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Thursday, October 20, 2022
POLITICO NIGHTLY: The other issue driving the midterms
The criminal case against Trump
Today: The criminal case against TrumpThe final hearing of the January 6 committee lays the foundation
Today’s final hearing of the January 6 committee is a segue to the criminal case that federal prosecutors are piecing together, bolstered by the recent issuance of dozens of grand jury subpoenas and court-authorized searches of some of Donald Trump’s top allies. The committee voted unanimously to subpoena Trump to answer questions before the committee under oath. Elizabeth Cheney, committee vice-chairman, said “he must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions.” But subpoenaing Trump seems largely a symbolic gesture — unless Trump decides he wants to present “his side” to the American people and is prepared to lie up the wazoo, regardless of legal consequences. Although the legal issues involved in subpoenaing a former president may pass legal muster, the length of time it would take to litigate the issue will all but certainly carry on beyond the select committee’s tenure, which ends in January. Today’s hearing provided the final piece of the puzzle for making a criminal case against Trump: his state of his mind -- what he knew and intended in committing at least two federal crimes: 18 U.S.C. 371, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and 18 U.S.C. 1512, obstruction of Congress. The issue of criminal intent will be central to any criminal trial. Today’s hearing comes 27 days before a critical midterm election in which most Republican candidates deny that Biden won the 2020 presidential election — not because of any credible evidence but solely because Trump has continued to make the baseless claim that he won, and has convinced almost two-thirds of Republican voters of that Big Lie. Recap of the first seven hearings:Today’s hearing recapped much of the first seven hearings, including: — An Oval Office meeting on December 18, where Trump had to choose between what Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien called “Team Normal” and what some Trump advisers called “Team Crazy.” In that “unhinged” meeting, “Team Crazy,” including Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, produced a draft executive order they had prepared where they proposed that the U.S. military seize state election machines. “Team Normal” opposed the plan. — On December 19, just hours after the draft Executive Order was rejected and the hours-long meeting ended, Trump sent his “will be wild” tweet. The evidence presented made clear that the far-right militia and other figures understood that tweet as a call to violence. — Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, both of whom Trump had pardoned during the time between the election and January 6, had direct relationships with violent right-wing groups. One rally organizer explained that Trump wanted to surround himself with such people because they were “very very vicious in publicly defending him.” — Trump endangered the safety of Vice President Pence and his family on January 6 by tweeting criticism of Pence, which unleashed the mob to go after Pence, chanting “hang Mike Pence.” Trump watched the riots unfold on television for hours without lifting a finger to protect the Vice President, his family, or Members of Congress, despite pleas from Trump family members, White House advisors, and Republican congressional leaders. — Trump sought to name a Justice Department minion as the new Attorney General who then planned to send letters to Trump-friendly state legislatures alleging widespread fraud in their states – without a shred of evidence. The proposed letters would urge these friendly state legislatures to exploit the “failed choice” loophole in antiquated 19th-century laws and substitute their own Trump presidential electors for the Biden electors that had been chosen by the voters on Election Day. Trump’s own top Justice Department officials killed this scheme to steal the presidency. Today’s hearing:Today’s final hearing also presented damning new evidence about Trump’s state of mind. As committee vice-chair Liz Cheney stated: “Today we will focus on his state of mind. Trump had a premeditated plan to claim the election was stolen before Election Day. Trump was better informed about the absence of widespread election fraud than almost any American.” The committee then showed evidence that: 1. Trump concocted his plan long before Election Day. Knowing that mail-in votes would be more likely cast for Biden and would not be counted until possibly days after Trump had taken the lead on Election Day, Trump planned to give a false election victory speech on the evening of Election Day. Even though the networks were starting to call the race for Biden, Trump declared victory and demanded that voting counts stop. “This is a fraud on the American public, an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election, we did win this election.” 2. Trump knew he lost. He also knew that there was no evidence of fraud or irregularities sufficient to change the outcome. In none of 62 court cases was he able to establish election fraud. His Attorney General told him there had been no fraud. His advisors repeatedly told him there was no evidence of fraud sufficient to change the outcome. The Supreme Court rejected his case on December 11. Electors voted on December 14. His senior staff advised him to concede. Nonetheless, Trump’s intended to ignore the rule of law to stay in power. 