JAN 6 TWO

this is big lie 5

7 22 tag Tratr

merri ok

see JAN 6 THREE on analysis

see trump pardon coup

see lie gaslt revision pardons

see sedition caucus

see 14th amend disqualify

see racism

alt fact earth2 req to DO it, now used to memory hole/deny it:

===

---

OMFG

Justice Department moves to toss seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to throw out the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders who were sentenced to prison terms for leading members of the far-right extremist groups in attacking the U.S. Capitol to keep President Donald Trump in office over five years ago.

Trump commuted the prison sentences of several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders last January in a sweeping act of clemency for all 1,500-plus defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

The request by the Justice Department would go a step further and erase all the convictions for extremist group leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who didn’t receive pardons last January.

The move to abandon the convictions represented a stunning reversal from the Biden administration, which hailed the guilty verdicts as a crucial victory in its bid to hold accountable those responsible for what prosecutors described as an attack on the heart of American democracy. It’s part of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack and downplay the violence carried out by the mob of Trump supporters that left more than 100 police officers injured.

AP correspondent Ben Thomas reports the Justice Department is seeking the dismissal of seditious conspiracy convictions over the Capitol Riot.

In court filings, prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the convictions so that the government can permanently dismiss the indictments.

Related coverage

The day after Biden's inauguration, Murdoch was facing heat from Republican senators.

That morning, he met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other GOP senators who were opposed to impeaching Trump.

“Still getting mud thrown at us!” Murdoch wrote. “Maybe Sean and Laura went too far,” he continued, referring to Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

He asked Scott whether it was “unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th an important chance to have the result overturned.”

Scott punted the request to a group of executives, noting “please send specifics.”

Six hours later, Irena Briganti, the Fox News executive in charge of communications, responded with more than 15 pages of transcripts of examples.

In a Jan. 12 email exchange with former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Murdoch said "everything changed" on the day of the riot.

"Trump's troubles multiplying. His businesses now ruined! Who is going to throw a party at one of his golf clubs or hotels?"

He went on: "Could he still resign and get Pence to pardon, then just disappear? Would Mike Pence agree?"

---

Fox News star Tucker Carlson ramps up Jan. 6 lies with ...

PBS

https://www.pbs.org › newshour › politics › fox-news-s...](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fox-news-star-tucker-carlson-ramps-up-jan-6-lies-with-footage-provided-by-house-republicans)

Mar 7, 2023 — The Republicans are trying to claw back the findings of the House Jan. 6 investigation, which painstakingly documented, with testimony and video ...

Fox News star Tucker Carlson ramps up Jan. 6 lies with footage provided by House Republicans | PBS News

Fox News star Tucker Carlson ramps up Jan. 6 lies with footage provided by House Republicans

Politics Mar 7, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — Handed some 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 security footage, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson has launched an impassioned new effort to explain away the deadly Capitol attack, linking the Republican Party ever more closely to pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2021 riot.

The conservative commentator aired the first installment to millions of viewers on his prime-time show, working to bend perceptions of the violent, grueling siege that played out for the world to see into a narrative favorable to Donald Trump.

He promised more Tuesday night.

The undertaking by Fox News comes as Trump is again running for president, and executives at the highest levels of the cable news giant have admitted in unrelated court proceedings that it spread the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election despite dismissing Trump’s assertions privately.

The effort dovetails with the work of Republicans on Capitol Hill, led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who turned over the security footage to Fox. The Republicans are trying to claw back the findings of the House Jan. 6 investigation, which painstakingly documented, with testimony and video evidence, how Trump rallied his supporters to head to the Capitol and “fight like hell” as Congress was certifying his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump on Tuesday contended that Carlson’s presentation was “irrefutable” evidence that rioters have been wrongly accused of crimes and he thanked the host and the speaker for their work. Carlson praised McCarthy as having “rectified” the official record.

Trump called anew for the release from custody of people who have been convicted or have pleaded guilty to charges from the attack.

At the same time, criticism poured in from Democrats — and some top Republicans, too — over the GOP’s attempt to amplify falsehoods about the attack that was seen around the world as Trump supporters laid siege to the seat of U.S. democracy.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the Democrat who chaired the House Jan. 6 Committee investigating the riot, called McCarthy’s decision to selectively release the security footage “a dereliction of duty.”

“Despite repeated warnings as to the sensitive nature of this footage, the speaker decided it was more important to give in to a Fox host who spews lies and propaganda than to protect the Capitol,” Thompson said in a statement. He called Jan. 6 “one of the darkest days in the history of our democracy.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Monday night Fox News episode from Carlson “one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on television.”

The show’s portrayal was “an insult to every single police officer,” Schumer said, especially the family of Brian Sicknick, who died later after fighting the mob. “Nonviolent? Ask his family.”

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said it was a mistake for Fox News to depict the footage as it did — at odds with what he and others witnessed first hand at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

WATCH:** McCarthy drawing criticism for giving Carlson exclusive access to video of Jan. 6 attack

In the roughly 30-minute segment, Fox distilled the thousands of hours of footage of the gruesome scenes at the Capitol that day and did show some of the hand-to-hand combat as rioters laid siege to the building, broke windows and kicked down doors to gain entry.

But Carlson also emphasized imagery of the invaders, some in combat gear and wielding flagpoles, merely milling about the gilded halls, taking pictures of the surroundings during pauses in the hours-long attack.

“These were not insurrectionists. They were sightseers,” Carlson said.

The footage he aired focused on one of the highest-profile rioters, Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman,” garbed in his horned hat and bare chested, as he poked around the building, officers standing by or opening doors. Chansley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

Carlson denounced the Jan. 6 committee led by Democrats in the past Congress, and called out Trump’s chief Republican critics Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger as liars on the panel.

He said most of rioters were “not destroying the Capitol, they obviously revere the Capitol.”

Carlson is reviving the falsehoods launched by Trump and his allies, including Republicans in Congress, that the attackers were peaceful protesters and acted like tourists, despite the well-documented carnage of the day and the deaths of five people in the riot and its aftermath. It’s part of an effort to reverse criminal charges for those being prosecuted in the attack, many of whom have pleaded guilty and said they regretted their actions on Jan. 6.

Capitol Police officers who were defending against the mob have testified to their harrowing experiences — one said she was slipping in other people’s blood, while another told of being crushed in the mob — as they worked and ultimately failed to block the rioters from storming the Capitol.

Among those who died in the riot and its aftermath were Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt who was shot by police and Capitol Police officer Sicknick who died after fighting the mob.

Carlson aired footage of Sicknick inside the Capitol picking up posters and politely ushering protesters out the door, portraying that as evidence the officer was not killed in the crush.

That last was denounced by Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger as “the most disturbing accusation from last night.”

“The Department maintains, as anyone with common sense would, that had Officer Sicknick not fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted, Officer Sicknick would not have died the next day,” Chief Manger said in a memo to his police force.

He said the program “cherry-picked” from calmer moments of the day, ignoring “the chaos and violence that happened before or during.”

The Sicknick family said in a statement that the footage simply showed that Brian Sicknick bravely resumed his duties for a time after he had been attacked by a chemical agent.

Ken Sicknick, Brian Sicknick’s brother, said in an interview that the family is “at a loss” about how to fight back against a network with millions of viewers and the speaker of the House who gave access to the footage.

Law enforcement failures on Jan. 6 have been investigated in Congress and acknowledged: Police failed to heed signs of a looming attack and were slow to provide an adequate response, including reinforcement from the National Guard stationed nearby.

WATCH:** Brooks and Capehart on Tucker Carlson’s access to Jan. 6 video, war in Ukraine

Nearly 1,000 people have been charged by the Justice Department in the siege, with members of the extremist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups facing rare charges of sedition for their roles at the front of the assault. Several members of the Oath Keepers have been found guilty of sedition

Most of the defendants face lesser misdemeanor charges for having been on hand during the siege.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are mounting an effort to retell the history of Jan. 6 through the House Administration Committee, which has opened an online portal for submissions from the public.

Some GOP leaders, however, appeared uncomfortable with McCarthy’s move and the way the footage was being used.

Senate Republican leader McConnell quickly distanced himself from the endeavor, saying he wanted to “associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol Police about what happened.”

McConnell said, “Clearly the chief of the Capitol Police correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on Jan. 6.”

Pressed about Jan. 6, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2. Republican, said, “It was an attack on the Capitol.”

*AP reporters Rick Gentilo and Michael Balsamo contributed to this story.

---

{{ ===

JAN 6 QANON VAXX CROSS-FERTILIZE ANTI-GUBMINT

ROLLING STONE

On Christmas Eve, Steven Brandenburg, a Milwaukee-area pharmacist, attempted to destroy more than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine, because, he admitted, he feared the Moderna drug would “alter the recipient’s DNA.” Described in law-enforcement documents as a “conspiracy theorist,” Brandenburg, 46, had reportedly warned his wife that “the world is crashing down around us” and that “the government is planning cyberattacks and plans to shut down the power grid,” according to divorce-court documents.

IFrame Content

If you’re surprised that a scientifically educated medical professional, trusted with dispensing lifesaving medicine, could suffer a rebellion against reason and give himself over to discredited conspiracy theories, you haven’t been paying attention. In the America of the 2020s, respectable men and women surrender to this kind of unreal thinking every day. (Brandenburg pleaded guilty to federal tampering charges in January; his lawyer would not discuss Brandenburg’s conspiratorial beliefs.) The phenomenon is known as “red-pilling” — a reference to a scene in The Matrix where Keanu Reeves’ character chooses to take a red pill and discover the hidden truths of the world — and it affects those whose once-rational skepticism swallows them whole, pulling them into a networked community of like-minded conspiracy theorists. While the public record does not indicate Brandenburg traveled this far, many find a home in the big-tent conspiracy of QAnon, whose members increasingly see vaccination as part of a diabolical plot by the “deep state” to enslave humanity.

:{:{Why has the nation become gripped with conspiracy theories — including so many revolving around the shots that could end this devastating pandemic? “It’s precisely because we’ve had 450,000 deaths, and so much uncertainty and so much fear, that there’s fertile ground for this stuff to take hold,” says Ashish Jha, a physician and dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health. The pandemic is also occurring in the context of a 20-year decline of American trust in institutions, says Ethan Zuckerman, who formerly directed the Center for Civic Media at MIT.}:

He describes the QAnon cult as a reservoir at the bottom of that slippery slope. “Q is what happens when you take that mistrust in a really damaging direction,” he says. “It’s usually people who lost trust in one institution and then found a coherent worldview that says, ‘Don’t just mistrust this one institution — mistrust all the institutions. All of them are in it together.’ ” This full rejection of confidence in doctors and drug companies, in media and philanthropy, in politicians and government agencies, Zuckerman says, is “how the anti-vax movement underwent almost a merger with QAnon.”}:

For most Americans still grounded in reality, the arrival of safe, effective inoculations against Covid-19 has sparked hope. The nine-month dash to design, test, and begin to administer inoculations against the devastating pandemic was an unprecedented medical triumph. The rollout of these drugs has already delivered protection for millions of the elderly and medically vulnerable. For younger, healthier people awaiting their shots, vaccination promises a -ticket out of social isolation and back to a life of packed concerts, subway trains, restaurants, and nightclubs.

At present, America’s great challenge is ramping up supply to meet overwhelming demand. But experts caution the country will, sooner than later, confront a formidable wall of vaccine resistance that could block our return to “life as normal.” A Pew poll in December found that only 60 percent of Americans intend to vaccinate and nearly 20 percent — or roughly 50 million adults — are dead set against it.

If that many Americans abstain from vaccination, the coronavirus will continue to circulate, and to mutate, posing a grave ongoing threat to public health.

Vaccine hesitance can be rooted in reasonable concerns, says Jha. Were the new vaccines rushed to market too quickly? Did the Trump administration’s overt politicization corrupt the approval process? Are side effects severe? Will our notoriously racist health system prioritize and safeguard communities of color that have been hardest hit by the pandemic? “We win no battles by minimizing” these worries, Jha says, “or suggesting that those people are being unreasonable or anti-science or anti-vaxxers. They’re raising legitimate concerns that should be addressed.”

But for millions of others, dread about vaccines defies logic or reason, and bleeds instead into belief systems of what Zuckerman has dubbed “the unreal” — that we’re pawns in a diabolical global game run by ruthless elites and that vaccines are somehow not medicine but poison. “Concerns about -safety have been absorbed into this other way of viewing the world,” says Jack Bratich, a Rutgers professor and author of Conspiracy Panics. “It’s about a plan to inject people with controlling substances. That’s where QAnon overlaps with the anti-vax movement.”

As demonstrated by the January 6th storming of the Capitol, perpetrated by many Americans immersed in the QAnon cult, this red-pilling can have deadly, destabilizing consequences, and not just for conspiracy-theory believers. “This may be the most important public-health issue of our time — misinformation, disinformation,” Jha insists. And unlike the coronavirus, the contagion of conspiracy theory is one against which we’re largely defenseless. “We have been blindsided,” he says. “We as public-health people have to figure out how to counter it in a way that’s effective. And we don’t have the tools.”

Exploring conspiracy theories and mass delusion can inadvertently popularize misinformation. So inoculate yourself with facts: The novel vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna are revolutionary and take advantage of our own cellular machinery to safeguard recipients against future coronavirus infection.

If you’ve seen computer renderings of the coronavirus, you know its surface is covered by spike proteins that create the “crown” that gives coronaviruses their name. Humans get infected with Covid-19 when these spike proteins pierce healthy cells, allowing the virus to invade, infect, and begin replicating.

Traditional vaccines have relied on exposing people to an inactivated (killed) or attenuated (weakened) virus. As the immune system reacts to a non-threatening inoculation, it gains the ability to fight off infection from the real pathogen. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines don’t include any virus at all. Instead, they use genetic code — messenger RNA or mRNA — to activate a few of our own cells to become spike-protein factories. The vaccine consists of tiny strands of mRNA encased in fat — a lipid particle — that allows them to slip inside a cell without being attacked. Once inside, the mRNA functions roughly like computer code, instructing cells to begin assembling coronavirus spike proteins out of amino-acid building blocks already in our bodies.

The presence of these strange proteins triggers our immune systems to create antibodies to neutralize them. Our immune system also summons T-cells to attack and shut down cells that were coded to produce spike proteins. Together, these immune responses prepare the body to fight off a real potential coronavirus infection. “It’s very elegant,” says Jha of the vaccine design. “It’s also de-risked it a lot. There’s no physical way to get Covid from this thing.” As for the conspiracy theory that an mRNA vaccine alters your own genes? “It literally doesn’t,” he says. “It doesn’t become part of your DNA.”

An anti-vaxxer at a MAGA rally in Washington, D.C. A Pew poll in December found roughly 50 million Americans are planning to abstain from vaccination, threatening herd immunity.Erin Scott/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Taming the pandemic will require both individual immunity — as produced by the vaccines — and community-level “herd immunity” created when a critical mass of individuals are resistant to infection. Herd immunity is like a firewall in public health; a localized flare-up of infection among a few individuals will be unable to spread broadly, instead burning itself out.

So far, the drugs appear to be living up to their billed efficacy of 95 percent protection from infection. And apart from some rare (and treatable) allergic reactions, the side effects seem well tolerated. But vaccine avoidance is already emerging as a troubling trend, particularly among health care and nursing-home workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Through mid-January, the CDC reported that only 32 percent of eligible nursing-home workers nationwide had chosen to get vaccinated.

Distrust of the vaccine is also high among communities of color. The reasons for this, while complex, are not difficult to understand. American public-health history is marred by institutional racism, including the horrific 40-year “Tuskegee Experiment,” in which hundreds of black men with syphilis were promised treatment that was, in fact, deceptively withheld, leading to 128 deaths. Our current health care system produces wildly disparate outcomes for people of color, including a maternal death rate that’s 2.5 times higher for black women than for white women. In the pandemic, communities of color have been hardest hit. These Americans disproportionately work in frontline positions, live in more crowded housing, have poorer access to doctors, and higher incidence of comorbidities. Meanwhile, crucial technologies like pulse oximeters, which use light to measure blood oxygenation and guide treatment, have been found to routinely malfunction on dark skin.

The hard truth is that returning to the point where Americans can go back to work or enjoy a night out at a crowded bar and be confident no one is going to get sick will require persuading millions to overcome their fear of vaccination and take a jab for the team. The 60 percent of Americans currently intending to get vaccinated is simply not good enough to establish herd immunity. “We’ve got to address the issues that help us get closer to 80 percent vaccination,” Jha says. “I’d love to get up to like 90, 95 percent.”

The larger the group of unvaccinated individuals, the more chance the virus can mutate to pose a danger, even to the already vaccinated. “Large outbreaks anywhere can give rise to variants that can escape vaccines everywhere,” Jha writes. “It’s the nightmare scenario of a never-ending pandemic.”

Long before the coronavirus hit, America had been gripped by a fierce anti-vaccine movement, which had itself become increasingly unmoored from scientific critique and drifted into conspiratorial waters.

Vaccines have always inspired popular fear. Decades ago, it was justified: The rollout of the polio inoculation in the 1950s tragically infected 40,000 children, paralyzing hundreds, and killing 10, because of botched manufacturing that failed to disable the live virus. Even with modern safety advances, vaccination campaigns expose a particularly American tension between personal choice and public safety. “In the U.S., there’s this suspicion or refusal around bodily sovereignty,” Bratich says. “People don’t like stuff stuck in them.”

Contemporary anti-vax culture took root in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when a startling rise in autism was hypothesized to be connected to childhood vaccinations. Robust science has since debunked any relationship between vaccination and autism. But at the time, the specter of vaccine injury sparked real concern among reasonable people.

In 1998, the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet published an article purporting to link the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine to “developmental regression in a group of previously normal children.” In the U.S. a year later, a federal review of mercury in drugs highlighted that a mercury-based preservative in childhood vaccines could expose infants, over the first six months of life, to a potentially harmful quantity of the neurotoxic metal. Out of an abundance of caution, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that the preservative, thimerosal, be phased out of vaccines. In 2005, Rolling Stone and Salon co-published a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. piece, “Deadly Immunity,” that helped push the provocative hypothesis that thimerosal triggered autism into wider circulation. The piece drew swift criticism and required significant corrections, including to a key statistic about childhood mercury exposure.

By the turn of the decade, both hypotheses had collapsed under the weight of scientific evidence. In 2009, a paper inClinical Infectious Diseasescited “20 epidemiologic studies” to conclude that “neither thimerosal nor MMR vaccine causes autism.” The Lancetretracted its MMR paper in 2010, with the journal’s editor saying he felt he’d been deceived, while calling the paper “utterly false.” In 2011, Salon retracted the Kennedy piece, writing, “The best reader service is to delete the piece entirely.” The story no longer appears on Rolling Stone’s website.

