanwhile, has continued to spread lies about his election loss. He’s even spoken in support of the rioters and said he would consider pardoning them if he was reelected.
FILE – Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks with reporters on March 2 in South Carolina. Pence went after Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021 and also made jokes about his ego during the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner on Saturday.
Speeches at the Gridiron Dinner are usually humorous affairs, where politicians poke fun at each other, and Pence did plenty of that as well.
He joked that Trump’s ego was so fragile, he wanted his vice president to sing “Wind Beneath My Wings” — one of the lines is “did you ever know that you’re my hero?” — during their weekly lunches.
He took another shot at Trump over classified documents.
“I read that some of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president’s Bible,” Pence said. “Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.”
Even before the dinner was over, Pence was facing criticism for his jokes about Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet member in U.S. history.
Pence mentioned that, despite travel problems that were plaguing Americans, Buttigieg took “maternity leave” after he and his husband adopted newborn twins.
“Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets post-partum depression,” Pence said. ___
Twitter overlord Elon Musk showed sympathy on Friday for the Capitol rioter dubbed the “QAnon Shaman,” in the billionaire’s latest effort to downplay the deadly events of Jan. 6, 2021.
“Free Jacob Chansley,” Musk tweeted to his 130 million followers, apparently suggesting the rioter’s sentence was unwarranted.
Chansley had earned his nickname by raiding the U.S. Capitol bare-chested on Jan. 6 with a furry Viking-style hat and face paint, carrying an American flag zip-tied to a spear.
For making threats and disrupting Congress as its members attempted to certify the results of the 2020 election, Chansley got 41 months in prison, or just shy of three and a half years.
He is one of 1,000 people to be arrested for their participation in the attack on the Capitol and the law enforcement officers defending it. More than 300 people have been charged with physically assaulting or resisting officers or employees.
Jacob Chansley, right, expressing his feelings in the halls of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
Yet Musk has recently begun to promote the false idea — pushed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Fox News host Tucker Carlson and other conservatives — that the Capitol attack was actually a mostly peaceful event.
In a segment last week that was criticized by U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, among others, Carlson used selectively edited footage to make the breach seem far tamer than it truly was.
Musk promoted the segment repeatedly on his Twitter page with credulous commentary.
On Friday, Musk reacted to a video clip that showed Chansley using a bullhorn to read a tweet sent by former President Donald Trump at around 3:15 p.m. on Jan. 6.
“Respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue,” Trump wrote, as read out by Chansley.
This, combined with other footage that showed Chansley walking alongside law enforcement through the halls of the Capitol, seemed to absolve him in Musk’s mind.
“Chansley got 4 years in prison for a non-violent, police-escorted tour!?” the Twitter and Tesla CEO marveled. (The sentence was less than four years.) In another tweet, Musk claimed Chansley “was falsely portrayed in the media as a violent criminal who tried to overthrow the state and who urged others to commit violence.”
“I’m not part of MAGA, but I do believe in fairness of justice,” he added.
Chansley pleaded guilty to charges of civil disorder, disorderly and disruptive conduct, violent entry to a building, and other counts at his November 2021 sentencing hearing. Prosecutors said he pushed past a police barrier to enter the Capitol and made his way to the Senate floor, where he shouted “Mike Pence is a fucking traitor” from the dais, and led other protesters in a chant against “all the tyrants, the communists, and the globalists.”
He also left a note: “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!”
MSNBC’s Alex Wagner asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday if the Biden administration considers Fox News a news organization. That prompted a thoughtful response, at least at first. (Watch the video below.)
But the analysis gave way to a light exchange in which Wagner concluded with a wry smile: “So, I’m gonna say that sort of sounds like the White House doesn’t think Fox is a news organization, but we gotta leave it there.” Both laughed.
Wagner had mentioned Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s “whitewashing” of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection ― most recently through cherry-picked Capitol security video showing mundane moments during the attack. She showed President Joe Biden’s firm response to the conservative dismissal of events, noting that 140 officers were injured in insurrectionist violence that Carlson and some extremist Republicans are trying to downplay as innocent tourism.