3. Trump was personally and directly involved in a plan to remain in power, regardless. (1) He knew he was lying when he told the public that Dominion Voting machines were rigged against him, when he told the public there were more votes than voters, and when he told the public about a “vote dump” in Detroit. He purposely and maliciously repeated these lies to the public over and over again. (2) He knew his allegations of fraud in Georgia were false. But he nonetheless sought to pressure the Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger into giving him the votes he needed, saying “I want to find 11,780 votes.” When the secretary of state demurred, Trump threatened that he’d be prosecuted. (3) He also tried to pressure election officials in Arizona and Michigan, knowing he lost those states. (4) Knowing he lost the election, he also pressured the Justice Department to change the results of the election until Justice Department officials threatened mass resignation. (5) He sought to replace real Biden electors with fake Trump electors on January 6. He knew this was illegal. (6) He tried to get Vice President Pence to unilaterally disregard the electoral count. Trump knew this was illegal. (7) He intentionally summoned his supporters to the Capitol, and then, knowing they were armed, intended that they march to the Capitol. (8) Even before his Ellipse speech, he knew there would be violence. He knew people coming to Washington planned to attack the Capitol and that multiple users online were targeting members of Congress. The Secret Service had this information at least 10 days before the attack. On January 6, during his speech on the Ellipse, Trump knew the crowd was armed and dangerous. 4. Even when Trump knew about the violence unfolding at the Capitol on January 6, he refused to call off the mob. Next steps?This is probably the last of the committee’s hearings. If Republicans succeed in their drive to win the House majority (which seems likely), they will almost certainly disband the committee in January and shut down any official accounting by Congress for the largest attack on the Capitol in centuries. This means the panel has less than three months to finish up its investigation, write and release its final report (likely in December), make any legislative recommendations, and decide whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department. The January 6 committee, led by Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY), has done America a great service — giving the nation exactly what it has most needed: an accounting of what occurred January 6, why it occurred, and Trump’s role in it. Whether this will lead to Trump being held criminally accountable does not depend on the committee making a criminal referral. Regardless of whether it makes such a referral, that decision is solely up to the U.S. Attorney General, Merrick Garland (who would now be sitting on the Supreme Court had it not been for Mitch McConnell and a Republican Senate majority). But the committee’s work — its investigation and its public hearings — have played a part in persuading Garland to move forward with a criminal case against Trump. If you’d asked me six months ago, I’d have said Garland would not do so, for fear of dividing the nation even more deeply. Now, I believe he will. |
Mike’s Midterm Tsunami Truth #18 The Good Queen vs. The Mad King
After watching Episode 9 of 2022’s best TV series, “A Song of Treason and Trump”, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol held its last hearing yesterday — and the series finale did not disappoint. First off let me say this: If I am ever trapped behind enemy lines or wander accidentally back into Gilead, there is only one person I want with me to fight off the hordes of evildoers, just one soldier in the foxhole who has my back and if necessary will throw themself on the hand grenade so that I may live — and that person is Nancy ”Thor” Pelosi! I’m talking about the 82-year-old “Don’t-Fuck-with-Biden?-NO-DON’T-FUCK-WITH-ME” Nancy Pelosi!! That newly released raw footage from January 6th we saw yesterday — shot by the brilliant documentary filmmaker, the Kathryn Bigelow of nonfiction action films, Alexandra Pelosi — showed us the first ever female Speaker/Slayer in full superhero mode. When she hears Trump on TV order the mob to raid the Capitol Building, Pelosi exclaims, “I hope he comes — I’m gonna punch him out! This is my moment. I’ve been waiting for this — for trespassing on the Capitol grounds…” (and then she launches into a very detailed description of what she’s going to do to Trump as if she HAS INDEED thought about this moment for a long time). “I’m gonna punch him out and I’m gonna go to jail and I’m gonna be HAPPY!” I got so excited I thought someone offstage was going to toss her a bazooka and a red beret and she was going to break out in song!
But then, as if straight from a scene from “A Very Pelosi Family Thanksgiving Special”, grandson Paul Pelosi is looking out grandma’s window over our Nation’s Capitol and shouts, “Grandma! Grandma! The fascist mob is coming up the Mall!”
And sure enough, it was.
Grandma Nancy had invited her whole family to come to the Capitol that day to witness history. Not hang Mike Pence. First, she got the family and staff to a safe place. Next, she loaded a fresh clip into the Glock she keeps strapped to her ankle. Then, to confuse the idiots who would soon ransack her office, she placed a few nice things out on her desk for them to see: A copy of Betty Freidan’s “The Feminine Mystique”. An open laptop with the “Critical Race Theory” website left up on the screen. A half-written love note to Angela Davis. And Her personal “To-Do List:”
Her staff tried to whisk her away. She asked them, “Have you called the National Guard?!” “Yes!”, an aide replied. The “yes” did not sound believable, so she would ask this question three more times. For the next 11 minutes, while walking to wherever they were taking her, she showed no fear. She just kept working the phones. She called the Acting Secretary of Defense to tell him to send in the troops. She called the Acting Secretary of the Army to send in other troops. She called the governors of Virginia and Maryland to send in their National Guard. Then she thought for a moment and said “Let’s call the head of Prince George’s County!”, thinking they may have some extra troops, too. Next, from her secure location, we see her and Chuck Schumer badgering the Attorney General (Acting) to tell him to call Trump. Eventually they were calling every (acting) Trump appointee and tearing them each a new hole. It was like a symphony they were conducting, albeit one for the devil. It was a wonder to watch.