Fear of vaccination, however, didn’t disappear because scientists said it should. Instead, anti-vax beliefs spread widely, popularized by celebrities like actress Jenny McCarthy and then-Apprentice star Donald Trump, who infamously tweeted in 2014: “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes — AUTISM. Many such cases!” In a 2016 survey, 77 percent of parents who chose not to vaccinate their children cited a feared link to autism, and 71 percent cited fear of vaccine additives.

That same year, faced with a public-health threat from schools where up to 40 percent of kids were unvaccinated, California eliminated a “personal exemption” to vaccination, effectively requiring shots for all kids to attend public school. Measles had been eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but declining vaccination rates contributed to outbreaks infecting more than 1,200 across dozens of states in 2019. That year, the World Health Organization listed vaccine hesitance as one of its top “10 threats to public health.”

Today’s anti-vax movement has grown increasingly cozy with theories about dark agendas, ruthless profit motives, and powerful enemies, reserving peculiar animus for billionaire Bill Gates, whose foundation promotes vaccination globally. For his part, Kennedy continues to promote unfounded links between vaccines and autism, even though thimerosal has been phased out of childhood vaccines: “They replaced it with aluminum,” he says, “which is almost as bad.” (Aluminum salts have been safely used in vaccines for more than seven decades, according to the CDC.) “People like me get vilified and ridiculed,” he says, “but I will debate anybody about this.”

Kennedy now runs the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, where last April he published an article titled “Gates’ Globalist Vaccine Agenda: A Win-Win for Pharma and Mandatory Vaccination.” The piece purports to be grounded in science, but Kennedy gets the facts twisted. He claims, for example, that a 2010 Gates Foundation-funded trial of a malaria vaccine was responsible for “killing 151 African infants and causing serious adverse effects, including paralysis, seizure, and febrile convulsions, to 1,048 of the 5,949 children.” In reality, the trial was not implicated in the death of any child, and only 13 malaria-vaccine recipients had significant side effects. The trial was conducted in a region of Africa with high child morbidity and mortality, and the terrifying numbers Kennedy touts come from tallying up every health crisis experienced by the kids in the trial — both malaria-vaccine recipients and those in control groups — and brazenly attributing every dark outcome to the jabs. This includes deaths from head injury, HIV, malnutrition, and drowning. (Confronted with these facts, Kennedy admits error: “One can never definitively say that a particular death was or was not caused by a vaccine,” he says. But he adds without evidence that every death was “plausibly attributed to the vaccines,” while also baselessly alleging that the use of different vaccines, rather than placebos, in the control groups was “an act of fraud that appears designed . . . to mask death rates in the study cohort.”)

The rest of Kennedy’s piece paints Gates as a reckless and unaccountable billionaire pulling the strings of global institutions. He points to a TED Talk that Gates delivered boasting that expanded vaccine use “could reduce population.” This is meant to sound nefarious, but Gates has long spoken of reducing childhood mortality as a key to stabilizing populations in the developing world. As the conspiracy-debunking site Snopes explains: “Gates is not interested in using vaccines to reduce the population by using them as an agent of death or a tool to sterilize unsuspecting masses. Rather, Gates is interested in keeping more children alive in order to reduce the need for parents to have more children, thus limiting the overall population growth rate.”

If Kennedy dabbles in the Bill Gates conspiracy waters — writing that the coronavirus has given Gates “an opportunity to force his dictatorial vaccine programs” on all Americans — millions of others are performing cannonballs. A gee-whiz proposal, supported by the Gates Foundation, to use tiny subdermal markers for patients in the developing world to track their vaccination history, without needing a clinic to keep the paperwork, has morphed into a widely embraced conspiracy theory that Gates wants to microchip the citizens of the world. A YouGov poll last May found that 28 percent of Americans believed Gates wants “to use a mass vaccination campaign against Covid-19 to implant microchips in people that would be used to track people with a digital ID.” The belief rose to 44 percent of Republicans and to 50 percent of dedicated viewers of Fox News.

Conspiracy theories have been part of the lifeblood of American politics for centuries. In the 1820s, so many Americans were convinced that a shadowy and perhaps satanic cabal threatened the republic that they formed the Anti-Masonic Party and elected dozens of members to Congress. In the Red Scare of the 1950s, the far-right John Birch Society accused President Dwight Eisenhower of being “a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.”

Trump rose to political dominance promoting the birther conspiracy theory that Barack Obama had been ineligible to hold office. And he won and sustained the presidency by encouraging his white, working-class supporters to blame their social woes on the merciless “globalists” of the “deep state.” Conspiratorial thinking, academic research shows, often takes root in groups, like many in Trump’s base, that are experiencing economic or social dislocation. “People often turn to conspiracy theories when bad things are happening around them,” says Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent in England. “They are looking for ways to cope, people to blame,” she says. “If people believe that powerful, secret forces are responsible, then it isn’t their fault that things are bad for them,” and they can make themselves feel better without having to “tease apart the complex reasons for their disadvantage.”

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 created a “perfect storm” for new conspiracy theories to take root, says Bratich, the Rutgers professor. The pandemic overwhelmed government institutions, creating enormous fear and economic uncertainty. Lockdown life also created super-spreader conditions for paranoia, with Americans searching for answers in online forums where unreal ideas circulated unchecked. New converts were then able to spread these ideas, in real life, to their pods of close family and friends under lockdown.

Eric Oliver is a political-science professor at the University of Chicago who has studied conspiracy theories since the 1990s. He argues that conspiracy belief helps conquer anxiety by giving people a feeling of “I understand what’s happening in the world. I have a narrative that explains things.” They also root free-floating fear in something that feels solid: “ ‘The reason I’m feeling anxious is there’s a secret cabal doing something terrible. And now I’ve identified it.’ ” A reinforcing factor is “a certain narcissism,” he says. “The conspiracy theory gives them a sense of special knowledge: ‘I know something that’s going on that nobody else does.’ It feels empowering to them.”

A protester holds an anti-vaccination sign as supporters of President Donald Trump rally to reopen California as the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen, on May 16, 2020 in Woodland Hills, California.David McNew/Getty Images

A paradox of conspiracy theories is that they’re not full flights of fancy. They involve imagined and invented connections between real people, phenomena, and events. There’s a structure to the irrational belief. “Conspiracy theories are not the product of a disordered mind; they’re the product of an overly ordered mind,” insists Zuckerman. “Conspiracy theories happen when you have an enormous need for order in a disordered universe.” Zuckerman quit his post at MIT in protest of the university’s links to disgraced sex-criminal financier Jeffrey Epstein and now teaches at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “I do not subscribe to the theory that Epstein was killed in prison,” he says, but points to the myriad conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein as a case in point: “Having a genuine villain out there is really important for conspiracies to root themselves sufficiently in reality so that we continue to pay attention to them.”

This search for order has taken millions of Americans to a dark place — the nihilistic worldview of QAnon. The QAnon belief system is a crossover between a conspiracy theory and a religious cult, and its ideology takes strands of many past conspiracies and weaves them into a big tent where priors are welcome and almost any theory can find safe harbor.

The core of Q is familiar. It posits that the surface world of respectable politicians, well-intentioned government institutions, and a media seeking to hold them accountable, is an illusion. The real power in the world is wielded by shadowy power brokers in the government, Hollywood, and the media called “the cabal” or the “deep state.” QAnon takes this conspiratorial boilerplate to wild extremes. The “deep state” is alleged to be insatiable in its thirst for power, and willing to do anything — from launching wars to spreading pestilence — to move closer to global domination. The Q ideology has no room for subtlety. The conspirators are believed to be the embodiment of evil, actual “luciferians” and pedophiles.

The theory may sound lunatic, but QAnon is no longer relegated to the fringe: A Civiqs tracking poll finds that even after the attack on the Capitol, 10 percent of Republicans describe themselves as “supporters” of QAnon. Tenets of the Q belief system are even more widely held: An NPR poll released at the end of 2020 found 17 percent of Americans rated as “true” the statement that: “A group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media.”

In the Q mythology, the heroes fighting to expose the deep state include an alleged intelligence officer, known as Q, for the “Q-level” clearance he or she is alleged to hold. The conspiracy has elements of a massive role-playing game. For years, the anonymous “Q” dropped cryptic hints or “crumbs” on message boards like 8chan and 8kun, which QAnon adherents then sought to “bake” into coherent narratives about coming events. The community also revered Donald Trump as a lonely fighter, seeking to undermine, arrest, and vanquish the deep state.

How did the anti-vax movement — which thrives in far-left communities like Portland, L.A., and Marin County, California, — get mixed up with a quasi-religious cult that held up Donald Trump as its savior? “It was very surprising to see the anti-vax community cross the streams” with QAnon, says Zuckerman. “Anti-vaxxers are people who often identify as leaning politically left. They often come to this stance because they’re anti–corporate, and they’re really concerned about Big Pharma making money.”

American political ideology is most often conceptualized as a straight line running from left to right. But an alternate visualization presents the spectrum instead as a horseshoe, where the left and right extremes bend back toward one another. Conspiracy theories can bridge these far ends like a powerful electric spark.

Oliver’s research has shown that openness to conspiracy theory is correlated to intuitive thinking over evidence-based thinking. Conspiratorial beliefs take hold in people who make gut-level decisions and place disproportionate weight on symbolic costs. He offers a questionnaire that helps tease out the personality trait.

Would you rather: Stab a photograph of your family five times with a sharp knife? Or stick your hand in a bowl of live cockroaches?

Would you rather: Sleep in laundered pajamas once worn by Charles Manson? Or pick a nickel off the ground and put it in your mouth?

Would you rather: Grind your heels into an unmarked grave? Or stand in line for three hours at the DMV?

A person avoiding actions with high symbolic costs (stabbing a family photo, sleeping in Manson’s PJs), he says, “is a very strong predictor of believing in conspiracy theories — regardless of where they are on the ideological spectrum.”

Oliver points out that conservative religious Americans — “evangelical or orthodox communities” — tend to have very high intuitionism scores, and receptivity to conspiracy theory. But so do New Age communities associated with the American left. “People who believe in conspiracy theories also believe that GMOs are bad,” he says. “They tend to like organic food or natural health remedies.”

The leap from anti-vax theories to QAnon is less mysterious, Zuckerman says, when you “think about how lonely it is to be an anti-vaxxer. You have the small group of friends who are willing to listen to you talk about mercury in vaccines,” he says. “But suddenly you have a whole group of people” in QAnon adherents “who say, ‘Oh, yeah, not just this, but did you know about this?’ You may be willing to go further, and say, ‘Sure I’ll buy this next part of the conspiracy.’ ” Finding such affirmation and community in the unreal, he says, makes it easy to surrender your hold on fact-based beliefs. “Red-pilling,” he says, “is when you move from your origin conspiracy theory to this full-conspiracy worldview.”

The anti-vax and Q movements began to merge with the release of a viral video last May. “We saw it in earnest around Plandemic,” says Zuckerman. Plandemic is the project of Mikki Wills, a 53-year-old self-described “investigative filmmaker” with piercing blue eyes and a salt-and-pepper goatee, who works from the coastal California enclave of Ojai, halfway between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

Willis is politically liberal and his bio touts him as “a virtuoso of positive energy.” He tells Rolling Stone that he was inspired to shoot Plandemic because of his concern over the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed. “The idea that [the] administration was going to rush an experimental vaccine to market, then have it distributed to the masses by way of the U.S. military,” Willis says, “felt insane and reckless at best. I felt compelled to shine a little light on it.”

The slickly produced 26-minute video centers on discredited former federal scientist Judy Mikovits, whom Willis platforms as an Erin Brokovich-style whistleblower. Mikovits claims without evidence that her career was derailed by a federal conspiracy directed by Anthony Fauci. And she makes myriad wild, false, and unsubstantiated claims, including that the coronavirus was released from a lab and that mask wearing causes illness. The film baselessly insinuates that Fauci, Gates, and others have enormous financial interests in the pandemic. In one key exchange, Willis poses to Mikovits: “If we activate mandatory vaccines globally, I imagine these people stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars that own the vaccines.”

The film was roundly debunked, including by Science, which said in part: “Science fact-checked the video. None of these claims are true.” Major social media companies banned the video, but not before it was viewed millions of times. Willis insists he’s “absolutely not” a conspiracy theorist and knows “very little” about QAnon. But his video became a cause célèbre among the Q set. “In many ways, Plandemic is much more of an anti-vax video than it is a QAnon video,” Zuckerman says. But it fits with the nihilistic Q worldview that elites are not simply misguided or incompetent, but so evil as to unleash a global pandemic and then seek to profit from a vaccine. “The Q community loves it. Right?”

The film hit the bull’s-eye of what Bratich describes as the overlapping “Venn diagram of the antivax movement and QAnon.” At the margins, he says, anti-vaxxers have long feared there exists a dark agenda behind inoculations, and these people have found in QAnon a “ready-made, tight narrative — it’s about the great reset, it’s about a new world order, it’s about Bill Gates — that explains the vaccinations.”

The full convergence of the anti-vax movement and QAnon belief can be seen in the trajectory of Larry D. Cook — a onetime healthy-lifestyle guru who became a high-profile anti-vaccine activist before he red-pilled, choosing to anchor his beliefs in the open harbor of QAnon.

Cook is 56 but looks perhaps a decade younger. He has a lanky runner’s build and an open, calm, somewhat flat affect when he speaks. He has made his home in Los Angeles for the past 15 years, and a profile picture on his personal website shows him beaming at a farmers market, holding aloft a bunch of kale in each hand.

In 2005, Cook wrote The Beginner’s Guide to Natural Living, touting the optimal conditions to express “the divine intelligence flowing through us.” He describes having become a vegan in 1990 and preaches the virtues of organic food, yoga, and alternative healing. There are seeds of distrust in Cook’s writing: He encourages readers to “question toxic medicine” that “makes more money by keeping us slightly sick.” But little in Cook’s rhetoric would have been out of place in a left-coast magazine like Mother Jones from the same era. He urges caution of “mainstream media . . . owned and controlled by its advertisers,” and of a government that can be “hoodwinked into allowing harmful products onto the market.”

Cook’s career path is nontraditional. He jumped from “being a sound guy in Hollywood” to a gig as executive director of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association. Cook did not respond to interview requests but told a radio interviewer that his fear of vaccines took root when he was researching a book about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and “came across some information that mercury in vaccines cause autism.” As a side gig around 2010, he started creating YouTube videos interviewing doctors who pushed the thimerosal hypothesis and parents whose children were allegedly harmed by vaccines.

The hobby would become a calling, and a conviction, for Cook in 2015, when California proposed ending the personal-belief exemption from public-school vaccination requirements. Cook started a site called Stop Mandatory Vaccination to oppose this and future legislation and describes how this anti-vax activism got him “fired” from his executive-director post and led to his becoming a full-time activist. “I found my voice,” he said. The deeper he dove into the anti-vax world, the more distrustful Cook became, decrying what he calls the “cover up” of children who die after being vaccinated as “a medical mafia conspiracy.” (No serious science suggests vaccination is secretly killing kids.) In 2016, Cook voted for Trump, he explains in a recent court document, because of Trump’s own claims that vaccines were linked to autism.

To popularize his anti-vax beliefs, Cook came up with a “system,” which involved raising money on GoFundMe to pay for alarming Facebook ads that he’d target at young mothers. “I was doing things in a certain way,” Cook explained. “Grabbing attention of parents and driving them into my Facebook group, where they could get their questions answered.” The idea was to spur the young moms to “go anti-vaccine. . . . Once they learn the truth,” he said, “they become activists.” A 2019 study by the journal Vaccine revealed that Cook was second only to Kennedy in promoting anti-vax sentiment on Facebook. “Many advertisements featured stories of infants allegedly harmed by vaccines,” the study reports, “using tag lines like, ‘Healthy 14 week old infant gets 8 vaccines and dies within 24 hours.’ ”

The social media giant didn’t have qualms about taking tens of thousands of dollars from Cook to promote the outrageous claim that vaccines kill babies until it was called out in a letter by Rep. Adam Schiff, who demanded information from Mark Zuckerberg in February 2019 about the company’s practice of monetizing and promoting misinformation about vaccines. Facebook soon tweaked its algorithms to stop recommending anti-vax content, which was instead downgraded on the platform. The move decimated Cook’s online reach from 2 million views a month to about 100,000. Facebook also turned off his ability to advertise on the site. YouTube likewise demonetized his channel.

This throttling by social media giants only appears to have pushed Cook further away from the mainstream. As he described his own conversion, in February 2020, Cook read a QAnon book titled Calm Before the Storm that opened his mind to the Q worldview. And he “red-pilled,” as he described in an hour-long video posted last July, in which he appears flanked by a giant Q in one corner and an American flag underscored with the hashtag #WWG1WGA — short for the Q battle cry of “Where We Go One We Go All!” — in the other.

Cook described how discovering QAnon suddenly gave him a context for his distrust of mainstream medicine and his sense of being persecuted and silenced by social media. “When you wrap your head around the idea that it’s the deep state that is facilitating the vaccine mandates,” he said, “all of a sudden it makes complete sense.”

Cook cast mandatory vaccinations as just one expression of the deep state’s “luciferian” agenda of “controlling everyone on the planet.” The mandates are “all part of the deep-state plan,” he claimed, because “when you inject poison into someone, you can incapacitate them very quickly, especially if you’re doing it at birth . . . as soon as a soul comes in — incarnates.” He called vaccination of children a “deliberate assault designed to suppress their consciousness, designed to shut off their connection to God.” But there’s hope, he insisted: “If you take the deep state down completely, we take down the vaccine mandates.”

Through the same jaundiced lens, Cook sees the coronavirus pandemic as part of the deep state’s sinister plot: “It’s a plandemic,” he said, borrowing Willis’ coinage. “It was planned, it’s a false flag. . . . Q would say these people are sick. They want complete control of our planet . . . And if that means killing . . . millions of people, they could care less.”

For Cook, as for most QAnon adherents, the fight is overtly political. “Democrats are lockstep with the deep state,” he insisted. “Our role is to educate the rest of humanity . . . who’s on the side of justice and truth and who’s on the side of God.” The good guys, for Cook, are Trump and the “Q Team.” And he celebrates the promise of redemption: “You shut down the deep state and we can have heaven on Earth,” he said, adding: “We are in the throes of the final battles.”

The attack on the Capitol on January 6th was a wake-up call for America that online conspiracy theories and QAnon’s nihilism are a serious threat not just to the mental health of individual believers but also to innocent life, not to mention the functioning of our democratic government.

The mass delusion of conspiracy-theory belief also constitutes a public-health crisis. As the WHO put it last fall, an “infodemic” is “endangering countries’ ability to stop the pandemic,” adding that “misinformation costs lives,” and that a lack of trust in science will cause immunization campaigns to “not meet their targets, and the virus will continue to thrive.”

