ReportWire

Tag: capitol riot

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene Compares Tyre Nichols To Capitol Rioter Ashli Babbitt

    Marjorie Taylor Greene Compares Tyre Nichols To Capitol Rioter Ashli Babbitt

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON ― Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is already using her new perch on the House Oversight Committee to host a pity party for the mob rioters who ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    During a committee meeting on Tuesday, Greene compared the police killing of Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, to the police shooting of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt as she tried to break into an inner room of the Capitol.

    Rep. Jasmine Crocket (D-Texas) had spoken out against Republicans’ decision to disband an oversight subcommittee focused on civil rights, mentioning Nichols’ death as something the subcommittee might have investigated.

    “Miss Crockett, I do agree with you about Tyree Nichols’ death,” Greene said. “I watched the video, and it was tragic and extremely difficult to watch.”

    But Memphis is a city controlled by Democrats, Greene said, and the officers who beat Nichols were Black, so it “isn’t an issue of racism or anything like that,” she said.

    “But I’d like to also point something that I’d hope you share with me: There’s a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on Jan. 6, Ashli Babbitt,” Greene continued, having apparently invited Babbitt’s mother to attend the hearing.

    “As a matter of fact, no one has cared about the person that shot and killed her. And no one in this Congress has really addressed that issue,” Greene said. “And I believe that there are many people that came into the Capitol on Jan. 6, whose civil rights and liberties are being violated heavily.”

    The Capitol Police and the Justice Department both cleared the officer who shot Babbitt. She had been trying to climb through the smashed window of a doorway to the Speaker’s Lobby just outside the House chamber. Police had barricaded the door to keep the rioters out.

    “The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and to the House Chamber where Members and staff were steps away,” the Capitol Police said after completing a review in August 2021.

    The Justice Department said in April 2021 its investigation “revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.”

    Five Memphis police officers were charged with murder for beating Nichols for several minutes after a traffic stop earlier this month, a situation not remotely similar to the mob siege of the Capitol.

    Greene is a conspiracy theorist whom Democrats blocked from serving on committees in the previous Congress because of her past threatening commentary about her fellow lawmakers. She and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) have claimed the Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol had been manipulated by secret FBI agents rather than incited to violence by Trump’s election lies.

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said last year Greene could serve on committees if Republicans won the House, and Greene pushed for a seat on the oversight committee so that she could highlight the supposed mistreatment of rioters like Babbitt.

    Greene told HuffPost last year that Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the second-ranking Republican in the House, told her he would support an oversight committee investigation of “political prisoners” held at D.C. jail.

    House Oversight chair James Comer (R-Ky.) was noncommittal about investigating the plight of Capitol rioters.

    “We look into a lot of things that sometimes they may get to the next level of an investigation, and sometimes we just feel we don’t feel like we’ve got enough to go to an investigation,” Comer told HuffPost in November. “So if that’s important to her, then that’s something that I’m sure that we’ll look at.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Adam Kinzinger Is Stuck Wondering What The Republican Party ‘Believes Anymore’

    Adam Kinzinger Is Stuck Wondering What The Republican Party ‘Believes Anymore’

    [ad_1]

    “I still hold the values I hold,” said Kinzinger, who added that hasn’t “totally sold out who I ever was just for power.”

    He added: “I don’t know what my party believes anymore. I don’t hear them talking about smaller government, I don’t hear them talking about a strong national defense. I hear some of them supporting Vladimir Putin over the freedom-loving people of Ukraine and it’s not a party I recognize.”

    Kinzinger, who described himself as feeling “politically homeless” during the interview, weighed in on his time on the Jan. 6 committee and said he thinks there’s “pretty good odds” that the Justice Department brings charges against former President Donald Trump.

    “Nobody is above the law in the United States of America, that includes the president, that’s especially the President of the United States,” Kinzinger said.

    You can watch more of Colbert’s interview with Kinzinger via the clips below.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Trump Hails Jan. 6 ‘Great Patriots,’ Calls Prison Sentences A ‘Disgrace’

    Trump Hails Jan. 6 ‘Great Patriots,’ Calls Prison Sentences A ‘Disgrace’

    [ad_1]

    Even after nearly 1,000 Capitol rioters have been charged with crimes, Donald Trump hailed them this week as “great patriots” and their prison terms “a disgrace.”

    But he also insisted that “virtually nothing happened” during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, so it was apparently no big deal.

    The former president was asked on the far-right cable program “Real America’s Voice” on Friday to say a few words to lift the spirits of the “political prisoners” behind bars in the “gulag.”

    “I think it’s a disgrace what’s been happening,” Trump responded. “So many of these people are great patriots, and what they’ve gone through. Then you look at antifa and BLM [Black Lives Matter]. You look at what’s gone on there, with what they’ve done in all sorts of places over the last … two years, where they’ve burned down cities.”