“Does the White House consider Fox News a news organization?” Wagner asked Jean-Pierre.
Jean-Pierre replied that court depositions show that even Fox News does “not see Tucker Carlson’s show as news or even truthful. That is coming from the Fox leadership, that’s not coming from me. That is coming from them.”
A judge, in a 2020 defamation ruling siding with Fox News, ruled the “general tenor” of Carlson’s show should signal to viewers that the TV personality “is not ‘stating actual facts’ about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary.’” Viewers should be skeptical, the judge added.
Documents released in Dominion Voting Systems’ ongoing defamation suit against Fox News seem to reinforce that point, showing that Carlson and other prime time personalities privately mocked Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies while promoting them on TV.
As for the legitimacy of Carlson’s latest round of denying the severity of the Capitol siege, Jean-Pierre said:
“It was an attack on democracy. It was an attack on our Constitution and you cannot whitewash that. Tucker Carlson cannot whitewash that. Anyone who doesn’t see with their own eyes what occurred cannot whitewash that. And so, the president’s going to stand with the police officers, he’s going to stand for truth. And clearly, that is not what Tucker Carlson believes in.”
That’s when Wagner attempted to sum up Jean-Pierre’s reply, with the two sharing giggles at the MSNBC host’s conclusion.
House Republicans, who vowed to investigate Democrats if they took back control of the House this year, now have a plan to investigate the select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, CNN reported Wednesday. Those plans reportedly include conducting investigations into Capitol security at the time of the attack and possibly how Jan. 6 defendants have been treated by the legal system.
“I’m spending some time over there getting my hands wrapped around what we have. We’re going to be looking at what happened in the Capitol. What happened leading up to it? How did we have such a security failure?” Loudermilk told CNN. “The Jan. 6 committee, they didn’t take that approach… I think they looked more on the political side of it.”
The House Committee on House Administration already launched a portal where individuals “with knowledge of the events” can provide information about the insurrection and the Jan. 6 committee.
“My intention is to take us where the facts lead to get to the truth,” Loudermilk added in his interview with CNN.
The bipartisan House select committee investigated the Capitol riot and the events leading up to it for a year and a half — holding a series of televised hearings and releasing a formal report recommending that the Justice Department launch an investigation of former President Donald Trump’s involvement.
Contrary to Republicans’ claims, the committee did investigate security failures before the riot. A separate bipartisan probe in the Senate also detailed “how security, planning and response failures led to a violent and unprecedented breach of the United States Capitol” and offered recommendations to avoid similar breaches in the future.
The insurrection by Trump supporters, who marched to the Capitol after a rally in which he claimed the 2020 election had been “stolen” from him, sought to prevent a joint session of Congress from certifying the Electoral College count for Joe Biden. The riot led to at least five people’s deaths and the injury of at least 140 law enforcement officers.Charges have been filed against more than 1,000 of the rioters. The Jan. 6 committee was able to subpoena more than 100 individuals, interview more than 1,200 and accumulate copious amounts of documents and records in the process, NBC News reported.
Trump sued in an effort to prevent himself from providing documents and testimony, and the committee eventually ran out of time before it was dissolved in January of this year as the House’s new GOP majority was sworn in. The committee withdrew its subpoena for Trump shortly before dissolving, The New York Times reported.
News of the Republican investigation of the investigators comes in the same week that Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson shared new footage of the Capitol riot on his show on Monday, downplaying the violence of the attack. He had been provided the footage by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). McCarthy has defended his decision to give Carlson the footage, saying he wanted to offer the public “transparency” so people could make their own decisions about how the events of Jan. 6 played out.
Other prominent Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have criticized Fox News’ handling of the footage.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), a member of the defunct Jan. 6 committee, told CNN that they are prepared for the Republicans’ investigation.