Public-health experts say the addictive appeal of conspiracy theories has left them exasperated, but with few solutions. “I really had this mental model,” Jha says, that “you get the evidence, you speak it in plain, simple terms, and share with people what is true — and that’s it. Like, you win the game,” he says. “I have learned very much the hard way, from April on, that that is just naive.”

In January, a mob of anti-vax protesters briefly shut down a mass inoculation site at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, holding up signs like “COVID=SCAM,” “Don’t be a lab rat,” and “Tell Bill Gates to Vaccinate Himself!” The inability to respond effectively to this kind of mass delusion, Jha says, is a “huge liability in the public-health community. We should try to engage with people,” he insists. “But it is not done by giving them facts. They’re not actually lacking in facts; they don’t believe.”

Zuckerman says the core obstacle with QAnon is that its doctrine of blanket distrust leaves few avenues for intervention: “ ‘Scientists? Oh, they’re all at universities; they’re all part of the deep state. What about the media? Oh, my God. The media actually run the deep state.’ That’s epistemic closure,” he says.

Social media companies that had profited from allowing such conspiracies to run riot have recently booted QAnon and anti-vaxxers from their platforms. But that also creates problems, says Bratich. “It’s just riled up the radical emerging right that sees themselves as being not just censored, but persecuted,” he says. This brings with it notions of a “dangerous self-sacrifice and martyrdom” and risks “more conflagrations before it subsides.”

Shortly after the election, Cook found himself completely de-platformed. In mid-November, he was kicked off Facebook as part of the social network’s purge of QAnon. Twitter shut down his account simultaneously. Cook has attempted to launch his own social media properties: Covid-19 Refusers — which features a 14-part video indoctrination on why to reject vaccination — as well as Medical Freedom Patriots: a $5-a-month, subscription-based group he touts as “Anti Vaccine, Pro Alternative Medicine, QAnon friendly.” Cook makes plain he’s seeking to spread the gospel of QAnon: “We are in an INFORMATION WAR,” he writes. “The first step is for us all to be informed — I am giving you the path to that — and then to share it yourself with others.”

As with many, many Q believers, Trump’s election loss has been hard for Cook to absorb. On December 7th, he posted on Parler that Americans should consider fleeing to “Republican held states” to avoid forced vaccination. “This is war,” he wrote. “We don’t need to be up front getting the kill shots when we know there’s Higher Ground.” In late January, he posted to Telegram his belief that the military would help Trump reseize control of America: “I have now seen enough pieces of the puzzle to believe that *THE PLAN* is in fact going EXACTLY as it was PLANNED to go for our US Military and President Trump to secure the United States of America and thereby *end* the Deep State’s rule over us once and for all,” he wrote. “In fact I do believe it will be BIBLICAL.”

Zuckerman argues that what’s required to reach the far edges of the anti-vax and QAnon communities resembles cult deprogramming. “The question that I think everyone would love to have a definitive answer to is, ‘Can people be unpilled?’ ” he says. He points with encouragement to forums on Reddit for people who have escaped Q and are trying to help others. “They talk about the incredible damage — that this is a belief system that ends marriages, ends friendships.” Bratich likens these groups to “QAnon recovery” and suggests that “the deprogramming that happens might be as networked and distributed as the way these people [originally] came together.”

But Bratich cautions that the pull of QAnon remains devilishly strong, and that the conspiracy theory has shown itself to be incredibly plastic and adaptable. He warns that as the notion of Trump as superhero fades, the fight against vaccination may well open up as the organizing battle in QAnon’s resistance against the deep state. “If Trump goes away or goes to the margins,” he says, “I think this will be the next thing that becomes front and center.” The far edge of the anti-vax movement, he says, “keeps talking about how the vaccine is ‘the beginning of the end.’ For QAnon there’s a code in there,” he warns. “It’s the beginning of the end of America, right?”

This video file cannot be played.(Error Code: 102404)

Although negative reactions have been relatively rare, the numbers are used by many extremist groups to try to bolster a rash of false and alarmist disinformation in articles and videos with titles like “Covid-19 Vaccines Are Weapons of Mass Destruction — and Could Wipe out the Human Race” or “Doctors and Nurses Giving the Covid-19 Vaccine Will be Tried as War Criminals.”

If the so-called Stop the Steal movement appeared to be chasing a lost cause once President Biden was inaugurated, its supporters among extremist organizations are now adopting a new agenda from the anti-vaccination campaign to try to undermine the government.

Bashing of the safety and efficacy of vaccines is occurring in chatrooms frequented by all manner of right-wing groups including the Proud Boys; the Boogaloo movement, a loose affiliation known for wanting to spark a second Civil War; and various paramilitary organizations.

These groups tend to portray vaccines as a symbol of excessive government control. “If less people get vaccinated then the system will have to use more aggressive force on the rest of us to make us get the shot,” read a recent post on the Telegram social media platform, in a channel linked to members of the Proud Boys charged in storming the Capitol.

Image

A “Stop the Steal” rally at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in November.Credit...Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times

The marked focus on vaccines is particularly striking on discussion channels populated by followers of QAnon, who had falsely prophesied that Donald J. Trump would continue as president while his political opponents were marched off to jail.

“They rode the shift in the national conversation away from Trump to what was happening with the massive ramp up in vaccines,” said Devin Burghart, the head of the Seattle-based Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which monitors far-right movements, referring to followers of QAnon. “It allowed them to pivot away from the failure of their previous prophecy to focus on something else.”

Apocalyptic warnings about the vaccine feed into the far-right narrative that the government cannot be trusted, the sentiment also at the root of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The more vaccine opponents succeed in preventing or at least delaying herd immunity, experts noted, the longer it will take for life to return to normal and that will further undermine faith in the government and its institutions.

Last spring, a common purpose among far-right activists and the anti-vaccination movement first emerged during armed protests in numerous state capitols against coronavirus lockdown measures. That cross-pollination expanded over time.

On Jan. 6, while rioters advanced on the Capitol, numerous leading figures in the anti-vaccination movement were onstage nearby, holding their own rally to attack both the election results and Covid-19 vaccinations.

Events overshadowed their protest, but at least one outspoken activist, Dr. Simone Gold of Beverly Hills, Calif., was charged with breaching the Capitol. She called her arrest an attack on free speech. She was one of several doctors who appeared in a video last year spreading misleading claimsabout the coronavirus. Mr. Trump shared a version of the video, which Facebook, YouTube and Twitter removed after millions of viewers watched it.

Image

Dr. Simone Gold in a video for America’s Frontline Doctors, an organization accused of spreading misleading information about the coronavirus and possible treatments. She was later charged with breaching the Capitol.

In the months since inoculations started in December, the alliance grouping extremist organizations with the anti-vaccination movement has grown larger and more vocal, as conspiracy theories about vaccines proliferated while those about the presidential vote count receded.

With their protests continuing, far-right groups deployed many of the same talking points as the vaccination opponents. Prominent voices in both the “Stop the Steal” and the anti-vaccination movements helped to organize scattered rallies on March 20 against vaccines, masks and social distancing in American cities including Portland, Ore., and Raleigh, N.C., as well as in Australia, Canada and other countries around the world.

In April, a conference with the tagline “Learn How to Fight Back for Your Health and Freedom,” is set to bring together Trump allies like Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell along with high-profile members of the anti-vaccination effort.

Maligning the coronavirus vaccines is obviously not limited to extremist groups tied to the Capitol riot. There is deep partisanship over the vaccines generally.

One third of Republicans surveyed in a CBS News poll said that they would avoid getting vaccinated — compared with 10 percent of Democrats — and another 20 percent of Republicans said they were unsure. Other polls found similar trends.

About 100 members of the House of Representatives, roughly one-quarter, had not been vaccinated as of mid-March, according to Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House minority leader.

It is unclear where Mr. Trump will fit into the vaccine battle. The former president, who has been vaccinated, endorsed getting the shot recently, provoking some disbelief in QAnon and other chatrooms. “I would recommend it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me frankly,” he said in an interview with Fox News.

Image

Protesters at anti-vaccination demonstrations are using similar imagery as those at “Stop the Steal” rallies.Credit...Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Across right-wing channels online, certain constant memes have emerged attacking the vaccine, like a cartoon suggesting that what started with mask mandates will end with concentration camps run by FEMA for those who refuse vaccinations.

Numerous channels link to the government website called VAERS, for Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, to energize followers. It had reported 2,216 deaths among people vaccinated for the three months before March 22, with 126 million doses administered. The Covid-19 vaccines in use, like most vaccinations, are considered overwhelmingly safe, but inevitably a small percentage of recipients suffer adverse reactions, some of them severe. The deaths have not been directly linked to the vaccinations.

The raw, incomplete VAERS statistics are meant for scientists and medical professionals, but are widely used among extremist groups to try to undermine confidence in the vaccine. One video consisted of a person reading the details from the chart aloud barking “Murder” where the chart said “Death.”

On Telegram, channels frequented by tens of thousands of QAnon followers are full of videos warning of the dire consequences of taking the vaccine.For example, David Icke, a British serial conspiracy theorist, posted a video called “Murder by Vaccine” saying that it transformed the nature of the human body. (The claims that the vaccines change human DNA are false.)

Mr. Icke was previously best known for pushing the idea that the world was controlled by shape-shifting alien lizards who inhabited a global network of underground tunnels.

The general proliferation of conspiracy theories by QAnon followers for years has helped to create a shared vocabulary among far-right organizations, experts said, which smoothed the way for spreading false information about the vaccines. “The last year with Covid has just been a perfect storm that whatever your crazy conspiracy belief is, there is someone who has a Covid conspiracy to match it,” said Melissa Ryan, chief executive of Card Strategies, a consulting firm that researches disinformation.

Image

Anti-vaccine protesters shouted and waved signs at health care workers waiting in line to enter the Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., in February.Credit...Zack Wittman for The New York Times

The vaccines are sometimes referred to as a “potion,” sometimes as a “bioweapon,” and there are claims that vaccinated people are “shedding mutant viruses.”

Telegram is the locus of much of the disinformation and fear mongering. On one channel, there are claims that the vaccine is an instrument of depopulation. “A massive death wave will be witnessed later this year among those who took the vaccine,” read one posting.

In Idaho, the far-right activist Ammon Bundy helped to push for a proposed state law to ban any mandatory vaccines, although work stalled after the legislature suspended its work on March 19 for more than two weeks because too many lawmakers contracted the coronavirus.

The question is where this newly forged alliance goes from here. Some analysts believe its life span will prove limited, with the far right pivoting to some other issue, like immigration. Eventually, hundreds of millions of Americans will be vaccinated, they noted, and vaccine skepticism is not the same thing as being anti-vaccination. Some doubters will soften if time proves the vaccines effective.

A new reportby the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University noted, however, that although the de-platforming of extremist groups made their campaigns harder to follow, the alliance has the potential to meld disparate factions into a large anti-government movement united around public health issues.

“It increases the opportunity for a big tent enemy,” said Joel Finkelstein, a fellow at Rutgers who runs the institute. “If you are feeling dispossessed, like all these right-wing groups are, boy do I have a tent for you.”

Ben Decker contributed research.

Neil MacFarquhar is a national correspondent. Previously, as Moscow bureau chief, he was on the team awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. He spent more than 15 years reporting from around the Mideast, including five as Cairo bureau chief, and wrote two books about the region.

:{:{A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Moving On From ‘Stop the Steal,’ Far Right Now Vilifies Vaccines}:

See more on: U.S. Politics

---

4 25 duck qanon vaxx

Rolling Stone

https://www.rollingstone.com › culture › culture-features › qanon-anti-vax-covid-vaccine-conspiracy-theory-1125197

QAnon: How the Anti-Vaxxers Got Red-Pilled - Rolling Stone

The full convergence of the anti-vax movement and QAnon belief can be seen in the trajectory of Larry D. Cook — a onetime healthy-lifestyle guru who became a high-profile anti-vaccine activist ...

}}

an 4 25

an no lnx

'Get your weapon!' Violent MAGA man launches run for Congress

Ryan Nichols' Facebook via U.S. Department of Justice

Jordan GreenApril 14, 2025

An East Texas man who broke into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, and stood on a window ledge holding a crowbar and a bullhorn while exhorting pro-Trump rioters to “get in the building,” wants to go back — this time, as a member of Congress.

Ryan Nichols, a Marine Corps veteran, announced his plan to run for the 1st congressional district seat in Texas, which is currently represented by Republican Nathaniel Moran, on Wednesday.

Nichols was sentenced to 63 months in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers, before receiving a pardon from President Trump. He said during a press conference on Wednesday that he knows “what it feels like to have the full weight of the United States government on top of you.”

Nichols live-streamed himself marching towards the Capitol on a GoPro camera on Jan. 6, according to a filing by federal prosecutors, unleashing an expletive-laden rant against Vice President Mike Pence for his refusal to interfere with the certification of Joe Biden as president.

“I’m telling you if Pence caved, we’re gonna drag mother---ers through the streets," Nichols said. "You f---ing politicians are going to get f------ drug through the streets. Because we’re not going to have our f------ s--- stolen. We’re not going to have our election or our country stolen.”

According to the government, Nichols and his friend Alex Harkrider were outfitted with tactical gear. Nichols carried a crowbar while Harkrider carried a tactical tomahawk axe.

Later, during a pitched battle in front of the Capitol, Nichols hit law enforcement officers with two streams of chemical spray, according to the government. As detailed in a Department of Justice press release, Nichols entered the Capitol through a broken window and rummaged around a conference room.

Standing on a window ledge after emerging from the Capitol, Nichols reportedly held his crowbar in one hand and a bullhorn in the other, while shouting to other rioters: “Get in the building, this is your country, get in the building, we will not be told, ‘No.’” He also reportedly said, “If you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon!”

Nichols told reporters during his press conference that he expressed remorse when he stood before the judge to receive his sentence.

“I apologized to the judge that day,” he said. “I apologized to the officers who were there that day. I apologized to the members of Congress and to the people of Washington, D.C. Because ultimately they didn’t ask for all that to happen.”

NOW READ: The suffering of white Trump voters isn't going to change a thing

===

QANON INVOLVEMENT:

omg

jan 6

From 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on January 5, a series of Trump rallies were held at Freedom Plaza.^[154] Notable speakers included Alex Jones, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and Roger Stone.^[161]

Both Flynn and Stone had received presidential pardons in prior weeks. On December 8, Trump pardoned retired US Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to "willfully and knowingly" making false statements to the FBI about communications with the Russian ambassador. Flynn, a prominent QAnon proponent, participated in the D.C. events on January 5, while his brother, U.S. Army general Charles Flynn, would participate in a conference call on January 6 when he would refuse permission to deploy the National Guard after the breach of the Capitol.^[162]

162

Bunch, Will (February 7, 2021). "Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, and the criminal conspiracy case of U.S. v. Donald Trump". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on August 26, 2023. Retrieved November 25, 2023.

On December 23, Trump pardoned Roger Stone, who had been found guilty at trial of witness tampering, making false statements to Congress, and obstruction. Stone, who had longtime ties to both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, employed Oath Keepers as security on January 5.^[163] Stone's Oath-Keeper driver was later convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in plotting and executing the following day's attack.^[164]...

Endangering Mike Pence

On January 5, after Vice President Mike Pence refused to participate in the fake electors plot, Trump warned that he would have to publicly criticize him. This prompted Pence's chief of staff to become concerned for Pence's safety and to alert Pence's Secret Service detail to the perceived threat.^[87][334] At 3:23 a.m. on the morning of January 6, QAnon leader Ron Watkins posted a tweet accusing Pence of orchestrating a coup against Trump and linked to a blog post which called for "the immediate arrest of [Pence], for treason".^{[335][336][337}]

At 2:24, while Pence was in hiding in the Capitol, Trump tweeted that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done".^[338][339] Trump followers on far-right social media called for Pence to be hunted down, and the mob began chanting, "Where is Pence?" and "Find Mike Pence!"^[340] Outside, the mob chanted, "Hang Mike Pence!", which some crowds continued to chant as they stormed the Capitol;^[339] at least three rioters were overheard by a reporter as saying that they wanted to find Pence and execute him as a "traitor" by hanging him from a tree outside the building.^[341] One official recalled that: "The members of the [Vice President's Secret Service detail] at this time were starting to fear for their own lives... they're screaming and saying things like 'say goodbye to the family'".^[342] Alerted by a staffer to the threat against Pence, Trump reportedly replied "So what?".^[343] According to witnesses, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told coworkers that Trump complained about Pence being escorted to safety and then stated something suggesting that Pence should be hanged.^[344][345] Pence later argued that Trump's "reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day".^[346]

On April 3, 2025, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced Pence as the recipient of the JFK Profile in Courage Award "for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021".^[347]

...

QAnon

Jacob Chansley, the "QAnon Shaman", in the US Senate during the attack. He was later sentenced to 41 months in prison,^[398] being released from halfway house in May 2023^[399]

Main article: QAnon § Attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. election

QAnon is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017.^[400] QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic,^{[401][402][403}] cannibalistic child molesters are operating a global child sex trafficking ring that conspired against Donald Trump.^[407] Watchdogs studied QAnon posts and warned of the potential for violence ahead of January 6, 2021.^{[408][409][410}] Multiple QAnon-affiliated protesters participated in the attack.^[411][412] One participant, whose attire and behavior attracted worldwide media attention, was Jacob Chansley, a QAnon supporter nicknamed the "QAnon Shaman".^[413] Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was shot dead by police as she was trying to break into the Speaker's Lobby, was a committed follower of QAnon.^[414][415] The day before the attack, she had tweeted: "the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours".^[416]...

Analysis

[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC08970_%2850827352796%29.jpg)A row of flags lining the Capitol grounds.