    However, no cities have been burned down by Black Lives Matter or antifa activists.

    Trump also insisted the insurrection wasn’t “deadly” — “nobody died” on the scene, except for “wonderful” Ashli Babbitt, he added. A police officer fatally shot the Trump supporter as she attempted to climb through a smashed window in the Capitol amid a mob trying to get to lawmakers.

    So, Trump noted, “virtually nothing happened” that day.

    According to the Justice Department records, 950 defendants involved in the 2021 storming of the Capitol have been charged with crimes ranging from trespass and destruction to theft of Capitol property to assault to carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon to seditious conspiracy. In addition, some 140 police officers were injured defending the building and the lawmakers inside.

    Trump hailed the rioters even on the day of the violence, telling them, “we love you, you’re very special,” in a video address as he finally requested that they leave the Capitol. “I know your pain,” he said.

    Trump declared last September that he would “seriously” consider “full pardons — with an apology” for Jan. 6 defendants if he again becomes president. He also claimed at the time that he was “financially” supporting some of them and asked for contributions.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Corporations Slyly Funding Election Deniers All Over Again

    Corporations Slyly Funding Election Deniers All Over Again

    [ad_1]

    After publicly patting themselves on the backs for cutting off financial support to election deniers in the wake of the storming of the Capitol two years ago, many corporations and corporate lobbying groups are again pumping money into politicians who tried to subvert democracy, according to new reports.

    Major companies “turned the spigot back on” and donated millions of dollars to election deniers using their political action committees, Mother Jones reported on Thursday.

    More than half of the 70 major corporation-affiliated political action committees that vowed to pause or reconsider donations to lawmakers in the wake of the Capitol riot failed to stick to their promises, Politico reported Friday.

    The companies donated more than $10 million to members who tried to block certification of the 2020 election results, Politico found in an examination of federal campaign finance filings. Those included Walmart, Comcast, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, PricewaterhouseCoopers and AT&T.

    Thirty-four Fortune 100 companies pledged to suspend support for election deniers, then gave $5.4 million to election deniers, according to an analysis by watchdog organization Accountable US. Among the top donors of the 34 were Abbot Laboratories, Cigna, Ford Motor, General Motors, Home Depot, Intel, UPS, Verizon and Johnson & Johnson.

    “So many corporations sought recognition for halting political spending after Jan. 6, then quietly reopened the money spigot to election deniers when they thought no one was paying attention,” Jeremy Funk, a spokesperson for Accountable, told Politico.

    “Companies that claimed to be allies for democracy then rewarded millions to lawmakers that tried to finish what the insurrectionists started have shown they were never serious,” he added.

    The top five businesses or lobbying groups tracked giving money to election deniers since the insurrection are the National Beer Wholesalers Association Political Action Committee, the American Banker Association PAC, the National Automobile Dealers Association PAC, the Build Political Action Committee of the National Association of Home Builders, and AT&T, according to Accountable US.

    Home Depot, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and UPS are in Accountable’s top ten, while Comcast, Raytheon Technologies, Honeywell International and General Dynamics made the top 20 most generous donors to election deniers, according to data tracked by Accountable. (Check out the figures here.)

    Anheuser-Busch, Toyota, Major League Baseball, The National Football League’s Gridiron PAC, the Publix supermarket chain and Delta, American and Southwest Airlines have all shelled out bucks to election deniers, Mother Jones reported.

    Election deniers are still ensconced in the federal government. Only two of the 147 members of voted against certifying states after the Jan. 6 riots lost their reelection bids in general elections; 130 remain in Congress, Politico pointed out. More than 170 newly elected and returning Republicans have denied or cast doubts on the 2020 results.

    Beneficiaries of corporations’ short attention spans included Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who just made major power concessions to become speaker of the House with Republican lawmakers who supported the 2021 insurrection.

    U.S. corporations also helped fund the reelection of Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.). Kelly, who pushed to block certification of the election and has bashed convictions of Capitol rioters, Mother Jones reported.

    Check out the reports in Politico here and Mother Jones here.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Trump Potentially Returning To Facebook After Capitol Riot Support Spurred 2-Year Ban

    Trump Potentially Returning To Facebook After Capitol Riot Support Spurred 2-Year Ban

    [ad_1]

    Facebook’s parent company Meta will potentially allow former President Donald Trump back on its social media platforms after his actions online on Jan. 6, 2021, during the Capitol riot spurred a two-year ban, a spokesperson told CNN earlier this week.

    Another source told the outlet that this decision could be announced in a matter of weeks and might become the most important one in Meta’s history. Meanwhile, the verdict will reportedly be made by a group of leaders from various parts of the company.

    “His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the U.S. and around the world,” wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Jan. 7, 2021, statement about Trump’s ban.