And through it all, Pelosi kept repeating her mantra: “If we cannot get back in there tonight and finish our business, then they’ve won.” “They can’t win!!” And they didn’t. Pence called her. He had never left the Capitol grounds. He was told to get in the SUV Trump had sent for him in the dark and scary underground garage. Pence, being wise to Trump and remembering the Jimmy Hoffa Rule — “Never Get in That Car!” — just said, “no thank you, I think I’ll just wait here in the parking garage until my Uber arrives.” Pence, speaking in a voice that contained a spine, told Pelosi that he too believed they must certify Biden as president — in the Joint Session, in the House Chamber — “TONIGHT!” “We start in an hour,” he said in his assassin’s voice. Pelosi was relieved. Schumer had just said it “would take days to clean up the mess before we can go back in there.” Some of the protesters had taken a dump on the House floor. Pelosi told Schumer we’re going in anyway.
After all, the real defecation had yet to happen that day. When they called the Session back to order two hours later in the House Chamber, 147 Republican Senators and Members of Congress voted to finish the coup and voted to overturn the election. But they failed. TWICE. First they cut off the legs of the Arizona objectors by a vote of 93 to 6 in the Senate, and 303 to 121 in the House. Then, with a 92 to 7 vote in the Senate, and a 282 to 138 vote in the House they delivered the death blow to the objectors from Pennsylvania. And with that, Pence banged the gavel, Pelosi gathered the grandkids, and Schumer was seen later with a New York City pooper-scooper. All that was left for the rest of us to do was to finish the clean up in Roevember. Which is exactly what we are doing. Yes, thanks to this attempted coup, the majority of Americans saw the Republicans for who they really are — and that shock to the American body politic is the very thing that is going to lead to their deserved demise in just 25 days. Vote early. Vote now. And walk like a Pelosi.
Watch the CNN/HBO exclusive raw footage: Ninth Hearing of the January 6th Committee Full Hearing: C-Span link Clip (video evidence): Jan 6 Congressional leaders behind the scenes ICYMI: Mike’s Midterm Tsunami of Truths: Truth #1: The Campaign Truth #2: Even a kid from 4th hour Trig class can beat this crowd Truth #3: The Haters, the Bigots and the Supremacists Always Lose in the End Truth #4: Introducing The Whackadoodle 10 Truth #5: Trump is not the Big Bad Wolf. But he is very afraid of You. Truth #6: The Easy-to-Digest Republican Party Platform Truth #7: Biden, Don’t F**k with Me Truth #8: If you’re not registered, you can’t Roe, Roe, Roe the Vote! Truth #9: Why will we win? Because the American people hate fascism. Truth #10: Meet Blake Masters, Whackadoodle No. 9 Truth #11: 147 Reasons We Will Win on November 8th Truth #12: Biden just gave us a boost and a toke. Truth #13: Women. That’s it. Truth #14: If the Mainstream Media Thinks There’s a Chance We May Be Right about Roevember, Watch Out. Truth #15: Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, Whackadoodle No. 8 Truth #16: Alex Jones has now been fined a billion dollars for his lies, but that is nothing compared to the punishment other Republicans will get on November 8th. Truth #17: Early Voting, Mail-in Voting, Dropbox Voting — These Were Made for Libs, Hard Workers, Book Readers, Artists, Busy Parents, Slackers, and Progressives like us! In other words, The Majority! |
RSN: FOCUS: Susan B. Glasser | Donald Trump, January 6th, and the Elusive Search for Accountability
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The House-select-committee hearings are over, but will the former President ever be held responsible for the tragedy?
In one memorable early hearing, Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr, testified that Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud were “bullshit,” adding that he had told the former President so to his face. When Barr publicly said as much to the Associated Press, it so enraged Trump that he threw a ketchup-smeared plate against the wall in his private White House dining room—an indelible image of the petulant President, disclosed by the former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson during her blockbuster July testimony. Like others in Trump’s White House, Hutchinson heard Trump and his top aides acknowledge his defeat yet continue to lie about it to the public. “No, Cass, he knows it’s over,” Hutchinson quoted the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as saying to her, in a clip from Hutchinson’s video deposition shown at Thursday’s hearing. “But we’re gonna keep trying.”
Thursday’s hearing added a few more details to the select committee’s trove of incriminating evidence about January 6th: memorable footage of the Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, evacuated to a secure location that afternoon, frantically trying to get Trump’s executive branch to do something to stop the violence; a January 4th intelligence warning to the Justice Department and the F.B.I. about extremists talking of “invading the Capitol building”; and new documentation showing that Trump’s decision to claim victory on Election Night was “premeditated.” As Representative Zoe Lofgren said, it was a “plan concocted in advance to convince his supporters that he won.” Trump himself—his wild plotting and his willful indifference to its consequences—was at the center of the events, as he was in each of the committee’s hearings.