In February 2021, an academic analysis in The Atlantic found that of the 193 persons so far arrested for invading the Capitol, 89 percent had no clear public connection to established far-right militias, known white-nationalist gangs, or any other known militant organizations. "The overwhelming reason for action, cited again and again in court documents, was that arrestees were following Trump's orders to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the presidential-election winner". They were older than participants in previous far-right violent demonstrations and more likely to be employed, with 40% being business owners. The researchers concluded that these "middle-aged, middle-class insurrectionists" represented "a new force in American politics – not merely a mix of right-wing organizations, but a broader mass political movement that has violence at its core and draws strength even from places where Trump supporters are in the minority".^[456]

The Associated Press reviewed public and online records of more than 120 participants after the attack and found that many of them shared conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election on social media and had also believed other QAnon and "deep state" conspiracy theories. Additionally, several had threatened Democratic and Republican politicians before the attack.^[373] The event was described as "extremely online", with "pro-Trump internet personalities" and fans streaming live footage while taking selfies.^[457][458]

According to the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism:

The "ordinary people" argument misses, or at least obscures, the extent to which the Capitol rioters were linked to dangerous groups and ideas.... at least 280 of the individuals charged with committing crimes on Jan. 6 were associated with extremist groups or conspiratorial movements. This includes 78 defendants who had links to the Proud Boys, a group with a history of violence; 37 members of the anti-government Oath Keepers militia; 31 individuals who embraced the similarly anti-government and militant views of the Three Percenters movement; and 92 defendants who promoted aspects of QAnon.... These 280 individuals make up approximately 35 percent of the Capitol defendants. While it is true that they do not represent a majority of the more than 800 people who have been charged in connection with the riot, ... A 35 percent rate of participation in extremism among a collective of apparently "ordinary" individuals is an astounding number – one that should shake us to our core.^[91]

===

MMA

January 6 participants are touring right-wing media and calling for retribution following Trump’s pardon

Some say those who prosecuted the crimes should be “put behind bars” and face “extreme accountability”

Written by Payton Armstrong & Jack Winstanley

Research contributions from Alex Kaplan

Published 01/24/25

January 6 participants who received pardons or commuted sentences from President Donald Trump are now demanding retribution, including by calling for prosecutors to “be imprisoned” and “put behind bars,” saying there needs to be “a prosecution for perjury” against U.S. Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and David Lazarus, and declaring that “the next obvious step would be fire all prosecutors, all FBI agents who were involved in this witch hunt.” Some have also discussed “class action lawsuits” against investigators and prosecutors.

Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of January 6 participants, and right-wing media cheered the move

Trump issued “full, complete and unconditional” pardons to January 6 participants, including “violent offenders,” and commuted the sentences of members of extremist groups who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. According to The New York Times, “The pardons will also wipe the slate clean for violent offenders who went after the police on Jan. 6 with baseball bats, two-by-fours and bear spray and are serving prison terms, in some cases of more than a decade. … In a separate move, Mr. Trump commuted the prison sentences of five other Proud Boys, some of whom had been convicted at trial with Mr. [Enrique] Tarrio. He also commuted the sentences of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, and eight of his subordinates. Altogether, the commutations erased more than 100 years of prison time for the 14 defendants, almost all of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.” The New York Times, [1/20/25]

* Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance toldFox News Sundaythat people who committed violence on January 6 should “obviously” not be pardoned. Other prominent Republicans, including some in Trump’s administration, previously advocated for people who attacked police officers to face consequences. Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) even tied her stance to Vance’s comments, saying, “I agree with JD.” The Associated Press, :{[1/12/25; Project Democracy, 1/13/25]}:

- Right-wing media praised the move while glossing over pardons and commutations granted to those previously convicted of violent crimes or seditious conspiracy. On War Room, Steve Bannon celebrated “blanket” pardons. On Fox News, OutKick founder Clay Travis declared, “I love the pardon of the Jan 6 political prisoners.” Media Matters, [1/21/25; Real America's Voice, War Room, 1/21/25; Fox News, America's Newsroom, 1/21/25]

## January 6 participants called for retribution, prosecutions after pardons
### Enrique Tarrio

On Infowars, Tarrio, the newly pardoned and freed former leader of the Proud Boys, called for retribution: “The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars.” Tarrio suggested that prosecutors “didn't care about the evidence. They cared about putting Trump supporters in prison,” adding, “Now it's our turn.” Tarrio also said that “they need to be imprisoned. We need to find and put them behind bars for what they did. They need to pay for what they did.” Infowars, *The Alex Jones Show*, [1/21/25]

- Tarrio had been serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy. As reported by The New York Times, “While Mr. Tarrio was not in Washington that day, prosecutors say he helped prepare his compatriots for street fights and remained in touch with them while the mob — with the Proud Boys in the lead — overran the Capitol.” CBS News, [1/23/25; The New York Times, 1/22/25]

### Stewart Rhodes

On Infowars, newly freed Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, whose sentence Trump commuted, claimed that U.S. Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and David Lazarus “lied on the stand and we caught them,” demanding that there be “a prosecution for perjury.” Infowars, *The Alex Jones Show*, [1/22/25]

- Rhodes had been serving an 18-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy.The Associated Press reported that “using dozens of encrypted messages, recordings and surveillance video, prosecutors made the case that Rhodes began shortly after the 2020 election to prepare an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of presidential power,” and “rallied his followers to fight to defend Trump, discussed the prospect of a ‘bloody’ civil war and warned the Oath Keepers may have to ‘rise up in insurrection’ to defeat Biden if Trump didn’t act.” The New York Times, [1/22/25; The Associated Press, 11/29/22]

### Brandon Straka

On Newsmax, Brandon Straka, who was newly pardoned, said he would “do anything I can to go after any of these people who did this to me and others” for “the big lie that was January 6.” Straka told Newsmax, “I am going to actively pursue any avenue available to me to try to get justice from what the government has done to me and any of these Big Tech companies or anyone else who participated in the big lie that was January 6.” Newsmax, *Newsline*, [1/21/25]

- Straka pleaded guilty in 2021 to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to three years of probation. In 2022, CNN reported that Straka “admitted to recording himself telling the mob to ‘go go go’ as they reached the Capitol and telling rioters who were wrestling a shield away from a US Capitol Police officer to ‘take it, take it.’” During the Newsmax appearance, Straka claimed that he was “forced” to make that statement as part of his plea deal and he “did not do any of these things. They were total lies.” KETV Omaha, [1/22/25; CNN, 1/24/22]

### Alex Sheppard

On Stew Peters’ show, January 6 participant Alex Sheppard celebrated his pardon and said, “The next obvious step would be fire all prosecutors, all FBI agents who were involved in this witch hunt.” He also agreed with Peters that those who “set up” January 6 and carried out the prosecutions must be “tried for a coup. … And when they're convicted, they need to face extreme accountability.” Sheppard said that the pardons were “an important first step” and noted that “there's a lot of talk about class action lawsuits going on right now.” He went on to say that he “would rather we have some sort of situation where we just take the pensions of all these people who went after us, judges included,” suggesting that “the people who have been locked up for four years straight” deserve “reparations.” Rumble, *The Stew Peters Show*, [1/21/25]

- According to the U.S. attorney’s office for D.C., Sheppard “was among the first rioters to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and joined others in overrunning multiple police lines established to stop the mob’s spread.” Sheppard was sentenced to 19 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release on five offenses including a felony, and reportedly “got an early release after the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case challenging the Department of Justice’s use of obstruction charges.” U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, [9/5/23; Ohio Capitol Journal, 1/22/25]

### Edward “Jake” Lang

OnProphets and Patriots, a newly pardoned Jake Lang said that God is “a God of justice” and touted an organization he founded to get “accountability,” adding he and other January 6 participants are “at home right now with a pencil and paper writing down the names” of individuals they want to subject to lawsuits.Lang said that “make accountability great again is the new MAGA movement because now we’re in a position of, you know, power, political power with the Republican Party and Donald Trump taking back all three branches of government.” He said that “we’ve orchestrated a $50 billion lawsuit on behalf of the Jan 6ers” against the Department of Justice and laid out his plans to name individuals in lawsuits: “We named, obviously, the D.O.J., but there are many prosecutors, many FBI agents, many jailers of ours, Federal Bureau of Prisons, there were so many agencies that colluded. ... We are going to be naming individuals and agencies — Joint Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Attorneys Office — so this is going to be like reading like a scroll of people that were involved. And right now that's one of our main things that we're doing. I’ve got Jan 6ers at home right now with a pencil and paper writing down the names of the prison guards, of the U.S. marshals, of the prosecutors.” ElijahStreams, *Prophets and Patriots*, [1/23/25]

- Lang was in jail awaiting trial for 11 charges relating to his activity on January 6.As reported by The New York Times, “In social media posts by other rioters, Mr. Lang could be seen swinging a baseball bat at police officers and thrusting a riot shield in their direction, according to the court filings.” While in prison, Lang organized the J6 Pardon Coalition, a petition effort lobbying Trump to pardon and end all ongoing investigations into January 6 participants. Lang also attempted to create a militia organization, dubbed the North American Patriot and Liberty Militia, with right-wing media figures while in prison. The New York Times, [1/22/25; Southern Poverty Law Center, 1/17/25; Media Matters, 6/7/24]

===

mma also had tarrio

January 22, 2025, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show

STEWART RHODES (OATH KEEPERS FOUNDER): It's frustrating to see anyone say, 'well these people, they assaulted police officers.' Well here's the point I made for some article I did for Gateway Pundit -- is the presumption of innocence in this country means that every single American is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury of their peers. That's a fair jury, that's an impartial jury, in a court with an impartial judge. That can't happen in Washington, D.C. They drew the jury pool from the victim pool.

They said all, the judges themselves said, everyone in Washington D.C, all the residents are victims of J6. And the judges even said they themselves were victims. But they insisted on drawing the jury from the victim pool. It's as though you're being charged with robbing a Walmart, and they drew the jury pool from everyone who was in the Walmart on the night of the robbery. You're not going to get an unbiased jury. It's impossible. So, because you had no fair trial, you did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a fair trial, so you should all be still presumed innocent until proven guilty and that's why President Trump was fully justified in pardoning everybody. All of us should be pardoned and almost all were.

===

an 1 25

The national Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, isn't interested in discussing the 47th president's mass pardons of insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte reached out to the FOP after Trump announced he was pardoning roughly 1,500 people charged and convicted in relation to the deadly siege of the Capitol, in which roughly 140 police officers were injured while battling rioters. Those injured during the insurrection included both members of the U.S. Capitol Police Department along with Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers.

"We don't have a statement about that," the FOP told Dáte, who tweeted that he specifically asked the union its thoughts on Trump "releasing HUNDREDS of violent felons who assaulted cops."

Trump's pardons included both those convicted of lower-level offenses like unlawful parading, and those convicted of seditious conspiracy (the most serious charge). The rioters who have been released from prison include high-profile defendants like Guy Reffitt, who brought a gun to the Capitol, and who was turned in by his own son.

Some of the officers who were attacked and testified publicly in the trials against insurrectionists received preemptive pardons from former President Joe Biden hours before Trump was sworn in. Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who provided testimony to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, was among those Biden pardoned. He recently shared a screenshot of his call log with former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, which showed automated alerts from the Department of Justice letting him know that defendants he testified against have since been released from prison.

"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense," Biden stated after issuing the pardons. "Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country."

Click here to read Dáte's tweet.

===

lie gaslt revis pix of sting grenade

mma

January 13, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports

GREG KELLY (HOST): Well, I like JD Vance. I like half of that. But actually, some of the people who committed violent acts, actually, well, many of them have gotten a raw deal as well. This has never been adequately investigated because we never had an adequate investigation into the whole damn thing. But, I don't know, what do you do when the police unlawfully provoke violence? And that's what a lot of people believe happened. They did not issue a warning before throwing chemical munitions into a mostly, if not universally peacefully assembled crowd.

...

KELLY: Why is this guy throwing these basic hand grenades into a crowd? And people aren't, like, they aren't lunging toward officers or anything like that? You see, this is stirring up a fight, stirring up a fight where there was no fight. So the people who started fighting, I mean, do they not deserve a pardon, too? I think that has to be looked into. I wouldn't rule anything out. The whole thing was a kind of a setup, many of us believe.

rww 1 25

Stew Peters declares that "if Trump doesn’t issue a blanket pardon for EVERY J6 political prisoner, he’s a complete piece of shit."

===

MMA

On January 6, 2021, as a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and halted Congress’ counting of electoral votes, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade dashed off a desperate text to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished,” he wrote of Trump, who had summoned the enraged crowd to Washington, D.C., and incited it with lies that the 2020 election had been stolen as part of a plot to subvert that election.

Kilmeade expressed a drastically different view on Monday, as a new Congress prepared to count the electoral votes that would return Trump to the Oval Office.

In one of Fox & Friends’ few references to the January 6 insurrection that morning, he mocked Democrats who “want to point out how different” today’s events will be “from four years ago” when “democracy was in danger.”

Kilmeade added that the American people think that January 6, “as bad as that day was, it’s a small part of the Donald Trump story” and that it would be “put to bed even further after today happens.”

The Fox & Friends host is one of an array of right-wing media figures who said at the time that the January 6 insurrection was a calamity, that the rioters were criminals, and that Trump himself bore responsibility for their actions. But over the past four years, they have participated in the right’s Great Forgetting, making their peace with Trump’s attempted coup and supporting his return to the presidency.

### When the right said January 6 was “deplorable” and its participants “criminals”

“Remember what yesterday’s attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol was like. Very soon, someone might try to convince you that it was different,” The Atlantic’s David Graham wrote the next day. “The health of the republic depends both on what swift consequences come—for Trump and for others—and also on how people remember the participants’ actions later on.”

Graham’s warning proved prescient. As the attack unfolded and in its immediate aftermath, many media figures on the right joined those on center and left in condemning the attack — and Trump’s work to incite it — in the strongest possible terms. But they did not sustain their initial response.

“Shoot the protestors,” influential commentator Erick Erickson wrote that afternoon. He added that Trump should receive immediate consequences that would end his political career: “Waive the rules, impeach. Waive the rules, convict. Waive the rules, deny the ability to run for election again.”

Four years later, Erickson offered this take: “First, Happy January 6th to all who celebrate. Note to the media: The exit polling in November showed that most voters do not care. That you will try to make them care today is another reason trust in the media is beneath that of Congress itself.”

Fox chief political analyst Brit Hume likewise denounced Trump at the time for having “fueled the worst suspicions of his supporters with wild claims that the election was stolen. And now we see the result.” But on Election Day 2024, he declared this “a BS issue” because “the thing was over in a matter of hours.”

Erickson and Hume are among a long list of right-wing media notables who condemned January 6 — and even Trump for bringing it about — but came around to implicitly or explicitly support his return to the presidency, even as he showed no remorse for his own actions and valorized the rioters.

Rupert Murdoch, whose right-wing media empire is one of the most potent forces in Republican politics, wrote in an email to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on Inauguration Day 2021 that Trump’s election lies had been “pretty much a crime” that made January 6 “inevitable.” He added: “Best we don't mention his name unless essential and certainly don't support him."

On Fox, numerous hosts condemned the criminal acts of the mob and said its members deserved punishment, with some even describing such denunciations as morally necessary.

“Those who truly support President Trump, those that believe they are part of the conservative movement in this country, you do not — we do not support those that commit acts of violence,” offered Fox host and Trump adviser Sean Hannity. “Every good and decent American, we know, will and must condemn what happened at the Capitol.”

“The actions at the United States Capitol three days ago were deplorable, reprehensible, outright criminal,” Jeanine Pirro likewise declared. “Anyone watching this must condemn it.”

Fox contributor Mark Thiessen was among the few to single out Trump on the network’s airwaves, saying the then-president had been “responsible for what happened,” and he went much further in a Washington Post column.

“It was one of the darkest moments in the history of our democracy. And Trump is responsible for it,” he wrote. “Trump formed and incited the mob. He stoked their anger with self-serving lies. He betrayed his followers. He betrayed his office. And now he has blood on his hands.”

The organs of the upper-crust right were united in blaming Trump for the attack.

Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal wrote in a January 7, 2021, editorial that Trump should resign the presidency after committing “an assault on the constitutional process of transferring power after an election.” The New York Post editorial board wrote that “while the roots of this madness were many, with some blame across the spectrum, it’s fundamentally on President Trump.” And the editors of National Review said Trump “found a new low” by having “whipped up and urged on a mob toward the U.S. Capitol, where it breached the building and forced his vice president and lawmakers to flee.”

The hosts of the All-In podcast, which became a key venue of the MAGA tech right, were even more scathing at the time, describing Trump as “a complete piece-of-shit fucking scumbag” who had engaged in “insane, deranged, criminal, lunatic behavior” and had “disqualified himself from being a candidate at a national level.”

### The Great Forgetting and what comes next

These comments reflected the widespread initial consensus that January 6 had been horrific — and that Trump had been responsible for it. In the first days following the attack, politicians of both parties, corporate leaders, and the public at large responded with revulsion and demands for consequences.

But that unity ultimately proved fragile. A coterie of Trumpists, led by former Fox host Tucker Carlson, worked diligently to unwind it, reframing the sacking of the U.S. Capitol as either unimportant — or a conspiracy driven by Democrats and the media in which the assailants were the real victims of a crackdown on “political dissidents,” as Fox’s Rachel Campos-Duffy put it last week.

As this fraudulent counternarrative became increasingly widespread, most other conservative media figures eventually chose to join the right’s Great Forgetting. They pretended that a president who they knew had tried to overturn the republic was fit to return to that office. And in so doing, they helped power Trump from his post-January 6 position of disgrace back to the GOP nomination and the presidency.

Trump’s return to office sets the stage for more authoritarian acts. He never repudiated his election lies or the attack they incited, instead valorizing the January 6 “hostages” and promising they will receive pardons as one of his first acts in office. And he is assembling a team to carry out the “retribution” he has promised to inflict on his political foes, including an FBI director who proposed legal action against the conspirators, “not just in government but in the media,” who he claimed “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”

Trump’s authoritarian impulses may ultimately come to nothing. But with their actions after January 6, the leading lights of the right have already signaled their willingness to accept whatever he does.

The Fox News coup

01/06/21

They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them

07/22/22

### Fox personalities now claim that January 6 prosecutions are political. At the time, many condemned the attack: “Deplorable, reprehensible, outright criminal”

05/21/24 MMA

===

an 1 25

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to pardon defendants who were present during the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. While many Trump critics — from Democrats to Never Trump conservatives — have described those defendants as "insurrectionists," Trump considers them political prisoners and "hostages."

Some of the January 6 defendants were charged with violent crimes; others, however, were present in the Capitol that day but weren't accused of any acts of violence. The federal charges against the defendants have ranged from major felonies to misdemeanors.

In an article published on January 6, 2025 — the fourth anniversary of the 2021 attack — the New York Times' Alan Feuer takes a look at some of the defendants who have finished serving their sentences.

"In the past four years," Feuer explains, "nearly 1600 people have been prosecuted in connection with the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Some were accused of felonies like assault or seditious conspiracy and are still in prison. But hundreds charged with lesser crimes have wrapped up their cases and returned to their lives."

One of the January 6 defendants Feuer describes is Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. the QAnon Shaman.

"Moving with the first wave of rioters," Feuer reports, "(Chansley) left a threatening note on the Senate floor for Vice President Mike Pence, who had to be hustled to safety as the mob overwhelmed the Capitol. Yet, like others who disrupted the election certification that day, Mr. Chansley seeks to cast the 41-month sentence he received as 'experiencing tyranny firsthand.'"

Other January 6 defendants Feuer mentions include Eric Clark (who received a five-month prison sentence), Daniel Christmann (who served a 25-day sentence) and Casey Cusick (who served a brief 10-day sentence), Couy Griffin (who was sentenced to two weeks), and Dallas real estate broker Jenna Ryan.