    While Trump was initially banned “indefinitely” and “for at least the next two weeks” from both Facebook and Instagram at the time, the company officially vanquished him in June 2021 for two years — dating back to Jan. 7, according to CBS News.

    While Trump might thus return to these platforms, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, previously said: “If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time… until that risk has receded.”

    Zuckerberg initially banned Trump “indefinitely” before issuing a two-year ban in June 2021.

    Clegg added that Facebook will “evaluate external factors” to determine as much, including “instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest.” Whether Trump’s continued screeds on election fraud qualify remains to be seen.

    “Sadly, Facebook has been doing very poorly since they took me off,” Trump wrote Thursday on his Truth Social platform. “It has lost $750 Billion in value and has become very boring. Hopefully, Facebook will be able to turn it around.”

    “Maybe their first step should be to get away from the ridiculous change in name to Meta, and go back to ‘Facebook,’” he continued. “Whoever made that decision, and the decision to take me off, will go down in the Business Hall of Fame for two of the worst decisions in Business History!”

    Meta’s market value had fallen from a peak of more than $1 trillion in September 2021 to $268 billion the following October, per CBS News. While Trump ultimately created his own platform last February, his possible return has Democrats concerned.

    Last month, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote CNN a letter urging Meta to “maintain its platform ban” on Trump in order “to credibly maintain a legitimate election integrity policy,” despite Meta being a private company.

    Whether Trump’s Meta accounts will be reinstated remains to be seen. Facebook’s rules, however, have already determined that his comments will not be fact-checked if he is — should he run for office again — as elected officials and candidates aren’t subject to them.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Biden To Award Medals To Officers, Others Who Defended Democracy On Jan. 6

    Biden To Award Medals To Officers, Others Who Defended Democracy On Jan. 6

    [ad_1]

    President Joe Biden will mark the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by awarding medals to 12 people at the White House on Friday who defended democracy leading up to and during the violent attack on Congress.

    The recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal include a mix of police officers and state election officials who resisted President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on false claims of fraud and who “demonstrated courage and selflessness during a moment of peril for our nation,” according to a White House official. The award is one of the nation’s highest civilian honors and it will be Biden’s first time awarding one.

    The recipients include some of the most prominent law enforcement officials who defended the Capitol from a mob of hundreds of Trump supporters, including Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, retired Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and retired Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone. Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died after sustaining injuries in the attack, will be awarded posthumously.

    The list also includes Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Arizona GOP House Speaker Rusty Bowers, both key figures who stood firm amid pressure from Trump allies seeking to overturn the election results in the two key battleground states. Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, two state election workers who faced threats and harassment in the wake of the 2020 election, will be given awards as well.

    Last month, the House Jan. 6 select committee released its long-awaited 848-page report detailing Trump’s attempt to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election — and recommendations to prevent such a thing from happening again.

    “From the beginning, Donald Trump’s fraud allegations were concocted nonsense, designed to prey upon the patriotism of millions of men and women who love our country,” committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, wrote in her foreword to the report. “Most Americans also did not know exactly how Donald Trump, along with a handful of others, planned to defeat the transfer of presidential power on January 6th. This was not a simple plan, but it was a corrupt one.”

    The committee earlier voted to refer criminal charges against Trump and others to the Department of Justice, including for obstructing an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to make false statements and inciting an insurrection against the United States. The DOJ is conducting its own investigation into the attack and has not signaled whether it will comply.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Trump Aide Hope Hicks’ Angry Jan. 6 Texts: ‘We All Look Like Domestic Terrorists’

    Trump Aide Hope Hicks’ Angry Jan. 6 Texts: ‘We All Look Like Domestic Terrorists’

    [ad_1]

    Hope Hicks, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump, fumed to a fellow White House aide during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that “we all look like domestic terrorists now” and wouldn’t be able to find new jobs as a result.

    Text messages released by the House select committee investigating the attack show Hicks texting Julie Radford, former chief of staff to Ivanka Trump, as Trump supporters were laying siege to the U.S. Capitol.

    Hicks complained that the insurrection had ruined their employability.

    “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local proud boys chapter,” Hicks said, apparently referring to the then-president and the Proud Boys right-wing extremist group.

    “Yup,” Radford replied.

    “And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed,” Hicks added. “I’m so mad and upset.”

    “We all look like domestic terrorists now,” she added.

    Radford replied: “Oh yes I’ve been crying for an hour.”

    “Not being dramatic, but we are all fucked,” Hicks said in another message, adding that “Alyssa looks like a genius” for leaving, referring to Alyssa Farah Griffin, who resigned her post as White House communications director a few weeks after Trump lost the 2020 election.

    Hope Hicks and then-President Donald Trump at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, on Nov. 1, 2020.

    BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images

    Later in the day, Hicks texted Radford: “Attacking the VP? Wtf is wrong with him?”