Inevitably, the panel also showcased an array of unsavory characters and dispiriting subplots that swirled around Trump’s post-election conspiracy. The smarmy, nihilistic Roger Stone, who featured prominently in Thursday’s session, was shown in a Danish filmmaker’s video footage from before the election: “Fuck the voting,” Stone laughed, as he walked through an airport, wearing a red, white, and blue “Trump 2020” face mask. “Let’s get right to the violence.” Other sessions spotlighted the machinations of Trump’s heavy-drinking personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s failed coup at the Justice Department, and the deceitful advice of the constitutional-law professor John Eastman to have Vice-President Mike Pence singlehandedly reject the Electoral College results. Eastman knew the plan that he pushed on Trump was legally suspect and likely to be unanimously rejected by the Supreme Court, but he pushed it anyway—and then tried to get himself a preëmptive Presidential pardon.
But none of it would have mattered had Trump not been in the White House, urging them all on, demanding something, anything, that would somehow undo the election loss he was desperate to overturn. “The central cause of January 6 was one man, Donald Trump,” Representative Liz Cheney, the apostate Republican who emerged as Trump’s chief tormentor on the committee, said. “None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it.” Cheney lost her seat in a Republican primary this summer because she refused to bow down to the man whom one of her colleagues called the G.O.P.’s “Orange Jesus.” These hearings have been her vindication and her revenge.
Cheney was clear in her remarks on Thursday that she believed Trump deserved not just public excoriation but also criminal sanction. “Our nation cannot only punish the foot soldiers who stormed our Capitol,” Cheney said, and yet so far that is all that has happened. The Justice Department has charged some nine hundred people with participating in the January 6th insurrection—but not a single person close to Trump, who summoned the mob that rampaged in his name and on his behalf, has been indicted. “Without accountability, it all becomes normal, and it will recur,” she warned.
Before the gavel banged down late Thursday afternoon, the panel voted unanimously to approve a motion by Cheney to subpoena Trump to testify about his actions. Members were liberal in their use of the A-word to describe the vote. “This is a question about accountability to the American people,” the committee’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, said. “He must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions.”
Yet accountability—at least the kind that comes in a court of law and ends in a prison term—was never the House select committee’s to confer. It made for a compelling headline, but Thursday’s vote was pure symbolism from a committee that may well be out of business in just a few weeks, if the voters, as expected, give control of the House to the Republicans. It’s impossible to imagine Trump willingly testifying before this or any future Congress about anything—at least, not without years of legal wrangling. The real decision about whether and how to hold Trump responsible for the tragedy of January 6th rests, as it always has, with the Justice Department and its enigmatic Attorney General, Merrick Garland. And we will not know the answer to that question anytime soon.
So did any of the committee’s work matter? When the January 6th hearings began, on June 9th, Trump’s average approval rating in the polls was 41.9 per cent, and his average disapproval rating was 53.5 per cent, according to FiveThirtyEight. As the hearings ended, Trump’s average approval rating stood at 40.4 per cent. All that damning evidence, and the polls were basically unchanged. The straight line in the former President’s approval rating is the literal representation of the crisis in American democracy. There is an essentially immovable forty per cent of the country whose loyalty to Donald Trump cannot be shaken by anything.
I pointed out these numbers to Representative Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, over the weekend, when my colleagues and I interviewed him during The New Yorker Festival. He insisted that driving down Trump’s poll numbers was not the point. “The point,” he said, “is to deliver the truth to the people and to the Congress because, like Madison said, those who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives. And we think that we have armed the public with the power to make some serious decisions going forward.”
Since the committee’s formation, Raskin and the other committee members have advanced various arguments for what the panel hoped to achieve. Establishing Trump’s complicity in the storming of the Capitol was always an important goal, and the final report that the panel intends to release before the current Congress expires will no doubt be the most definitive summation yet of this American tragedy. Even by that measure, however, a full accounting for history still awaits. Key witnesses such as Mike Pence, Trump’s final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, refused to testify; more than thirty witnesses, according to Cheney, invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and declined to answer questions. Steve Bannon will be sentenced later this month, after being convicted of contempt of Congress, but he still has not been forced to speak under oath about his dealings with Trump and other White House officials in the days leading up to January 6th. And then, of course, there is Trump himself, newly subpoenaed but not any likelier to testify.
And yet Trump’s essential culpability for January 6th was never really the question. That was more than evident on the day itself. Accountability was always the problem. Will the former President, with his Houdini-like powers of escape, ever face it?
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