On January 7, 2021, Ryan bragged about her role in the Capitol attack on X, formerly Twitter, and posted, "We just stormed the Capitol. It was one of the best days of my life."

Ryan was later sentenced to 60 days in prison

Feuer notes, "She claims that she was treated harshly because of her 'public profile' as a January 6 defendant. But being sentenced for illegally demonstrating in the Capitol also allowed her to fulfill what she describes as her 'lifelong goal of being a writer and a speaker.' Ms. Ryan, 54, has written a book called 'Storming the Capitol: My Truth About January 6th,' which she says 'shows how it feels to be caught in the middle of a polarized political climate, canceled by society, surveilled by the FBI and thrown in prison for a tweet.'"

*Read the full New York Times article at this link (subscription required).

===

MADDOW BLOG 12 24

trump’s effort to move the Jan. 6 goalposts is literally unbelievable

When a Justice Department investigation discredited a key Jan. 6 conspiracy theory, Donald Trump cynically tried to tweak the absurd underlying claim.

Dec. 16, 2024

By Steve Benen

Proponents of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories are probably accustomed to embarrassing setbacks, but last week was especially brutal. The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, unveiled the detailed findings of a four-year investigation, which concluded that while there were FBI informants at the Capitol, no FBI officials were responsible for instigating the attack.

Once these revelations were released, Donald Trump, left with no choice, grudgingly acknowledged reality.

No, I’m just kidding. The president-elect actually published an item to his social media platform, shortly before midnight on Friday night, that cynically tried to move the goalposts.

“Wow! This is big news,” the Republican wrote. “What a disgrace. Let J-6 Hostages out NOW!!!”

This came on the heels of Vice President-elect JD Vance taking a related step, pretending that humiliating news for Jan. 6 conspiracy theorists should actually be seen as evidence that helps Jan. 6 conspiracy theorists.

But these efforts are literally unbelievable. As we discussed last week, too many Republicans and their allies have spent nearly four years pushing the idea that federal law enforcement instigated the insurrectionist assault. The absurd claims grew so common that they were given a name: The “fedsurrection“ narrative was rooted in the idea that it was the FBI, and not Trump’s rabid followers, that was responsible for the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

This has never made any sense. As a Washington Post analysis noted last week, “If the bureau’s leaders disliked Trump (even though the FBI director was appointed by him), they only had to wait two weeks for him to be out of office.”

Nevertheless, we already knew — from congressional investigations and multiple federal court cases — that the conspiracy theory was baseless. To the extent that there were still any lingering doubts, the Justice Department’s inspector general erased them in unambiguous detail.

To hear Trump tell it, the fact that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants is evidence of a “disgrace.” But that’s preposterous: The far-right conspiracy theory wasn’t that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants. We already knew this. Some even testified during Jan. 6 criminal cases.

Rather, the conspiracy theory was that the FBI was somehow responsible for instigating the attack and entrapping Trump’s poor, unsuspecting supporters. Horowitz’s report — the one the president-elect seemed so excited about — discredited the bizarre idea. Not only did the IG conclude that the FBI informants weren’t authorized or encouraged to break the law, but the same findings made clear that there were no undercover FBI employees at the Capitol, either.

Nevertheless, the incoming president is very likely to reference last week’s revelations when he prepares pardons for Jan. 6 criminals. In fact, as part of Time magazine’s latest cover story on Trump, published last week, the Republican not only said he intends to issue these pardons, he added that he hopes to do so “maybe” within “the first nine minutes” of his second term.

I’m not quite sure how that would work — perhaps he’ll interrupt his own inaugural address? — but time will tell.

As for the nature of Trump's plan, NBC News reported that the president-elect has expressed confusion about key elements — he’s said, for example, that he thinks most or all Jan. 6 defendants were being held in a Washington, D.C., jail, for example, when in fact only a handful of defendants are still being held pretrial — and even some of the Republican’s allies have expressed concern about his “level of awareness of the details.”

Watch this space.

---

mma Sean Hannity calls sentences of convicted January 6 rioters “excessive”

12/05/24

===

AN 12 24

Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney reported Wednesday that Russell Taylor — who invited "fighters" to help him storm the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election — will be attending President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2025. Former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth saying that "three current members of the Utah congressional delegation" were co-signing his invitation of Taylor to the inauguration, given that the terms of Taylor's probation ban him from traveling to Washington, D.C. without an invitation. He did not mention which three of Utah's six representatives were in support of Taylor's attendance.

“He is [a] caring father and reveres his family, his faith, and his love of our Country as his highest priority in life,” Stewart wrote. “I am honored to extend this invitation for him to attend the Inauguration as my guest.”

Some of the "fighters" Taylor asked to help assault the Capitol were "Three Percenter" militia members. The Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed Three Percenters as an "antigovernment general militia movement" whose leaders have specifically targeted Muslims and immigrants. Cheney wrote that on January 6, Taylor "surged to the U.S. Capitol with a knife and a tactical vest." And the day before, he delivered a speech threatening violence unless the election was overturned in Trump's favor.

"In these streets, we will fight and we will bleed before we allow our freedom to be taken from us," Taylor said according to court documents. "We will not return to our peaceful way of life until this election is made right."

Trump has promised that he would pardon scores of January 6 participants shortly after taking the oath of office next month. Some defendants have cited Trump's promise of pardons to argue that their proceedings should be delayed until after the inauguration, given that a presidential pardon would negate their prosecutions by President Joe Biden's Department of Justice.

According to Cheney, members of the U.S. Capitol Police Department will be tasked with protecting Taylor during his impending visit to Washington. This makes it a historic first that someone who participated in a deadly attack on the Capitol — that led to the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and the injuries of 174 other Capitol police officers — will be protected by that same department. Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn called it a "slap in the face" for Trump to consider pardoning people who attacked police.

In a 2023 post to her Substack newsletter, journalist Sarah Kendzior presciently warned that Biden's presidency would be a mere "placeholder" between "aspiring American autocracy" and a more "entrenched" form of authoritarianism if he failed to thoroughly prosecute both the participants and architects of the 2021 insurrection.

"Under Biden, the United States became the first country to face an attempted coup and not only fail to punish the coup plotters but allow them to hold office and make laws," she wrote. "There is no parallel in world history. Even Hitler had a prison interlude between his putsch and his presidency."

10 24 no docs many

New Jack Smith documents reveal millions spent on Jan. 6 rally - Raw Story

new documents unsealed in Donald Trump's criminal Jan. 6 case disclosed $3 million spent to get people to the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol building.

Among the nearly 2,000 heavily redacted pages of evidence for charges against Trump related to an attempt to steal the 2020 election were documents relating to a budget and trip plan for the day.

The evidence is being considered by Judge Tanya Chutkan before she rules if Trump is immune to criminal charges under a Supreme Court decision. Trump's team opposed the papers being unsealed.

IFrame Content

USA Today reported an unnamed organization spent $3 million to bring guests and protesters to D.C., and on ad buys to encourage people to make the trip. The actual costs of the event itself were under $400,000.

"Several versions of the “Confidential – Not To Be Disclosed” document are included, with some redactions, and appear to have been prepared for House Jan. 6 Select Committee investigating the attacks, which disclosed some of the information," reported USA Today.

Among the recipients of the money was the conservative group TurningPointAction, which got $1 million, according to the papers.

chase bank 906 jefferson shorewood Ill

Donald Trump Jr's super PAC, "Save the Senate" got a $500,000 payment.

The Tea Party Express got $400,000 and $200,000 was sent to a redacted name that was recruited "to assist with his organization efforts," the documents say. JONES INFOWARS

There was also a $200,000 donation to the Republican Attorneys Generals (RAGA) Rule of Law Defense.

Meanwhile, "$300,000 was budgeted for speaker fees and travel for VIP speakers and a busing program to bring in rallygoers within a 180-mile radius."

A $100,000 payment was given to a redacted group to cover "the estimated cost of their hotels, private flights, car services and private security for about 10 to 15 of its members.

See some of the screen captures of the documents below or at the link here....

===

Image: Audience reacts to Donald Trump at town Hall meeting; Univision

Donald Trump isn't used to stepping outside of his fawning MAGA bubble. And he most likely thought Univision viewers were a sycophantic subset of his adoring inner circle. But yikes, the disgusted reactions coming from his mostly Latino audience last night told a different story.

Responding to a 56-year-old construction worker and former Republican who asked Trump to "win back my vote," the ex-president did quite the opposite.

Watch the expressions of contempt and disbelief coming from the folks at the Univision-hosted town hall meeting as Trump repeated his standard pandemic, election fraud, and J6 lies — including the preposterous line that January 6 was "a day of love." With arms crossed, eyebrows raised, and looks of sheer skepticism, I'd say this was certainly not a night of love. (See video below, posted by Meidas Touch.)

---

benny j trump tried to stop it an 10 24

an 10 24 goofy stoner --> 'If it’s my time to die, it’s my time to die': Jan. 6 rioters 'further radicalized' in jail in pat pod

{---}:

Conspiracy theorist Julie Kelly claims the unsealed Trump filing is “criminalizing any political activity by a president in the White House”}:

:{10/03/24 mma

October 3, 2024, edition of Real America’s Voice’s War Room

JULIE KELLY (GUEST): Look, Jack Smith knows this case is going nowhere, and let's remember what this new indictment, superseding indictment is. It is a four-count indictment. Three conspiracy charges, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to deny rights, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to obstruct.

…

So this is what is mostly in his new dossier, his motion that was unsealed yesterday, trying to explain how what Donald Trump did in office was purely private and political, that what his communications with Mike Pence were political and private, not in his official capacity as president.

What this represents, and because they only see this through the lens of Donald Trump, if they get their way, which they won't, is criminalizing any political activity by a president in the White House.

DAVE BRAT (GUEST HOST): Right. Right.

KELLY: That's what this would be. So this is why it's a folly, Dave. That's why it's not going anywhere. Jack Smith knows it. Tanya Chutkan knows it. Everyone knows it. This is a purely political, partisan move. The press is eating it up. And at the end of the day, this will all go away in the higher courts, whether appellate, certainly the Supreme Court. But it doesn't matter because they're gonna get their headlines. The fake ones we saw last night and today that Donald Trump called for a riot is not what that document says.

As Media Matters has documented:

Kelly has a long history of promoting unhinged conspiracy theories and election denial, including baseless accusations smearing police officers who were attacked on January 6, 2021.

Kelly accused former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a heart attack after a rioter attacked him with a stun gun, of instead being a “crisis actor.”

---

an 9 24

former vice chair of the North Dakota Young Republicans has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in the U.S. Capitol after his mother posted a video on Facebook.

Damian Johnston faces four charges related to the Jan. 6 riot, including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, according to a complaint dated Sept. 24. Johnston currently lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, according to court documents.

Johnston resigned his position with the Young Republicans in February, according to a statement he posted on his Facebook account. His father, Daniel Johnston of Kathryn, is a former Republican state House member running for election in District 24.

Damian Johnston was released after a Sept. 26 court hearing. His next appearance is set for Oct.10 via Zoom video conference. His first hearing was in federal court in Wisconsin. The Oct. 10 hearing is in the District of Columbia.

Krista Halla-Valdes, a public defender in Wisconsin, was listed at Johnston’s attorney for the first court appearance. She said in an email that Johnston would be assigned an attorney from the District of Columbia.

According to the complaint against Johnston, some who knew Johnston and his family provided a tip to the FBI on Sept. 18, 2023, that a video posted by Johnston’s mother on Facebook showed Damian Johnston at or near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Damian Johnston was still living in North Dakota at that time. The FBI then obtained Johnston’s driver’s license photograph from the North Dakota Department of Transportation and compared it to images taken at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Johnston is seen entering the Capitol at 3:08 p.m., the complaint said. Johnston could be seen speaking into a microphone, wearing an earpiece and taking photos with his cellphone. He left the building at 3:17 p.m.

Johnston did not reply to a message sent to his Facebook account or an email. A call to what had been listed as Johnston’s phone number did not go through.

Andrew Nyhus, executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party, did not have a comment Monday morning.

Daniel Johnston did reply to an email and voicemail Monday.

Messages sent to the North Dakota Young Republicans also were not returned.

Congress had convened on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the vote count of the Electoral College of the 2020 presidential election, in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump.

The complaint said Johnston had attended the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse, near the White House.

U.S. Supreme Court ruling on obstruction law helps cases of Jan. 6 defendants

IFrame Content

Trump spoke at the rally. Johnston was identified as wearing a red baseball cap with “Trump” written on the front.

By the time Johnston entered the Capitol, glass in the door was cracked and nearby windows were shattered.

The riot forced members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence, acting as Senate president, to evacuate the chambers at 2:20 p.m.

The charges against Johnston are:

Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds,Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds,Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building,Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

In a statement, North Dakota Democratic-NPL Chair Adam Goldwyn called Jan. 6 “one of the darkest days in modern American history.”

“These rioters should all be held accountable in a court of law,” Goldwyn said in a statement. “Every single Republican running for office should be denouncing Johnston’s actions.”

North Dakota Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on Facebook and X.

---

9 24 in a doc MOC fighting insurrectionists then cut to just tourist?!

---

Fox News contributor Miranda Devine: January 6 “was really just an inconvenience for some members of Congress for a few hours at their workplace”

09/18/24 mma

---

bb 8 24

david Dempsey's "brutal" attacks on police officers earned him one of the longest sentences so far handed down to the Trump supporters who sacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. Sentencing him to 20 years imprisonment, senior D.C. District Judge Royce Lamberth described Dempsey's actions as "exceptionally egregious" and nearly resulting in a "bloodbath" in Congress.

Footage showing him lashing out, throwing projectiles at officers and using other people in the crowd as "scaffolding" was shown in court. Prosecutors cast him as "political violence personified"—a violence they said was directed against officers trying to keep the surging mob out of the building. In one attack, he swung a metal bar at an officer, breaking his helmet.

Dempsey had also attacked political enemies at earlier protests, the judge said, further warranting the lengthy jail term.

Before receiving his sentence, Dempsey groveled to the court, speaking of his "profound sense of regret" and apologizing to victims and other officers in attendance. After he learned he would not be getting leniency, however, he flashed the white power "OK" sign in court when bailiffs moved to take him away. Numerous observers at the scene reported the gesture, including NBC News's Ryan J. Reilly.

David Dempsey in footage from the Jan 6 riots.

On the Jan 6 high score chart, Dempsey lands at #2 after Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, the Proud Boy leader who scored a 22-year sentence. Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boy Ethan Nordean were sentenced to 18 years, Proud Boy Joe Biggs to 15 years, and Proud Boy Zacahry Schwartz to 14 years.

Previously:

• 5 years in jail for Jan 6 rioter who injured cop

• Self-pitying Capitol rioter Rachel Powell, headed for prison, shows no remorse in CNN interview

• Former Proud Boy leader Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio sentenced to 22 years in prison

• Georgia lawyer off to jail for his part in Capitol Hill riot

• Seven year sentence for Jan 6 rioter described as 'one-man wrecking ball'

---

did not destroy docs thus no obstruction?

Barrett accuses SCOTUS of 'textual backflips' in obstruction case: 'Win for Jan. 6 defendants'

---

an 6 24

when a predominantly white mob of far-right Donald Trump supporters violently attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, some of them were carrying Confederate flags.

Many Trump critics, from liberals and progressives to right-wing Never Trump conservatives, have pointed to those flags as evidence that the assault on the Capitol was more than a riot — it was an outright insurrection.

According to a newly published study conducted by David C. Wilson of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and Darren Davis — a political science professor at Notre Dame University in Indiana — there was another component in the January 6 attack: "racial resentment."

The Guardian's Alice Herman reports, "Angered over the claim, promoted by Trump and his closest allies, that heavily Black cities had rigged the 2020 election in favor of Democrats, white voters — some affiliated with white-nationalist groups and militias, and others acting alone — stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to halt the certification of the 2020 election."

The study is titled "Stop the Steal: Racial Resentment, Affective Partisanship, and Investigating the January 6th Insurrection."

According to Herman, researchers "relied on a national survey of adults in the U.S. conducted in 2021."

Herman notes that the researchers draw a distinction between "racial hatred" and "racial resentment."

According to Herman, "Wilson and Davis also point to the fact that while a slew of polls show the general public split somewhat evenly over the legitimacy of the (January 6) House Select Committee, Black Americans overwhelmingly supported the Committee's work, while white poll respondents generally opposed it…. Distinct from racial hatred or prejudice, racial resentment, Wilson argues, is a particularly powerful motive to action because it stems from a sense of injustice. The psycho-social phenomenon can have consequences for democracy, Wilson said."

In the report, Wilson and Davis explain, "Many of President Trump's supporters believed they were being victimized by election fraud in the 2020 election, but they also believed that whites were being victimized more generally — the American way of life for them was changing and they were being disadvantaged by African-Americans and other minorities."

READ MORE:['Fantastical' claims: Trump’s lawyers who argued he won in 2020 are getting punished

*Read The Guardian's full article at this link.

mma 5 24

fox personalities now claim that January 6 prosecutions are political. At the time, many condemned the attack: “Deplorable, reprehensible, downright criminal”

Laura Ingraham on January 7, 2021: “Many who stormed the Capitol will likely face jail time. Good. Anyone who broke the law should.” She now claims that prosecutions were “targeted” and “unfair.”

WRITTEN BY JANE LEE, HELENA HIND, ALICIA SADOWSKI & ISABELLA CORRAO

PUBLISHED 05/21/24

On January 6 and in the immediate aftermath, Fox News took a strong stance condemning the insurrection, despite refusing to describe it as such. Hosts, contributors, and frequent guests alike denounced the insurrectionists for storming the Capitol building, drawing comparisons to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and insisting that conservatives stood for law and order and were above such criminal behavior. Some Fox personalities even went so far as to blame Trump directly for inciting his followers to attack the Capitol.

Now, three years later, Fox personalities downplay January 6 insurrectionists as peaceful and unarmed. (That rioters who sacked the Capitol building were all unarmed is a long-debunked claim.)

Fox News’ about-face on January 6 reflects the network’s return to its role as Trump’s top sycophant, supporting whatever the former president wants, even at the cost of democracy. Trump has pledged that pardoning January 6 “hostages” would be a priority for the first day of his second term, or, as he has also described it, his single day of dictatorship.