    During the riot at the Capitol, Trump tweeted that his vice president, Mike Pence, “didn’t have the courage” to help him overturn the election. Pence was inside the Capitol to participate in the certification of the Electoral College results; he was forced to flee as Trump supporters, some of whom were calling for him to be hanged, forced their way into the building.

    Hicks was interviewed by the Jan. 6 committee in testimony that aired in its final public hearing last month. She said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, and she was concerned that Trump was damaging his legacy by spreading disinformation about the results.

    When she expressed those concerns to Trump, she said, Trump said something along the lines of, “‘You know, nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning.’”

    Following her departure from the Trump administration, Hicks worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of Pennsylvania hedge fund executive David McCormick, who lost to Trump-endorsed candidate Mehmet Oz in the Republican primary.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Adam Schiff Says One Part Of Jan. 6 Hasn’t Gotten Nearly Enough Attention

    Adam Schiff Says One Part Of Jan. 6 Hasn’t Gotten Nearly Enough Attention

    [ad_1]

    Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) says there has been “one line of effort” to overturn the 2020 presidential election that Americans still haven’t given sufficient attention.

    Schiff, a member of the House Jan. 6 committee, addressed the panel’s final report in a New York Times op-ed on Thursday. The piece focused in particular on the Republican lawmakers in Congress who voted to overturn the 2020 election.

    Even after Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police put down the insurrection at great cost to themselves, the majority of Republicans in the House picked up right where they left off, still voting to overturn the results in important states.

    A total of 147 Republican members of Congress voted to overturn the election results — 139 of 221 House Republicans and eight of 51 Senate Republicans.

    The committee on Monday sent four criminal referrals against Trump to the Justice Department. In his op-ed, Schiff urged the DOJ to “ensure a form of accountability that Congress is not empowered to provide”: prosecution.

    “Bringing a former president to justice who even now calls for the ‘termination’ of our Constitution is a perilous endeavor,” Schiff wrote.

    “Not doing so is far more dangerous.”

    In a separate op-ed penned for the Los Angeles Times, Schiff wrote that the Justice Department “must hold itself to the standard it set at the beginning of its investigation” into the deadly riot: “Follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

    “But there is more needed to protect our democracy,” he continued, “than oversight, accountability and even justice.”

    He called on Congress to take action to prevent “another would-be autocrat from tearing down our democratic institutions” by enacting reforms based on the committee’s findings.

    “The oversight the Jan. 6 committee did was difficult, and the pursuit of justice may be even more so,” Schiff wrote, “but the steps we take to prevent another despot from subverting our democracy in the future may be the most challenging and consequential of all.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Publix Heir Was Prepared to Blow $3 Million On Jan. 6 Protest, Transcript Shows

    Publix Heir Was Prepared to Blow $3 Million On Jan. 6 Protest, Transcript Shows

    [ad_1]

    Conservative donor and Publix grocery chain heir Julia “Julie” Fancelli was prepared to spend up to $3 million to support participants in last year’s Jan. 6 protest that preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol, according to documents and questions during her testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee.

    Extremist conspiracy peddler Alex Jones apparently scored $200,000 from Fancelli, longtime Donald Trump aide Roger Stone was provided a private flight to Washington, D.C., and young Trump disciple Charlie Kirk — head of Turning Point USA — received $1.25 million ostensibly to transport masses of Trump supporters to the capital, according to the transcript of her questioning released by the committee Thursday.

    According to an email cited in questioning, Stone was to use $50,000 of the $200,000 provided to him on the “rally operating budget.”

    Fancelli was willing to spend up to $3 million on people and groups participating in the protest, according to a GOP fundraiser cited in questioning during the testimony, though some of the funds went instead to last year’s runoff elections in Georgia, according to the transcript.

    Almost all of the information about Fancelli’s involvement in Jan. 6 was revealed through cited documents or in questioning about known interactions and statements. Fancelli herself cited the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination over and over again in her testimony, the transcript reveals.

    Some 900 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, including for assault, trespassing and damaging government property.

    The Washington Post earlier reported that Fancelli was the largest publicly known donor to the rally — and had wired $650,000 to groups behind the “Stop the Steal” organizing. But the transcript of her questioning, which cites wire transfers and various communications, has revealed that her financial role was even greater than previously known. She has told the Post she had no idea the event would become violent.

    Part of her motivation for financing the activities that day was apparently a personal devotion to Jones and Stone — and faith in Kirk’s organizing capacities, the Post noted.

    “Where are Roger and Alex speaking?” she texted a GOP fundraiser who facilitated donations from her, according to the interview transcript.

    Kirk had boasted he was sending 80 buses to Washington, but it appears likely that he only sent up to seven.

    Turning Point USA used $60,000 of Fancelli’s money to cover a speaking fee for Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the Post reported. The payment was made even though Fancelli and an associate removed a line item in the budget for speaking fees, according to the transcript.