“It’s something that we’ve thought through over the past two years. I knew that there could be political consequences. … We’ll see what happens ― and we’ll be prepared,” Aguilar said. “There is no limit to what [McCarthy] will do in order to fulfill those promises to the most extreme within his caucus.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has recalled the “bizarre” voicemail that disgraced attorney Rudy Giuliani left on his phone on Jan. 6, 2021, apparently while trying to reach a different Republican senator.
Sullivan was asked about the incident by CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” on Tuesday. The detail was mentioned in the final report by the House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot, which was released in December. The senator’s office said at the time that Giuliani’s misdirected call was “incoherent” and “said something about delaying the certification” of the 2020 election results.
“This was a phone call from somebody, I didn’t even know who it was, they left a message. I listened to the message a few days later,” Sullivan recalled on CNN. “Ironically, Jake, it was actually for the wrong senator. Rudy Giuliani had the wrong phone number.”
“I’ve never met him,” he continued. “I barely even understood what he was saying.”
“It was quite bizarre,” he added.
Sullivan was not among the eight Republican senators who voted to overturn the election after supporters of then-President Donald Trump laid siege to the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s win.
Giuliani, who was serving as Trump’s personal attorney at the time, led Trump’s legal efforts to change the presidential election result in his favor. He told the Jan. 6 committee he was “probably calling to see if anything could be done … about the vote.”
According to the report, Giuliani called several Republican lawmakers in addition to Sullivan, including Sens. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Mike Lee (Utah), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Ted Cruz (Texas).
Giuliani left a different accidental voicemail on Lee’s phone. The message, apparently intended for Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), said: “We need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you,” referring to the electoral count from states that had close results.
WASHINGTON ― Former President Donald Trump on Thursday backed a rioter who was shot by police while storming the Capitol and rebuked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for defending the officer.
McCarthy said earlier on Thursday that the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021, was just doing his job.
“I totally disagree with the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, in that the Police Officer ‘Thug,’ who has had a very checkered past to begin with, was not just ‘doing his job’ when he shot and killed Great Patriot Ashli Babbitt at point blank range,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Babbitt was shot as she tried to climb through a broken window in a barricaded doorway to the Speaker’s Lobby, which is just outside the House chamber, while lawmakers evacuated. She was part of a violent mob that threatened officers guarding the entrance and smashed the windows with their fists. The Capitol Police have said the officer’s action likely saved lives.
Trump’s post illustrates the collision course of McCarthy’s speakership. He won the job with the support of far-right lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a conspiracy theorist who baselessly claims undercover FBI agents tricked Trump’s supporters into storming the Capitol that day.
Empowered by McCarthy with a seat on the House Oversight Committee, this week Greene used her new platform to claim Babbitt was “murdered,” likening her death to the high-profile police killing of Tyre Nichols. She dubiously claimed in an interview with HuffPost that Babbitt wasn’t trying to climb through the window, contrary to video evidence.
HuffPost asked McCarthy on Thursday if he agreed with Greene that Babbitt was murdered. “I think the police officer did his job,” he said, avoiding comment on Greene’s inflammatory statement.
Even an anodyne statement in support of police sets up McCarthy for a clash with Trump.
Trump has not only praised his riotous supporters but also participated in a fundraiser for the legal defense of people charged with attacking police on Jan. 6. Thursday’s post is not the first time Trump has criticized the officer who shot Babbitt.
The officer, Lt. Michael Byrd, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Justice Department in 2021.
Byrd told NBCNews in a tearful 2021 interview that he believed he’d done his job to protect members of Congress. He said he’d been in hiding for months due to a flood of death threats thanks to right-wing websites.
“This officer and the officer’s family have been the subject of numerous credible and specific threats for actions that were taken as part of the job of all our officers: defending the Congress, Members, staff and the democratic process,” the Capitol Police said in a statement that year.
“Despite trying to keep him anonymous, shielded, and protected, this MISFIT proudly showed up on NBC Fake Nightly News ‘bragging’ about the killing,” Trump wrote Thursday. “He was not a hero but a COWARD, who wanted to show how tough he was. ASHLI BABBITT WAS MURDERED!!!”