Below are numerous examples of Fox hosts, contributors, and regular guests denouncing January 6 as it occurred and in the days that followed, and then a series of Fox personalities defending the insurrectionists in the present:

In and immediately after January 6, Fox News condemned the insurrection, claiming that conservatives were for law and order and criminals should be charged

- Chief political anchor Bret Baier remarked, “This is an extraordinary image, it’s an extraordinary day, but you can't take away and subtract what the president said on the mall that leads to this moment. The two are connected.” Fox News, *The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino*, [1/6/21]

- Fox Business anchor Liz Claman said Trump “did not himself walk down Pennsylvania Avenue … but by planting that seed, they immediately began marching and then they, of course, have now taken over.”Fox Business, *The Claman Countdown*, [1/6/21]

- Later on The Claman Countdown, Fox contributor Robert Wolf stated, “I blame the president.” He added: “He said the other day that this rally was going to be wild. He turned a blind eye when people went into a Michigan statehouse with Gov. Whitmer with rifles. And this is not a peaceful protest.” Fox Business, *The Claman Countdown*, [1/6/21]

- Anchor Martha MacCallum said that the “group of people who breached these walls are — that’s a crime.” She added: “They’ve committed a crime and they should be prosecuted for it. Eric Trump was tweeting that. You know, other supporters of the president are tweeting that.” Fox News, *Your World with Neil Cavuto*, [1/6/21]

- MacCallum: “The people who broke into this building are extremists, and they have perpetrated violence against this building.” She added: “And, just as we have talked about throughout the course of this year, that’s a line that cannot be crossed.” Fox News, *The Five*, [1/6/21]

- While commenting on the insurrection, Fox host Dana Perino said, “There’s not a legal definition yet, but domestic terrorism is a real crime.” Fox News, *The Five*, [1/6/21]

- On his radio show, Fox host Mark Levin said of the protesters, “What they did was criminal.” He said: “I want to know who these people are. I want to know if they’re going to be charged. Because they should be. They broke the law. What they did was criminal. No, it wasn't a constitutional crisis. No, they didn’t stop us from counting electors. But what they did was criminal, lawless, idiotic, moronic. And we cannot have groups — I don’t care who they are, I don’t care what their cause is — taking over our governmental buildings. Period, stop, that's it. That’s it. And I want these people punished. I want them identified and I want them punished. I want to know who they are.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [1/6/21]

- Levin condemned the January 6 insurrectionists: “I don't care what signs you're holding, you do a grave disservice to the country and you do a grave disservice to us.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [1/6/21]

- On Tucker Carlson Tonight, conservative radio host Buck Sexton said, “It's also important, however, for us now to make sure we see that those who broke the law, those who crossed that line, are held to account.” He added: “It's on us to make it very clear why we have principles that we don't violate even in these extreme times.” Host Tucker Carlson agreed, saying, “That’s for sure. The idea that people would smash windows in the Capitol Building, are you kidding? We spent our entire life on this show going after the people in charge and they absolutely deserve it. But no, you’re not allowed to break windows or encourage people to break windows.” Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [1/6/21]

- Host Sean Hannity said, “Those who truly support President Trump, those that believe they are part of the conservative movement in this country, you do not — we do not support those that commit acts of violence.” He continued, “They — people — we don't believe should be vandalizing our nation's capitol, attacking the brave men and women that keep us safe in law enforcement. They don't storm the Capitol, they don’t place pipe bombs at the RNC or anywhere else. And all of today's perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But, every good and decent American, we know, will and must condemn what happened at the Capitol. Fox News, *Hannity*, [1/6/21]

- Then-Fox contributor Dan Bongino: “We can't ever, ever normalize political violence, ever.” He continued: “You know, there’s a famous quote by Ellis that civilization is a thin crust on a volcano. But what is that thin crust made of, right? Well, it’s made of law, order, the Constitution — rules that apply to everyone. But Sean, the rules don't apply to everyone. Whereas people on this network and me today who’ve said, ‘Listen, what happened today was not normal and should not be accepted and should be called out.’ And we have. Period, full stop.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [1/6/21]

- Fox host Laura Ingraham: “But those who breached the Capitol Hill security today, whoever they were, they were criminals.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/6/21]

- Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy said: “The attack on law enforcement yesterday was jaw-dropping.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [1/7/21]

- Fox contributor Tammy Bruce declared, “What the American people must demand is arrests.” She added: “We saw people allowed to leave who were bloodied. We've got to know who these people are and what their associations are.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [1/7/21]

- Fox host Jesse Watters spoke out against the insurrection: “I condemn it fully.” He continued: “And I want to speak to the people that think it wasn't that big of a deal. Yes, you’re allowed, as a member of the public, to go into the people's house, but you have to go through the front door and you have to pass through a metal detector. You can't smash windows, spray police with chemical agents, assault police officers, loot, and vandalize. An unarmed woman was shot dead, and what did it accomplish? It accomplished absolutely nothing. So I want to make that very clear.” Fox News, *The Five*, [1/7/21]

- Fox host Greg Gutfeld expressed agreement with Watters, adding: “I condemn this equally because we aren't them.” He added: “We are better than them. … Republicans are always outraged by bad behavior because they consistently, consistently embrace law and order and condemn the destruction of private and public property. … You will not see Republicans bailing out those who were arrested. See, that is a vital contrast. And Americans know this. Americans do not need lectures from hypocrites in hair and makeup who pick and choose their favorite protesters, right? So, I’m glad that the Democrats are finally outraged by this disgusting behavior. Join the club. I’ve been there for a year. I do not play favorites with mobs.” Fox News, *The Five*, [1/7/21

- MacCallum said, “The people who broke in and disrupted and vandalized the United States Capitol are being sought by the FBI, as they should be this evening — and both sides, I think, feel strongly about that.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [1/7/21]

- Hannity called for a “full, transparent investigation into what went wrong” on January 6 and said rioters who “[broke] the law,” “breached the building,” and “committed vandalism” should be “arrested and prosecuted.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [1/7/21]

- Hannity stated, “Unlike fake news CNN, this program — we’re going to condemn all violence.” He added: “We condemn the far left riots over the summer, we condemn what happened yesterday at the Capitol.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [1/7/21]

- Ingraham declared, “Many who stormed the Capitol will likely face jail time. Good. Anyone who broke the law should.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/7/21]

- Fox contributor Sean Duffy commented that “to see the thugs storm our Capitol with such disrespect made me so angry.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [1/8/21]

- Fox contributor Marc Thiessen stated, “We can't skirt the fact that Donald Trump is responsible for what happened on Wednesday.” He continued: “He invited this crowd to Washington, he incited them with lies, he raised their expectations that somehow something was going to happen to overturn the election, setting them up for disappointment, he blamed members of Congress for not being strong enough, he said — he told the crowd on Wednesday, ‘We’ve got to get rid of the weak members. I want you to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and take back our country.’ And that's what happened. They tried to do.” Thiessen then praised conservatives for saying, “‘This is unacceptable, we condemn this, and we lay blame for it with the president for inciting it.’” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [1/8/21]

- Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway said, “I haven't seen any legitimate person, or anyone, say that what happened on Wednesday was in any way OK. You have unanimity of thought on this.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [1/8/21]

- Fox contributor Mike Huckabee said of January 6 insurrectionists, “They were criminals.” He added: “When you go and break the glass at the Capitol and overrun police officers and you begin to destroy public property, it is exactly the things that we said a year ago, when it was being done in many American cities, that it was mob behavior, it was anarchy. We can't call it anything else. It was the same thing, and it's wrong. I don't care who does it. I don't care what their political ideology is. We’ve got to condemn it.” Fox News, *Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner*, [1/8/21]

- Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock described insurrectionists as “extremists” and added, “I've never seen such a staggering act of political self-sabotage in my life.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [1/8/21]

- Fox host Jeanine Pirro: “The actions at the United States Capitol three days ago were deplorable, reprehensible, outright criminal.” Pirro declared that “anyone watching this must condemn it.” Fox News, *Justice with Judge Jeanine*, [1/9/21]

- Fox contributor Pastor Robert Jeffress remarked, “We’ve got to acknowledge that what happened Wednesday at the Capitol was not only a crime, it was a sin against God.”He added: “The people who stormed that Capitol, the people who killed that police officer, were not a part of the kingdom of God, as some people claimed, they were a part of the kingdom of Satan.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends Weekend*, [1/10/21]

- Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), “So who was this and what was behind this heinous, disgusting move to put an assault on our democracy by breaking into the Capitol on Wednesday? Where is the accountability there?” Jordan replied with a declaration “to hold people who did these terrible things accountable,” continuing, “You know, people are responsible for their actions and these terrible actions that were taken, they need to be held accountable and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” Fox News, *Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo*, [1/10/21]

## Trump declared that he would pardon January 6 insurrectionists

- On March 11, 2024, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump declared in a Truth Social post that one of his first acts if reelected as president would be to “Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!” Trump won the Republican presidential nomination the next day. Truth Social, [3/11/24; PBS, 3/12/24]

- This isn’t the first time Trump has pledged support for January 6 insurrectionists. At a January 2022 rally, Trump suggested, “If it requires pardons, we will give them pardons,” and complained that rioters were being treated “so unfairly.” In September 2022, Trump stated he would issue full pardons and an apology to rioters and even divulged that he was “financially supporting” some defendants, adding, “It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them. What they’ve done to these people is disgraceful.” During a CNN town hall, Trump said that he was “inclined to pardon many” insurrectionists.

- Media Matters, [1/31/22; The Washington Post, 9/1/22; NBC News, 5/10/23]

## Fox News now defends January 6 insurrectionists and downplays their actions

- Fox contributor Tyrus Murdoch dismissed any existing threat to democracy, claiming, “There’s, like, less than six left out on the street from January 6.” Tyrus added, “Even if someone says, ‘Hey, my birthday's on January 6,’ there's a good chance your ass is going to jail.” Fox News, *Gutfeld!*, [1/4/24]

- Greg Gutfeld downplayed January 6: “It's probably the only coup in history that didn't have any arms.” Gutfeld’s claim that insurrectionists were unarmed is not true. Fox News, *The Five*, [1/5/24]

- Fox contributor Sean Duffy described the insurrectionists as “peacefully walking, giving themselves a tour of the Capitol.” He and questioned, “Maybe they shouldn't have been there, but should they be prosecuted? Should they be felons? Should they go to prison for, you know, a year or two years?” Fox host Will Cain and failed New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin complained that the FBI was spending its limited resources on tracking down insurrectionists. Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/5/24]

- In a segment on the Justice Department supposedly targeting January 6 insurrectionists, frequent guest Victor Davis Hanson said, “It was a buffoonish riot, but there was not an armed insurrection. Nobody had a weapon inside the Capitol.” This is not true; as of 2021, 23 people had been charged with having deadly or dangerous weapons during the attack. Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/8/24; FactCheck, 3/10/21]

- Mark Levin attacked Judge Florence Y. Pan for denying the appeal of Russel Alford, a January 6 insurrectionist. After reading from tweets by Julie Kelly, a conspiracy theorist who has defended January 6 and sought to rewrite its history, Levin remarked, “He was inside there 11 minutes, roaming around, did absolutely nothing.” Fox News, *Life, Liberty & Levin*, [1/14/24]

- Gutfeld accused Democrats of “violating constitutional norms,” such as “weaponizing the IRS” and “using the FBI to set up citizens — from parents at school board meetings to anybody within five miles of the Capitol on January 6.” Fox News, *Gutfeld!*, [1/17/24]

- Ingraham complained that migrants involved in a brawl with New York police officers in Times Square got “zero consequences,” but January 6 defendants face consequences “because they were political enemies.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [2/1/24]

- Gutfeld said of a proposed bill that would charge pro-Palestine protesters blocking traffic as domestic terrorists, “How soon would this be used against parents, Trump supporters, pro-lifers? I mean, they're kind of already doing it to parents at school board meetings and January 6 protesters.” Later in the segment, after co-host Jessica Tarlov pushed back against his claim that the government would weaponize the law against conservatives, Gutfeld referred to insurrectionists as “political prisoners.” Fox News, *The Five*, [2/14/24]

- Gutfeld said that “all the major critics of the left have been targeted by lawfare” including January 6 protesters. He said: “I think the bigger picture here, when you step back, is how all the major critics of the left have been targeted by lawfare. So, whether it's January 6 protesters, Trump, Lindell, Musk, Giuliani, Bannon, Fox, there are lesser known names who are being targeted. It is time, probably, to return fire. You know, you don’t bring a slingshot to a gunfight.” Fox News, *The Five*, [2/23/24]

- Ingraham commented on a fence encircling the perimeter of the Capitol building, saying, “This fence is giving the January 6 vibes. Are they going to put us all in solitary confinement too?” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [3/7/24]

- Fox host Pete Hegseth complained that the federal government is “distracted” at the border because the focus has been on “mostly peaceful protesters on January 6.” Fox News, *One Nation with Brian Kilmeade*, [3/16/24]

- Gutfeld minimized January 6 insurrectionists’ actions by claiming that “the January 6 protesters were squatting in the Capitol for a few hours, and look how the government reacted — they actually shot one to death.” Fox News, *The Five*, [3/20/24]

- Ingraham claimed that Americans on January 6 “were targeted, people who weren't even in the Capitol were targeted, and, you know, various charges brought, many of them unfair, long periods of solitary confinement.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [3/21/24]

an raw 5 24

yet another false claim by Trump supporters in defense of the January 6 rioters has been blown to pieces after House Republicans released their latest batch of footage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to longtime congressional reporter Jamie Dupree.

Specifically, Dupree wrote, the footage puts the lie to the assertion that police at the Capitol stood by and opened the doors to let the rioters in — a claim that is often used as evidence that the whole event was somehow an entrapment operation to trick Trump supporters into committing acts of violence.

"Courtesy of House Republicans, I went to watch 3 more hours of Jan. 6 security tapes from the Capitol today," wrote Dupree in a post on X. "The tapes show the biggest lie about Jan. 6 is that the cops 'opened the doors' to let Trump supporters in. That did not happen."

The footage in Dupree's post showed police trying to hold the line and prevent the mob from bursting in through several doors at the Capitol, often being overpowered by a flood of people rushing them. At no point in the footage did police stand aside or open doors to allow people in.

ALSO READ:**Trump told to pay up before rallying in N.J. town he previously stiffed**

Ever since the Capitol attack, which led to widespread injuries among officers, millions of dollars in damage throughout the building, and jeopardized the safety of members of Congress certifying the electoral count, defenders of the participants of pushed a number of false claims, including that none of them were armed — which was swiftly debunked as several were arrested on various weapons charges.

In recent months, House Republicans have released thousands of hours of raw security footage of the January 6 attack. This marks a reversal from a previous assertion by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that the footage couldn't be released unaltered because those who participated in the attack could be "retaliated against," which led to widespread outrage.

Watch the video below or at this link

an 4 24

americans who have purchased firearms since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic are far more willing to engage in political violence against their fellow citizens, according to a new study.

The Guardian recently reported on a study by the University of California-Davis' violence prevention research program dubbed "Firearm Ownership and Support for Political Violence in the United States." Researchers surveyed roughly 13,000 gun owners who bought their weapons over the last four years, and asked if violence was justified in order to accomplish political objectives. 39% of gun owners — a plurality — said yes, while 30% said no.

UC-Davis researchers warned that American gun owners in the survey could potentially be "arming up for anticipated civil conflict."

"Our findings strongly suggest that large numbers of armed individuals who are at least potentially willing to engage in political violence are in public places across the US every day," the study read.

More specifically, 42% of respondents who own AR-15 style assault weapons were in favor of political violence, along with 44% of more recent gun buyers. Additionally, 56% of gun owners who openly carry their firearms in public told researchers they would be willing to carry out political violence.

"Recent purchasers and always- or nearly-always-carriers were more willing to kill to advance political objectives," the study read.

The study was published Tuesday by Jama Network Open, which is a monthly open access medical journal published by the American Medical Association. Its principal author, Garen Wintemute, is a professor of emergency medicine at UC-Davis, and is approaching the problem of American political violence as a public health issue, according to the Guardian.

While the political violence that erupted on January 6, 2021 was initially widely criticized by former President Donald Trump (though only hours after his supporters initially breached the US Capitol) and Republican lawmakers, many have since done a one-eighty. Trump himself has promised on multiple occasions to pardon January 6 defendants, particularly those incarcerated in Washington, DC jail.

As New York University's Just Security publication recently reported, many of those defendants are incarcerated specifically for attacking police officers. The former president has reportedly been in contact with Micki Witthoeft, who is the mother of deceased January 6 participant Ashli Babbitt. A US Capitol police officer shot Babbitt after she broke past several police lines and attempted to leap through a broken window at several lawmakers huddling in the speaker's lobby just several feet away.

pt man on voter suppression 2024?

an 3 24

Trump campaign says it plans to change tactics from 2020 when Joe Biden beat the then-incumbent president by more than 7 million votes, and this time go on “offense” by having “soldiers” and “poll watchers” at polling places.

Despite the Trump campaign’s relentless claims of voter fraud, more than 60 court rulings found those claims to be unsupported by facts: there was no significant voter fraud. Last year The Brookings Institution cited an extensive report from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which found, for example, voter “fraud in Texas amounted to 0.000096% of all ballots cast.”

Vowing to “to play offense this time around,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday, appearing on “The Kimberly Guilfoyle Show,” said they are “investing a lot of money into voter integrity efforts to ensure that every American knows their ballot will be cast and counted and matter.”

“We’re not going to play defense, like we unfortunately did in 2020. We’re going to have soldiers, poll watchers on the ground who are making sure that there are no irregularities and fraud like we saw in the last election.”

Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr., was at the January 6, 2021 rally at the Ellipse, and helped organize and fundraise for the event. Propublica that year reported she had “boasted to a GOP operative that she had raised $3 million for the rally that helped fuel the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.”

“Guilfoyle’s texts, reviewed by ProPublica, represent the strongest indication yet that members of the Trump family circle were directly involved in the financing and organization of the rally. The attack on the Capitol that followed it left five dead and scores injured.”

“I love it,” Guilfoyle told Leavitt. “I cannot wait.”

---

an 2 24

in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, numerous Republican lawmakers publicly denounced the insurrection and its participants. But now, four members of the House of Representatives and US Senate have done a complete 180 and endorsed former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign despite his role in the attack.

CBS News first reported on the lawmakers' about-face on the capitol siege and their support of the man at the forefront of it, and compared their past remarks to their 2024 endorsements. Two members of Congress listed below are running for reelection this November, and two are up for reelection in 2026.

1. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia)

After the deadly attack on the capitol, Capito said "I think the president does own this" in an interview with WV Metro News. However, she has since endorsed Trump's bid for a second term in the White House, and said "history will make that judgment" on whether Trump does, in fact, own what happened three years ago.

2. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana)

Daines, who is now the chair of Senate Republicans' campaign arm, was unequivocal in his condemnation of the January 6 attack. He stated "the focus must be to arrest and prosecute the domestic terrorists who broke into our Capitol, attacked law enforcement officers, sought to cause harm, and tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power," and called for rioters to be "prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

However, Daines has since walked back those comments, saying that the people who stormed the halls of Congress on January 6 "were not domestic terrorists." He gave a full-throated defense of the former president, saying he accomplished more "than any president I've seen in my lifetime," and that he "can't wait to see President Trump back in the Oval Office."

3. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pennsylvania)

Smucker (who served as president of the Smucker Company for 25 years before his election to Congress) initially published a statement in the days following the January 6 attack that condemned rioters and praised law enforcement, saying it was "simply unacceptable" and "not who we are as a nation." He added that he "support[s] the prosecution of the insurrectionists to the fullest extent of the law" and that Trump was "wrong" for Trump to give "false hope" to his supporters about overturning the election.

But now, Smucker has flipped, telling CBS he would be "happy to have Trump as president again." And in regard to the rioters who ransacked the capitol, he falsely asserted that "never called them insurrectionists" despite his 2021 statement.

4. Rep. William Timmons (R-South Carolina)

Like Smucker, Timmons loudly condemned the January 6 insurrection, calling it "mob violence" in a statement posted to his congressional website two days after the attack.

"The actions yesterday by those who breached the U.S. Capitol are the very definition of domestic terrorism. There are no excuses for attacking law enforcement, breaking barricades, shattering windows, and busting down doors to gain entry," he stated. "Anyone who was complicit in these acts of domestic terrorism should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This act of insurrection cannot go unpunished."

But the congressman has made efforts to separate Trump from the violence carried out by his supporters, while also standing alongside the former president with other South Carolina Republicans at a campaign event in New Hampshire. He told CBS that "President Trump bears no responsibility for the small number of individuals who broke laws on Jan. 6," even though Trump told supporters during his January 6 speech that they should "fight like hell or you're not gonna have a country anymore."

---

an 2 24

whataboutism rubber glue projection

an 2 24

Greene (R-GA) came under attack after making remarks in support of Donald Trump, insisting that both she and the ex-president did not engage in insurrection. The far-right Georgia Republican’s comments came during a press conference (https://www.c-span.org/video/?533397-1/rep-matt-gaetz-introduces-resolution-fmr-pres-trump-engage-insurrection) promoting a House resolution from U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that claims the ex-president did not engage in insurrection.

A Colorado judge in November ruled that Donald Trump did engage in insurrection (https://www.reuters.com/legal/colorado-judges-allows-trump-primary-ballot-delays-decision-general-election-2023-11-18/), despite what the Congresswoman and her fellow Republican said on Tuesday.

“Democrats and liars in the media accuse President Trump of being an insurrectionist when in fact he is not,” Greene declared Tuesday.

“Not one single person has been charged with insurrection. Not one single person has been convicted with insurrection, not one in every single court of our land. No one’s been charged and convicted with insurrection,” Greene, speaking angrily and sharply, told reporters. She ignored that the U.S. Dept. of Justice has obtained at least four guilty pleas of seditious conspiracy (https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/36-months-jan-6-attack-capitol-0#::text=Pleas%3A,have%20pleaded%20guilty%20to%20misdemeanors.) for felonious actions surrounding the January 6, 2021 insurrection, which can carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/us/what-is-seditious-conspiracy-insurrection-treason.html) – more harsh than the rarely-used charge of insurrection.

“Yet Democrats and dishonest people in the media every single day accuse President Trump of waging an insurrection and accused many of us of waging an insurrection and you’re doing nothing but lying and selling the lies of the Democrats all for campaigns and elections. Shame on every single person that has done that. Shame on you. You need to tell the truth. You have the freedom of press, one of the greatest rights in this entire world. And anyone that puts the word ‘insurrectionists,’ calls President Trump an insurrectionist, and calls any of us an insurrectionists is a liar and you do not deserve the power that you possess. Shame on you. Shame on you,” Greene, nearly shouting, declared falsely.[= twt?]

READ MORE: Tuberville: Democrats Want Women to Be ‘Extinct’ (https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2024/02/tuberville-democrats-want-women-to-be-extinct/)

She then appeared to demonstrate a misunderstanding of the definition of the word “insurrection,” which has been defined as (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/insurrection), “an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence,” or (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insurrection), “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.”

“Let me give you guys a little history lesson,” Greene continued. “Okay. When President Trump was inaugurated Antifa and leftist rioters nearly burned down Washington, D.C. Did you call it an insurrection? No. BLM raised millions of dollars on the ACT Blue Democrat fundraising website and then proceeded to cause $2 billion in damages across American cities and communities all in 2020, every day, not one day for three hours but every damn day. Did you call it an insurrection? They attacked police officers, federal courthouses, tore down statues, burned 93 police vehicles. Did you in the media call it an insurrection? No, you did not. You called it mostly peaceful, and you lied to the American people and the American people don’t trust you anymore because of that.”

---

an 1 24

rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) — who is thought of as a leading candidate to be former President Donald Trump's 2024 running mate — recently deleted a 2021 statement from her website calling for the prosecution of January 6 participants.

Stefanik apparently deleted the statement after former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) linked to it on Saturday. On her official X/Twittr account, Cheney called the statement a "rare moment of honesty" from the woman who replaced her as House Republican Conference chair, adding that "she will have to explain how and why she morphed into a total crackpot."

Cheney noted in a subsequent tweet that Stefanik deleted the statement from her website without explanation. However, she included a screenshot of the statement in the post, telling her 644,000-plus followers to "feel free to share."

"This is a tragic day for America. I fully condemn the dangerous violence and destruction that occurred today at the United States Capitol," Stefanik said in the now-deleted statement. "Americans have a Constitutional right to protest and freedom of speech, but violence in any form is absolutely unacceptable and ant-American."

"The perpetrators of this un-American violence and destruction must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," she added. "Thank you to the United States Capitol Police, all law enforcement, the National Guard and the bipartisan professional staff of the United States Capitol for protecting the People's House and the American people."

The New York Republican has since changed her tune on January 6 defendants, whom she now refers to as "hostages." That concerned fellow New York lawmaker Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York) so much that he filed a censure resolution against Stefanik, calling it "the culmination of a rhetoric that has gone too far."

Stefanik may have deleted the statement in order to ingratiate herself with Trump, as his commanding wins in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary move him closer to the Republican presidential nomination and the selection of a running mate. Trump has not only used the "hostages" label for January 6 rioters, but has promised to pardon the vast bulk of them if elected to a second term. More than 1,200 arrests have been made in connection to the insurrection, and the Department of Justice has secured guilty pleas and convictions from roughly 800 of those charged.

---

an 1 24

gop # get worse with time?!

46 GOP senators sign SCOTUS brief downplaying Trump’s role in January 6 insurrection

President Donald J. Trump, joined by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Roy Blunt, R-MO., speaks with reporters prior to attending a Senate Republican lunch Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

Carl Gibson

January 18, 2024

All but three members of the Senate Republican Caucus have signed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) urging the Court to strike down the Colorado Supreme Court's disqualification of former President Donald Trump from the state's GOP primary ballot.

The brief — which was also signed by 130 House Republicans — argued that Trump's disqualification "tramples the prerogatives of members of Congress," which they say include "the enforcement and (if necessary) removal of Section 3 [of the 14th Amendment]’s 'disability' on holding office."

"Congress—not any state court—plays a vital role in regard to [the insurrection clause]," the brief read. "It is Congress that must pass implementing legislation authorizing enforcement of Section 3."

"[T]his Court should conclude that Section 3 determinations fall within the 'political question' doctrine because they are so clearly committed by constitutional text to another political branch, i.e., Congress," the amicus brief continued. "Under current law, Congress has implemented Section 3 only in the narrow context of requiring a criminal conviction for 'rebellion or insurrection,' and provided that those found guilty 'shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.'"

While the question of whether a presidential candidate can only be disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment will ultimately be decided by SCOTUS, the actual text of the insurrection clause doesn't explicitly say enforcement only comes after Congress votes. Rather, the clause — which prevents anyone who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the US or who has "given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof" from holding any "civilian or military" office — only states that disqualification can be reversed by a two-thirds vote from both the House and Senate. Even if all signees of the brief voted to exempt Trump from the insurrection clause, it would still fall well short of the two-thirds threshold laid out in the US Constitution.

Notably, the brief also minimizes the former president's role in the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot, with the brief falsely asserting that Trump "quickly" asked for peace and encouraged "disbandment" of the riot even though he watched events unfold over the course of several hours before telling his supporters to go home. The brief even quoted George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 to describe the actions of "enterprising state officials" trying to disqualify Trump as an example of the statement "peace means war."

The only GOP senators to not co-sign the brief were Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski. Notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) co-signed the brief despite condemning Trump's actions on January 6.

---

an 1 24

a poll released prior to the third anniversary of the January 6 insurrection found that one in four Americans believe that the FBI "organized and encouraged" the deadly attack on the US Capitol. However, a former federal prosecutor thinks the rest of America should be "grateful" that only 25% subscribe to that conspiracy theory.

In a recent column for Lawfare, former US Attorney Chuck Rosenberg put that poll in perspective. He pointed out that while it's true that one in four Americans believe the "nonsense" claim that the federal law enforcement was behind the US Capitol siege that killed five police officers and injured hundreds more, that the poll is less "depressing" when put in the context of other polls regarding information a large majority of Americans view as settled facts.

Rosenberg laid out how, in a March 2021 survey, 15% of Americans believe that "the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation," which is a core element of the QAnon conspiracy theory that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) has endorsed.

"Americans apparently relish conspiracy theories. That is neither good nor new. But even if we turn to the physical sciences—the stuff we ostensibly learned in school—we do not do all that much better as a nation," Rosenberg wrote.

He then pointed out numerous other survey results that show a not-insignificant amount of Americans are effectively scientifically illiterate. Almost 30% of Americans, for example, didn't know that the Earth takes 365 days to orbit the sun according to a 2021 query by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. A 2018 survey by the National Science Foundation found that 28% of Americans actually believe the sun orbits the Earth (a theory debunked by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei debunked in the 17th century).

Roughly that same percentage of the country also fails in basic civics knowledge. The Annenberg Public Policy Center found in 2022 that approximately one in four Americans could not name a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment. 25% of Americans were also unable to name any of the three branches of government, according to Annenberg. And in 2018, the Institute for Citizens & Scholars found that afull two-thirds of Americans would fail the US citizenship test, which asks basic questions about US history and the nature of the US government.

"When you step back and look at what we 'know' as Americans and what we do not know, this number — alarming as it may be — is not surprising. Indeed, it coincides with other data," Rosenberg wrote. "Perhaps we should be grateful that it is only 25 percent."

---

AN 1 24

Republican member of the Maryland State Board of Elections was arrested this week on both federal felony and misdemeanor charges relating to his alleged participation in the deadly January 6, 2021 siege of the US Capitol.

Nonprofit news outlet Maryland Matters reported Thursday that 52-year-old Carlos Ayala resigned from the board of elections following his apprehension by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Charging documents from the DOJ state that Ayala "was identified as among a group of rioters illegally gathered on restricted Capitol grounds near the scaffolding erected for the upcoming Inauguration," and "carried a distinctive black and white flag affixed to a PVC pipe flagpole bearing the words 'We the People' and 'DEFEND.'" Ayala's flag also featured an image of an M-16-style rifle.

"Ayala is seen on video footage climbing over police barricades and making his way to the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol as rioters overran the police lines on the stairs adjacent to the scaffolding," a DOJ press release read. "CCTV footage taken from inside the Capitol building shows a rioter positioned to the right side of the Senate Wing Door, the same area where Ayala was present, jabbing a flag and flagpole at a USCP officer... Court documents state that the flag matched the description of Ayala's flag, which he was holding moments before."

The DOJ has charged Ayala with felony civil disorder, and unnamed misdemeanor offenses. As of this writing, more than 1,200 participants in the January 6 insurrection have been charged, with prosecutors obtaining either guilty pleas or convictions from approximately 440 rioters.

Ayala's resignation comes less than a year after he was appointed to the board by Governor Wes Moore (D). According to Maryland Matters, Moore chose Ayala over Republican William Newton, who reportedly trafficked in conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor embezzlement charge involving his mother in 2019. Ayala was also chosen over Christine McCloud, a hypnotherapist whose election experience is limited to working on a candidate's 2022 campaign.

Moore has not yet named a replacement for Ayala on the five-member Board of Elections. Maryland state law stipulates that while a majority of the board should be from the same political party as the governor, the other two members must come from the opposing party. The board's next meeting is scheduled for January 25 at 1:30 PM.

---

===

bb 1 24

Georgia Congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greenedeceptively booked a venue for a "book signing" instead planning to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the January 6th Moron's Rebellion. When the venue found out, they immediately canceled and issued a statement disavowing the Insurrectionist's Ball.

The event was set to be hosted by the Republican Party of Osceola County at the Westgate Resorts in Kissimmee. It was originally pitched to Westgate as a small book-signing event featuring Greene, without mention of Jan. 6.

"Please be advised that Westgate was not made aware of the purpose of this event when we were approached to host a book signing," Westgate Resorts said in a statement. "This event has been canceled and is no longer taking place at our resort."

Greene refused to discuss the cancellation when NBC News asked her about it in Iowa, where she was doing an event for former President Donald Trump's campaign…

…The event, which was first reported by NBC News, was promoted to local Republicans as an "Exclusive event with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene" at Westgate Resorts, according to an event invitation.

NBC NEWS

After seeing her phony ascension to leadership in ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy's congress evaporate, Greene is completely sidelined. Marge now spends her time campaigning for an out-on-bail real estate fraudster, hoping to be his Vice-Presidential candidate. She is running hard against Elise Stefanik, who is now attempting to cull the incoming herd of freshman congresspeople by refusing to support any who are not hardline MAGAs.

Folks seem to think the Primary race for second place is somehow there to help Trump pick a supplicant. The primary gives him a field of Republicans to bash! Riling his cultists up without attacking the morons who are likely to be in his cabinet or be his "running mate" is a big plus. He won't have to explain why he picked "bird brain" for his running mate when he's got one of these rabid morons waiting in the wings.

There seem to be two paths for these MAGA congresspeople: campaign for Trump or self-immolate. Boebert and Cawthorne have shown us one path: when left to their own devices, it seems they'll eventually grope or Venmo their way into ethical trouble the MAGAs won't forgive. I think Trump would have gained points for public grouping. However, folks who fall into line and campaign for the inglorious leader seem to find their way. Heavily gerrymandered seats also help, but even those can't save people who step out of line and play only for themselves.

Throwing a party to celebrate the anniversary of an insurrection that has seen over 270 rebels tossed in jail is pretty un-American. I am unsure how these people justify it unless their America is very different from the United States of America with that pesky Constitution.

===

---

an 1 24

In the months following the deadly US Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, both chambers of Congress voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal — the highest civilian award in the United States along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom — to US Capitol police officers who defended members of Congress during the attack. 21 House Republicans voted no.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who was one of those 21 no votes, defended his "no" vote on his official X (formerly Twitter) account on the third anniversary of the attack that killed resulted in five deaths of police officers with hundreds more injured.

"Did you know all but 21 US Representatives voted for a bill written by Nancy Pelosi that called the January 6th protestors 'insurrectionists'?" Massie tweeted, along with a link to the legislation. "I voted No and took a lot of heat for it."

Massie's objection to the bill was that it referred to supporters of then-President Donald Trump who breached the US Capitol building as a "mob of insurrectionists." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an "insurrection" as "the act or an instance of revolting especially violently against civil or political authority or against an established government," and "the crime of inciting or engaging in such revolt." According to The Hill, Massie disagreed with the characterization of January 6 rioters as "insurrectionists" when the bill was being discussed.

"They were protesting. And I don’t approve of the way they protested, but it wasn’t an insurrection," Massie said at the time.

According to CNN, there were ultimately three medals awarded — one for the entire US Capitol Police Department, one for the entire DC Metropolitan Police Department, and a third to be displayed at the Smithsonian museum naming all of the law enforcement agencies that participated in the defense of the US Capitol during the insurrection.

The final vote on the bill was 406-21, with 218 "yea" votes from Democrats and 188 "yea" votes from Republicans. No Democrats voted against the bill.

---

mma 1 24

Commentary

As we approach the third anniversary of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump supporters intent on disrupting congressional affirmation of his 2020 election defeat, Trump and his MAGA Republican allies continue to spread damaging lies about the election and the insurrection itself—and argue against holding him accountable for his antidemocratic actions.

Trump’s lies about a “rigged” election stoked the insurrectionists’ rage and continue to poison our politics. New polling suggests that millions of Americans—including 34 percent of Republicans—wrongly believe the FBI organized and encouraged the insurrection, a theory promoted by far-right media and political figures for the past three years. As the Washington Post has noted, Trump true believers who embrace the theory are not moved by “the vast legal and evidentiary record” about Jan. 6 – much like those who believe Trump’s false claims about the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s victory.

This week, Trump and his legal team asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Colorado Supreme Court decision that Trump had engaged in insurrection against the United States and was therefore disqualified by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution from appearing on the presidential ballot in that state. Among the arguments in Trump’s filing are that the attack on the Capitol didn’t amount to an insurrection, and that nothing Trump did counted as engaging in insurrection. Thanks to the House Select Committee that investigated the insurrection before MAGA Republicans took over, evidence emerging from criminal investigations of Trump, and Right Wing Watch’s own research, we know how false that claim is.

Right Wing Watch reported on threats of violence from Trump supporters in the weeks and months before the insurrection:

Even before the election, Right Wing Watch warned about increasing threats of violence from Trump’s political supporters. When Trump and his allies launched an all-out effort to overturn the election, Right Wing Watch covered the so-called “Stop the Steal” movement and its rallies, threats of civil war, and the Trump team’s legal and political efforts to defy the Constitution, overturn the results, and keep Trump in power. Right Wing Watch reported on calls for Trump to declare martial law and documented calls for violence at a Jan. 5 rally in Washington, D.C. and on pro-Trump social media.

Right Wing Watch documented the role that religious-right leaders and Christian nationalist ideology played in fomenting the insurrection:

Right Wing Watch researchers documented the key role that Trump’s Christian nationalist supporters and Christian-right media played in spreading his lies and promoting his efforts to hold onto power unconstitutionally—and how Christian nationalist ideology fueled the insurrection and threatens democracy. Right Wing Watch reported on the violent Bible stories used by Trump supporters to mobilize support for “Stop the Steal” efforts, and how the influential evangelical Hillsdale College has promoted claims that the insurrection is a “hoax” Right Wing Watch was cited a dozen times in “Christian Nationalism and the January 6, 2021 Insurrection,” a report released by Christians Against Christian Nationalism and allied groups.