    Publix, which is headquartered in Lakeland, Florida, where Fancelli lives, has tried to distance itself from her involvement.

    “We are deeply troubled by Ms. Fancelli’s involvement in the events that led to the tragic attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6,” the company said last year in response to questions from the Post about her role in the insurrection.

    Check out the full transcript here.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Jan. 6 Panel Pushes Trump’s Prosecution In Forceful Finish

    Jan. 6 Panel Pushes Trump’s Prosecution In Forceful Finish

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up its investigation of the violent 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, with lawmakers expected to cap one of the most exhaustive and aggressive congressional probes in memory with an extraordinary recommendation: The Justice Department should consider criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.

    At a final meeting on Monday, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are poised to recommend criminal charges against Trump and potentially against associates and staff who helped him launch a multifaceted pressure campaign to try to overturn the 2020 election.

    While a criminal referral is mostly symbolic, with the Justice Department ultimately deciding whether to prosecute Trump or others, it is a decisive end to a probe that had an almost singular focus from the start.

    “I think the president has violated multiple criminal laws and I think you have to be treated like any other American who breaks the law, and that is you have to be prosecuted,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the panel, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    From left, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., staff counsel Dan George, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., staff counsel Candyce Phoenix, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., sit on the dais as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, July 12, 2022. On Monday, Dec. 19, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold its final meeting. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

    J. Scott Applewhite via AP

    The panel, which will dissolve on Jan. 3 with the new Republican-led House, has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, held 10 well-watched public hearings and collected more than a million documents since it launched in July 2021. As it has gathered the massive trove of evidence, the members have become emboldened in declaring that Trump is to blame for the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters almost two years ago.

    After beating their way past police, injuring many of them, the Jan. 6 rioters stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s win, echoing Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud and sending lawmakers and others running for their lives.

    The attack came after weeks of Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat — a campaign that was extensively detailed by the committee in its multiple public hearings. Many of Trump’s former aides testified about his unprecedented pressure on states, federal officials and on Vice President Mike Pence to find a way to thwart the popular will.

    “This is someone who in multiple ways tried to pressure state officials to find votes that didn’t exist, this is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol,” Schiff said. “If that’s not criminal, then I don’t know what it is.”

    Members of the committee have said that the referrals for other individuals may also include ethics violations, legal misconduct and campaign finance violations. Lawmakers have suggested in particular that their recommended charges against Trump could include conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and insurrection.

    On insurrection, Schiff said Sunday that “if you look at Donald Trump’s acts and you match them up against the statute, it’s a pretty good match.” He said that the committee will focus on those individuals — presumably Trump — for whom they believe there is the strongest evidence.

    While a so-called criminal referral has no real legal standing, it is a forceful statement by the committee and adds to political pressure already on Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel Jack Smith, who is conducting an investigation into Jan. 6 and Trump’s actions.

    The committee is also expected at the hearing to preview its massive final report, which will include findings, interview transcripts and legislative recommendations. Lawmaker have said a portion of that report will be released Monday.

    “We obviously want to complete the story for the American people,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., another member of the committee. “Everybody has come on a journey with us and we want a satisfactory conclusion, such that people feel that Congress has done its job.”

    Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump stand outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
    Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump stand outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

    The panel was formed in the summer of 2021 after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of what would have been a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurrection. That opposition spurred the Democratic-controlled House to form a committee of its own. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, a Trump ally, decided not to participate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected some of his appointments. That left an opening for two anti-Trump Republicans in the House — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — to join the seven Democrats serving on the committee.

    While the committee’s mission was to take a comprehensive accounting of the insurrection and educate the public about what happened, they’ve also aimed their work at an audience of one: the attorney general. Lawmakers on the panel have openly pressured Garland to investigate Trump’s actions, and last month he appointed a special counsel, Smith, to oversee several probes related to Trump, including those related to the insurrection.

    In court documents earlier this year, the committee suggested criminal charges against Trump could include conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress.

    In a “conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the committee argues that evidence supports an inference that Trump and his allies “entered into an agreement to defraud the United States” when they disseminated misinformation about election fraud and pressured state and federal officials to assist in that effort. Trump still says he won the election to this day.

    The panel also asserts that Trump obstructed an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress in which the Electoral College votes are certified. The committee said Trump either attempted or succeeded at obstructing, influencing or impeding the ceremonial process on Jan. 6 and “did so corruptly” by pressuring Pence to try to overturn the results as he presided over the session. Pence declined to do so.

    The committee may make ethics referrals for five House Republicans — including McCarthy — who ignored congressional subpoenas from the panel. Those referrals are unlikely to result in punishment since Republicans are set to take over the House majority in January.

    Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

    For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Kellyanne Conway Meets With Jan. 6 Investigators For 5 Hours

    Kellyanne Conway Meets With Jan. 6 Investigators For 5 Hours

    [ad_1]

    Kellyanne Conway, who served as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, spoke Monday to investigators on the House select committee looking into the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to several media reports.

    Conway spoke for nearly five hours in a closed-door meeting in Washington, D.C., after she was seen entering a conference room with attorney Emmet Flood, who also served in the White House during the Trump administration, NBC News reported.

    “I’m here voluntarily,” she told reporters after the meeting ended. She added that she spoke with the former president last week but that Trump did not know she planned to meet with the House panel’s investigators.

    Conway was a key figure during Trump’s 2016 bid for the White House and served in his administration until she resigned in August 2020. She was not working for the then-president during the insurrection, but The Washington Post reported in January 2021 that she called an aide in the White House as the attack unfolded, urging Trump to speak to his supporters and tell them to stand down.

    CNN added Monday that the select committee was particularly concerned with reports that Trump acknowledged his 2020 election loss to her after Democrat Joe Biden won the popular and Electoral College votes.

    “I don’t reveal those conversations,” Conway told reporters Monday, according to CNN. “I think if they want to know that from him, they should depose him.”

    The House panel is working to finalize its investigation before Republicans regain control of the chamber in January and likely end the probe.

    Conway told reporters she is not working with Trump on his 2024 bid for a return to the presidency.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Jan. 6 Rioter Who Dragged Mike Fanone Over Capitol Steps Gets 7.5 Years

    Jan. 6 Rioter Who Dragged Mike Fanone Over Capitol Steps Gets 7.5 Years

    [ad_1]

    The Capitol rioter who grabbed former Metropolitan Police Department officer Mike Fanone and dragged him into the mob, where he was grievously injured, was sentenced Thursday in federal court to 90 months, or 7 1/2 years, behind bars.

    Prosecutors had sought an eight-year sentence for Tennessee resident Albuquerque Cosper Head. However, his punishment is still one of the harshest to be handed down to any rioter so far. Fanone left law enforcement the year after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and has become one of the most visible figures advocating for justice.

    Asked for a reaction to the sentence, Fanone told HuffPost, “Like a real American, I accept the sentence handed down by the court.”

    The longest sentence handed down to any rioters has been 10 years, given to a retired New York police officer who assaulted another law enforcement official.

    Head agreed to a deal where he pleaded guilty to one felony count of assaulting a police officer. Prosecutors say he wrapped his arm around Fanone’s neck as officers tried to push rioters back through an archway leading into the Capitol and yelled, “I got one!” while pulling Fanone deeper into the mob.

    Members of the crowd beat Fanone and pinned him down, seizing his police radio and badge. One person threatened to kill him with his service weapon. Fanone was tased repeatedly at the base of his skull by rioter Daniel Rodriguez, who was sentenced in September to slightly less time than Head ― 86 months.

    The mob backed off after Fanone yelled, “I got kids!” He blacked out and regained consciousness to find his partner and others, trying to ensure he was alright.

    Fanone ended up suffering a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury.

    The public spotlight that found him in the wake of the riot eventually made keeping his job untenable, he explained in interviews to promote a memoir he released earlier this month.

    “I would trade all this attention to return to policing,” Fanone said in court Thursday, per ABC News. “But I can’t do that. And the catalyst for the loss of my career and the suffering that I’ve endured in the past 18 months is Albuquerque Head.”

    Judge Amy Berman Jackson pointed out the irony that Fanone was beaten in the crowd with a Blue Lives Matter flag, NBC News reported.

    “People need to understand that they can’t do this, or anything like this, again. They can’t try to force their will on the American people once the American people have already spoken at the ballot box. That’s the opposite of democracy. It’s tyranny,” the judge said, per NBC.

    Andy Campbell contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Rep. Lofgren Teases ‘Pretty Surprising’ Material In Upcoming Jan. 6 Public Hearing

    Rep. Lofgren Teases ‘Pretty Surprising’ Material In Upcoming Jan. 6 Public Hearing

    [ad_1]

    Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said the upcoming hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will include new, “pretty surprising” material.

    The Thursday hearing will not only focus on ties those in former President Donald Trump’s orbit had to extremist groups, Lofgren said, but also look at what the president’s intentions and actions were overall.

    “We’re going to be going through, really some of what we’ve already found, but augmenting with new material that we’ve discovered through our work throughout this summer,” Lofgren told CNN’s “Situation Room.”

    “It will be worth watching. There’s some new material, you know, that I found as we got into it, pretty surprising,” Lofgren continued.

    Pressed to specify who in Trump’s circle was in touch with those far-right organizations, Lofgren offered: “The mob was led by some extremist groups. They plotted in advance what they were going to do and those individuals were known to people in the Trump orbit.”

    Outside of the committee, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group, and four other members are currently on trial on seditious conspiracy charges for their actions related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

    Last week, a former member of the Oath Keepers, testified in court that Rhodes was in touch with a Secret Service agent in the months leading up to the Capitol riot.

    Meanwhile, the Jan. 6 committee has received over a million communications exchanged between Secret Service agents before and on Jan. 6, though that information does not include text messages, according to NBC News.

    “While no additional text messages were recovered, we have provided a significant level of details from emails, radio transmissions, Microsoft Teams chat messages and exhibits that address aspects of planning, operations and communications surrounding Jan. 6,” Secret Service spokesperson Special Agent Steve Kopek told the outlet.

    Lofgren also told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer the committee has been working on the report it plans to complete by the end of this year and on recommending “policy changes to make us more secure in the future.”

    The panel postponed the hearing, originally slated for Sept. 28, after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida.

    A day later, Ginni Thomas, the wife of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, appeared in person to a closed-door Jan. 6 hearing during which she said she had not discussed any issues around the 2020 presidential election with her husband.

    Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee’s chairman, also said Thomas testified she believed the fraudulent claim that the election was stolen.

    Meanwhile, Thompson on Tuesday said he received a “suspicious package” in his Washington office.

    “All the staffers in my office are safe,” he wrote on Twitter, linking to an NBC News article detailing the incident.

    The U.S. Capitol Police also issued a statement, without mentioning Thompson, saying congressional staff found a “letter with concerning language.”

    “We just screened it and determined it not to have anything dangerous inside,” they said, adding that the force is working to identify the sender.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • McCarthy Made GOP Colleague Cry After She Talked About His Jan. 6 Call, Book Says

    McCarthy Made GOP Colleague Cry After She Talked About His Jan. 6 Call, Book Says

    [ad_1]

    House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy yelled at a fellow House Republican last year and brought her to tears after she publicly confirmed details of a call he made to Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, two reporters claim in a new book.

    “I alone am taking all the heat to protect people from Trump! I alone am holding the party together!” he yelled at Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) during a meeting in his office on Feb. 25, 2021, according to The Washington Post, which obtained an advance copy of the book. “I have been working with Trump to keep him from going after Republicans like you and blowing up the party and destroying all our work!”

    Herrera Beutler had given the media details about McCarthy’s call to Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. She said McCarthy had told his colleagues that when he asked Trump to call off his supporters as they attacked the Capitol, Trump replied: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”

    “You should have come to me!” McCarthy reportedly told Herrera Beutler afterward. “Why did you go to the press? This is no way to thank me!”

    Herrera Beutler reportedly answered: “What did you want me to do? Lie? I did what I thought was right.”

    The book’s authors, Washington Post reporter Karoun Demirjian and Politico reporter Rachael Bade, said McCarthy’s tirade was “just the start of what would become a GOP-wide campaign to whitewash the details of what happened on January 6 in the aftermath of the second impeachment,” the Post says.

    Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) confirmed details of Kevin McCarthy’s call to Donald Trump that had been reported by CNN.

    Caroline Brehman via Getty Images

    Demirjian and Bade said their reporting about the conversation between McCarthy and Herrera Beutler was based on a primary source and multiple lawmakers who heard the account from McCarthy.

    However, both McCarthy and Herrera Beutler denied the details reported about their meeting when the book’s authors reached out to them.

    The book also contains explosive details about Trump and McCarthy’s call during the riot. According to Politico, McCarthy shouted at the then-president that Trump supporters were “trying to fucking kill me.”

    McCarthy has repeatedly and demonstrably lied about what went on behind the scenes after the Capitol riot. In the immediate aftermath, he said both privately and publicly that Trump bore responsibility for the attack and was recorded telling colleagues he had told Trump to resign.

    But as the weeks passed and McCarthy sought to salvage his relationship with the former president, he pivoted to downplaying the violence and mischaracterizing his initial response.

    Herrera Beutler, a six-term moderate Republican who voted in favor of Trump’s second impeachment, lost her primary election in August.

    “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump” will be released next week.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Jury Selection Complete In Oath Keepers Seditious Conspiracy Trial

    Jury Selection Complete In Oath Keepers Seditious Conspiracy Trial

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — A panel of jurors was chosen Thursday to serve in the Oath Keepers’ sedition trial after three long days of selection proceedings in federal court.

    The group of 12, with four alternates, will weigh evidence starting next week to determine whether members of the far-right extremist group conspired to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will swear the panel in on Monday before opening statements are presented.

    The Oath Keepers’ founder, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, and four co-conspirators who allegedly held leadership positions in the group are each facing up to 20 years behind bars for seditious conspiracy.

    A conviction would be a big victory for the Justice Department, whose work tracking down and charging the U.S. Capitol rioters constitutes the largest criminal investigation in its history. It would also bolster the Biden administration’s characterizations of the Capitol riot as a threat to American democracy.

    Roughly half the jurors are women. Most had heard of the Oath Keepers, although they were not generally very familiar with it. Of those who had heard of the group, the jurors tended to be aware that its members were involved with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but they were not familiar with any specifics. Many had seen some coverage of the House select committee’s public hearings on the events of that day but were not avid viewers.

    All expressed a willingness to set aside any prior impressions of the group in order to do their jobs fairly as jurors. As one put it, “Facts is facts.”

    Over the length of the trial, which is expected to last at least five weeks, jurors will be expected to avoid all news coverage of the trial and of the Jan. 6 attack, including tweets and push notifications, which they will have to silence.

    Thomas Caldwell of Berryville, Virginia, a defendant charged with seditious conspiracy in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, talks to a woman Thursday as he stands in line outside the federal courthouse in Washington on the third day of jury selection.

    Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press

    The juror selection process highlighted the lasting impressions Jan. 6 has made on some District of Columbia residents, with many recalling the fear and anxiety they experienced as a rally organized by Trump and his supporters descended into chaos. One of the potential jurors knew one of the U.S. Capitol Police officers who responded to the violence and, two days later, killed himself. Another likened watching the riot unfold on TV to watching the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. One man appeared visibly upset recalling the threat the Capitol rioters had potentially posed to his children. None of these members of the pool were ultimately chosen to be on the jury.

    Mehta qualified more than 45 jurors over the course of three days; attorneys for the government and for the defendants were then given a chance to veto a certain number of candidates. The judge reasoned that certain people could be qualified even if they had a connection to Jan. 6 if they demonstrated an ability to talk about the events of the day without emotion.

    Extensive questioning had eliminated many prospective jurors who were too familiar with the Oath Keepers’ role in the Capitol attack; reports have already come out with significant evidence of their planning.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • National Safety Shelters Repurposes Safety Pods To Protect Government Officials From Violent Attacks

    National Safety Shelters Repurposes Safety Pods To Protect Government Officials From Violent Attacks

    [ad_1]

    Officials and staff can now have instant access to near-absolute protection from armed intruders and bomb threats without restricting building access

    Press Release
    –


    updated: May 25, 2021


    WASHINGTON, May 25, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    In response to the January 6 attack on the Capitol Building and the alarming Capitol Police report of a “107% increase in threats against Members [of Congress] compared to 2020,” National Safety Shelters is repurposing its line of Hide-Away safety pods and proposing that Congress consider acquiring them to protect Members and their staff from future violent attacks.

    INSTANT NEAR-ABSOLUTE PROTECTION

    The Hide-Away safety pods are bolt-together steel structures that provide instant access to safety from violent attacks and certain natural disasters (tornadoes, earthquakes). Fabricated using military-grade ballistic American steel, they protect against rounds shot from commonly used firearms and semi-automatic weapons like the AK47 and AR15. They also offer protection from the blast and shrapnel of IEDs.

    Originally designed to withstand the forces of EF-5 tornadoes and falling debris from earthquakes, the Hide-Away pods have since been installed in K-12 schools to protect students and staff from active shooters and tornadoes (in tornado prone areas). They are the only safety measure currently available that provides instant access to near-absolute protection.

    Small pods can be placed in personal offices and homes to protect from one to several individuals, whereas larger models can accommodate from dozens to hundreds of occupants, depending on the need. Each can be custom configured to fit into just about any available space.

    With a safety pod in each office, Members and staff can now have an unprecedented level of security that no other safety measure can achieve – instant protection. In addition to their use at the Capitol Complex, Members could also install them in their homes and district offices.

    This economical security safety net would only require a minute fraction of the $1.9 billion spending bill that Congress is currently proposing for security upgrades.

    SECURITY WITHOUT LIMITING BUILDING ACCESS

    Notably, the Hide-Away safety pods and shelters satisfy the recommendations outlined in the Capitol Security Review released on March 5, 2021 by Task Force 1-6  led by retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré. The recommendations seek “to improve the security of the Capitol, Members, and staff” in ways that will not reduce “physical access to the Capitol Complex.”

    Being that the pods would be installed either inside personal offices or at other easily accessible interior locations throughout the Complex, there would be no impact on physical access to either the Capitol Building or other office buildings within the Complex. Should a violent attack occur, casualties could virtually be eliminated.

    In view of the current threat level to Members and the uptick in mass shootings this year (212 as of 5/13), National Safety Shelters is in the process of introducing this innovative security safety net to all 535 Members of Congress, federal security and law enforcement agencies and all 50 state governments.

    For more information please contact Sarah Corrado at 1-772-248-0236 or sarah@nationalsafetyshelters.com.

    Source: National Safety Shelters

    [ad_2]

    Source link