Right Wing Watch supported and amplified the congressional insurrection investigation:

:{:{In 2022, as the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Insurrection focused attention on the criminal conspiracy theory to overturn the election, Right Wing Watch released video explainers about some key players like[ vid}:

](https://youtu.be/fKJyOnoAuBY). Right Wing Watch video of Stewart Rhodes’ civil war threat was shown at one of the hearings.}:

Right Wing Watch also built on the committee’s essential work. When Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney cited an email sent by a Republican lawyer as part of the campaign to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to block congressional affirmation of the Electoral College results, Right Wing Watch recognized the email’s author and explained that it was evidence of the extent to which Family Research Council officials were involved in the plot to keep Trump in power.

Right Wing Watch followed up many of the public hearings with analyses of the day’s revelations:

In addition, Right Wing Watch researchers briefed progressive activists in a series of online sessions hosted by coalition organizations to promote grassroots activism designed to urge local public officials to demand accountability for those responsible for attacks on American democracy.

Resisting the Ongoing Insurrection

Trump’s relentless effort to undermine faith in our elections and his increasingly authoritarian rhetoric affirm the truth of a Right Wing Watch analysis published on the first anniversary: “The Jan. 6 Insurrection Should Have Been No Surprise, and Neither Should the Next Right-Wing Coup Attempt.” Right Wing Watch continues to document the threat to democracy, for example, from Trump’s pledge to bring martial law-promoting Michael Flynn into a new Trump administration.

This year’s insurrection anniversary is a reminder of how much is at stake in the upcoming elections for president and Congress. Trump has made it clear that if he returns to the White House, he will use the powers of the presidency to seek revenge on anyone who resisted his attempt to cling to power, and to wage a scorched-earth campaign against the so-called “deep state.” The threat of empowering Trump’s authoritarian impulses would be magnified if Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson—who led congressional efforts to help Trump overturn the election—control Congress.

On Friday, Jan. 5, People For the American Way President Svante Myrick will join Rep. Jamie Raskin and other democracy advocates who are using the anniversary to highlight the importance of holding Trump and other insurrectionists accountable.

You can help People For the American Way protect your rights and freedoms from authoritarian MAGA Republicans like Trump by pledging to vote against MAGA authoritarians in upcoming local, state, and national elections.

---

Trump’s promise to pardon Jan. 6 rioters guarantees 'likelihood of more violence': experts - Alternet.org

Nearly 40 percent of Fox News viewers believe FBI organized deadly Jan. 6 riot: survey - Alternet.org

---

an 1 24

as the third anniversary of the deadly January 6 insurrection approaches this weekend, one columnist is calling on journalists and editors to stop treating the future of democracy like a standard partisan issue.

In her latest column for The Guardian, Margaret Sullivan expressed her frustration about the beltway media's tendency to find a both-sides angle when covering former President Donald Trump's repeated threats to democracy.

"In a constant show of performative neutrality, journalists tend to equalize the unequal, taking coverage down the middle even though that’s not where true fairness lies," Sullivan wrote, urging reporters to "get beyond delivery and appearances, to get beyond poll numbers and approval numbers – all the things that they are most comfortable with."

"The mainstream media is not nearly as comfortable with communicating the larger concepts, even when the stakes are this high," Sullivan continued. "Constantly under attack from the right, they fear looking like they are 'in the tank' for a particular candidate or party, so they fall back on those traditional building blocks of coverage – numbers, polls, approval ratings."

"That may have worked in the past, or at least been relatively unobjectionable," she added. "Not any more."

Sullivan cited several examples of false "both sides" narratives in prominent publications, including a New York Times article that she said was "typical of the mainstream media’s tone and focus." That article noted that President Joe Biden was giving a speech in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on the anniversary of January 6 to remind Americans that his predecessor's lies about the 2020 election helped fuel an attack on the US Capitol, but framed it as "an effort to redirect attention from Mr. Biden’s low approval numbers." ABC News had a similar approach in a recent article with the headline "One attack, two interpretations: Biden and Trump both make the Jan. 6 riot a political rallying cry."

Vanity Fair special correspondent Molly Jong-Fast criticized that headline in a post to X (formerly Twitter).

"There aren’t two sides to a violent insurrection in the United States capitol," she tweeted.

In her column, Sullivan lauded former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron's blunt evaluation of the threat to democracy Trump posed when he said the ex-president is "the only politician I’ve heard actually talk about suspending the constitution."

"He’s talked about using the military to suppress entirely legitimate protests using the Insurrection Act. He’s talked about bringing treason charges against the then-outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He’s talked about bringing treason charges against Comcast, the owner of NBC and MSNBC. He’s talked explicitly about weaponizing the government against his political enemies," Baron said. "And, of course, he continues to talk about crushing an independent press... all of those [threats], by nature, by definition, are authoritarian."

Sullivan ended her column by asking journalists and editors to "remember that being in favor of democracy isn’t a journalistic crime. In fact, it’s a journalistic obligation."

Read Sullivan's full columnby clicking here.

---

yikes

MMA 1 24 MG

Three years after the January 6 insurrection, the initial broad agreement about that day’s depravity lies in ruins. That consensus didn’t unravel on its own — right-wing commentators deliberately dismantled it for power and profit.

Republicans have made their peace with the violent mob of Donald Trump’s supporters that stormed the U.S. Capitol as the culmination of his plot to remain in office, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll the paper reported on Tuesday.

“Republicans are showing increased loyalty to the former president as he campaigns for reelection and fights criminal charges over his attempt to stay in power after losing in 2020,” the Post reported. “They are now less likely to believe that Jan. 6 participants were ‘mostly violent,’ less likely to believe Trump bears responsibility for the attack and are slightly less likely to view Joe Biden’s election as legitimate than they were in a December 2021 Post-UMD survey.”

Right-wing propagandists engineered that shift in GOP views of the January 6 insurrection by creating a revisionist counternarrative out of lies they repeated over and over again. Their work created a permission structure for Republicans to stop caring about the assault of hundreds of law enforcement officers amid an effort to overturn a presidential election by force. That helped ensure that the mob’s leader would remain the GOP’s presumptive nominee in 2024, positioned to carry out the party’s top priorities of cutting taxes for rich people, banning abortions, building huge migrant deportation camps to expel undocumented immigrants Trump claims are “poisoning the blood” of the country, and deploying state power against left-wing “vermin.”

Trump’s 2020 election subversion effort received strong support among his media allies, many of whom backed his claims of a stolen election even as they privately acknowledged those claims were false. When Trump urged the violent mob he had summoned to Washington, D.C., to “fight like hell” to stop the steal — and they responded by attempting to do just that and attacked the Capitol — the right’s propagandists could have washed their hands of the then-president and his violent supporters.

They made a different choice. As I detailed last month:

The right-wing effort to minimize January 6 and Trump’s role in fomenting it began that very day. Fox hosts who knew better told their viewers that Trump’s supporters had been responding to reasonable fears that the election had been stolen, while any violence may have been caused by antifa interlopers.

:{:{In the intervening years, Trumpist media stars — led by former Fox host Tucker Carlson — cosseted their viewers with a slew of lies about January 6. There was no “insurrection,” just a “political protest [that] got out of hand” in which “the overwhelming majority” of participants were “orderly and meek.” The rioter shot and killed by law enforcement while trying to breach the speaker’s gallery was a martyr, while the officers who were nearly beaten to death during the attack deserve mockery.}:

The violence was orchestrated by undercover federal agents as part of a sinister plot to imprison patriotic Americans for their conservative views. The events were comparable to staffers for a late-night talk show shooting an unauthorized video in the Capitol complex, or a Democratic congressman foolishly pulling a fire alarm, or progressive protests at state capitols.}:

Trump’s 2020 subversion effort ultimately failed — but he still claims that he won the election, and gives every indication that he could try again should he lose in 2024. Voters expect as much: Roughly 7 in 10 respondents say Trump won’t accept the results of the election if he is defeated, according to the Post/UMD poll.

After a yearslong right-wing drumbeat of stolen-election lies and insurrection revisionism, and the corresponding purges of dissident Republican leaders and terror campaigns against election workers, the battleground is more favorable to a second attempt to overturn an election through lies and violence.

Colorado, the 14th Amendment, and the right’s January 6 revisionism}:

:{:{12/20/23}:

### Fox News is a loaded gun aimed at American democracy

:{:{05/14/21}:

### Tucker Carlson’s insurrection alternate reality

---

mma 12 23

MATT GERTZ

PUBLISHED 12/20/23

I don’t know what will happen now that the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the presidential ballot. There is no precedent for implementing the 14th Amendment’s ban on candidates who supported insurrection. But there’s also no precedent for a president seeking to subvert the results of an election he lost by summoning a mob of supporters to the White House and then unleashing it on Congress to prevent the peaceful transition of power.

:{:{What I do know is that attempts to seek accountability for the events of January 6, 2021, are playing out in an environment in which the Trumpist media have developed a twisted alternate narrative of that insurrection. The right-wing stars conservatives trust most have spent the last few years downplaying the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol.}:

They've largely succeeded in convincing the Republican base and the party’s politicians to follow them, creating a stark partisan divide over whether it was wrong for Trump to try to overturn American democracy. And after portraying Trump’s federal and state election subversion charges as illegitimate attacks on democracy, they’re now doing the same thing for the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision.}:

The right-wing effort to minimize January 6 and Trump’s role in fomenting it began that very day. Fox hosts who knew better told their viewers that Trump’s supporters had been responding to reasonable fears that the election had been stolen, while any violence may have been caused by antifa interlopers.

:{:{In the intervening years, Trumpist media stars — led by former Fox host Tucker Carlson — cosseted their viewers with a slew of lies about January 6. There was no “insurrection,” just a “political protest [that] got out of hand” in which “the overwhelming majority” of participants were “orderly and meek.” The rioter shot and killed by law enforcement while trying to breach the speaker’s gallery was a martyr, while the officers who were nearly beaten to death during the attack deserve mockery.}:

The violence was orchestrated by undercover federal agents as part of a sinister plot to imprison patriotic Americans for their conservative views. The events were comparable to staffers for a late-night talk show shooting an unauthorized video in the Capitol complex, or a Democratic congressman foolishly pulling a fire alarm, or progressive protests at state capitols.}:

None of this is true. Of the more than 1,100 people federal prosecutors have charged with crimes related to the riot, at least 350 have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees (roughly 140 officers were assaulted that day). Nearly a third of those were also charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon against police officers or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Several leaders of right-wing extremist groups have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the insurrection.

And Republican political leaders know it isn’t true. The mob forced the party’s senators and representatives to evacuate from their legislative chambers and huddle in a secure location. When they emerged, many condemned both what they described as a “violent insurrection” and Trump’s role in fomenting it.

But the influence right-wing media have on their audience is among the most powerful forces in modern American politics. The stars spun a web of lies, viewers and listeners became convinced it was truth, and GOP leaders either followed along or were purged from office. Republican members of Congress now treat January 6 as a punchline, while Trump’s serious would-be rivals are loath to try to use his attempt to subvert the election on the campaign trail. And Trump himself is promising full pardons for “a large portion” of January 6 convicts.

As news of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision broke on Tuesday night, Trump’s propagandists flew into a frenzy.

“Tonight, America is seeing the ultimate in election interference,” Fox’s Laura Ingraham alleged on her show, before bringing on network contributor Jonathan Turley to decry the court’s decision as “strikingly anti-democratic” and “chilling.” On Steve Bannon’s War Room, a guest denounced “republic-ending tactics by the Democrats.”

The very people who supported Trump’s electoral subversion plot and minimized the resulting violent effort to overturn democracy are now lashing out at the prospect of Trump suffering consequences for his actions. They’ve convinced a large swath of the country that he did nothing that deserves accountability. And if Trump once again tries to overturn an election, they’ll be ready to help.

---

Jan. 6 rioter’s lawyer blamed client’s 'Foxmania' on attack: 'Believing what was being fed to him' - Alternet.org

---

mma 11 23 j6 tapes maga mike 40k hours?

## Police suffered injuries at the hands of the rioters and allowed some movement in an attempt to de-escalate
- The police union has said 140 police officers suffered injuries from January 6.The Washington Post, [1/27/21]
- Police battled to keep rioters out of the Capitol but in some cases stood by because they were outnumbered or engaged politely to try to de-escalate.CNN reported:

The claim that the rioters were invited into the Capitol is false. ... There were hours-long battles between police and rioters near some entrances. CNN obtained footage from police body-worn cameras showing how dozens of officers engaged in hand-to-hand combat with rioters in a desperate effort to keep them out of the building. There are plenty of instances where rioters waltzed into the Capitol without a fight, but only after they had stormed past barricades and, in some cases, even stepped through broken windows. In some areas, police were so outnumbered by the mob that they retreated, stood aside or tried to politely engage with rioters to de-escalate the situation rather than fighting or making arrests, but that is clearly not the same as welcoming rioters into the building. CNN, [1/4/22]

- Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger stated that Capitol Police “did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building.” In a memo to staff, Manger disputed “outrageous and false” claims that Capitol Police served as “tour guides” for Jacob Chansley, aka the QAnon Shaman. Manger wrote that “Capitol Police were badly outnumbered on Jan. 6” and that “those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building.” The Washington Post, [3/7/23]
- Capitol Police officers testified to the January 6 Committee that the day was “nothing short of brutal,” that there was “carnage” and it was a “war scene.” The committee also aired body camera footage from the officers that showed rioters shoving officers and pushing down barricades outside the Capitol. NPR, [7/27/21, 6/23/21, The Associated Press, 6/10/22]
- Police onsite were massively outnumbered by rioters, with an estimated 2,000 people entering the Capitol building and under 200 officers at the Capitol building itself. Forbes, [12/16/21, ABC7, 1/6/22]

## Right-wing media claim police allowed protestors to enter the Capitol and suggest that means it wasn’t a violent insurrection
- Newsmax host Greg Kelly stated that it is “actually not true” that rioters broke into the Capitol and instead “some people were invited inside, and the police officers seemed to welcome them there.” While showing footage of protestors entering, Kelly also asserted that “this blows open the preferred January 6 narrative.” Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [11/17/23]
- Newsmax host Eric Bolling said the footage shows Capitol police “escorting the protestors.” He asked his guest Rudy Giuliani, “I mean, does that look like an overthrow of the United States government to you, sir?” Newsmax, *Eric Bolling The Balance*, [11/17/23]

- Also on Newsmax, host Rob Schmitt claimed that protesters in the Capitol looked like they were taking “a tour,” adding that the “QAnon Shaman was actually escorted into the Capitol by police.” Schmitt acknowledged that there was some violence but nevertheless told his audience, “This is a much different day than it was portrayed by the media and by your members of Congress” and called the footage “an important reminder to always, always question what you are told by your government.” In fact, as The Associated Press reported in March, court documents and video footage from the attack show that the QAnon Shaman “entered the Capitol without permission, was repeatedly asked to leave the building and was not accompanied at all times.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [11/17/23; The Associated Press, 3/7/23]
- Conservative podcast host Kyle Becker called the footage “bizarre” for showing rioters “casually walking the halls.”He posted, “This newly released J6 video is BIZARRE. All of these dangerous ‘insurrectionists’ casually walking the halls... right next to Capitol Police and FBI agents in full riot gear. WHAT is going on here? 👀” Twitter/X, [11/18/23]
- Right-wing personality Liz Wheeler claimed that Capitol police were “directing the insurrectionists” with a “handshake & pat on the back.” She posted, “Capitol police directing the insurrectionists who to insurrection with a handshake & pat on the back. Mark my words, the key to alllll of this lies with Nancy Pelosi.” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk asserted that “the J6 Committee’s violent insurrection narrative has crumbled” and called for the immediate release of rioters. He posted, “And just like that the J6 Committee’s violent insurrection narrative has crumbled. The Capitol Police facilitated the protesters passage through the building. The vast majority of J6ers should be immediately released.” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
- Conservative commentator Benny Johnson noted police “were giving handshakes to protestors” and determined that “this is not an insurrection.” He posted, “Capitol Police were giving handshakes to protesters. Now ask yourselves this; In which ‘insurrection’ or ‘Rebellion’ in history would this have happened in? None — because this is not an ‘insurrection.’” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
- Conservative commentator Rogan O'Handley, also known as DC Draino, posted, “Wow what an ‘insurrection’! Watch as J6ers slowly walk past Capitol Police who just watch. Democrats said this was worse than 9/11.” X, [11/17/23]
- Right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer dismissed concerns of right-wing violence at the Capitol because Capitol police were “fist-bumping” rioters. She said: “Oh, if these cops are so concerned, and this was really worse than 9/11 and Pearl Harbor combined, and, you know, it's like a modern day Nazi rally in our nation's capital, why is it that the Capitol Police are fist-bumping these people?” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [11/17/23]

===

---

an 11 23

the security surveillance dump announced this week that many Republicans claim will show the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a mostly peaceful affair is about to blow up in their faces, an analyst wrote Wednesday.

Writing for Salon, Amanda Marcotte says the tactic of releasing the footage as an attempt to absolve those who participated "doesn't seem like the smartest electoral strategy."

"But the GOP now is primarily composed of professional trolls who cannot turn down an opportunity to spew noxious gases online," she writes. "Sure enough, some of the most annoying people in Congress tweeted conspiracy theories about the footage in language so fevered you could practically hear them panting as they typed."

Marcotte also points to a tweet from Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, in which he shared a picture of a convicted rioter who he claimed was an undercover federal agent — a claim that was easily debunked by NBC News reporter Ryan Reilly.

Marcotte also points out that Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shared Lee's tweet, but later deleted it after it was shown to be fake. Lee, nevertheless, doubled down on the claim.

"We know Lee is lying because, while Lee may not be the smartest man, almost no one is stupid enough to believe this 'FBI did it' conspiracy theory," Marcotte writes, adding that the point of these conspiracy theories, "Is not to believe them, but to sucker liberals into go-nowhere arguments with disingenuous actors."

"The end game is to overwhelm their opposition with so many lies and bizarre digressions that people eventually just get exhausted and give up."

---

===}:

an 11 23

conspiracy theorists have a long history of using terms like "inside job" and "false flag" to describe tragic events, from the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre of 2012 (which Infowars' Alex Jones claimed was really a conspiracy against gunowners). The January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building has been a major focus of conspiracy theorists as well —including Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), who claimed, without evidence, that the FBI helped engineer that attack during a House Homeland Security Committee meeting on Wednesday, November 15.

Questioning FBI Director Christopher Wray, the far-right MAGA congressman claimed there is a "tremendous amount of evidence" of FBI involvement. And Higgins pushed Wray for details on the FBI's "confidential human sources at the Stop the Steal rally on January 6 here in D.C."

Wray told Higgins, "If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically not."

Higgins, however, continue to push the conspiracy theory that FBI agents encouraged the January 6, 2021 attack. And he claimed that "ghost busses" full of FBI informants went to Washington, D.C. that day to cause problems.

When Wray said he was unfamiliar with the term "ghost busses," Higgins replied, "It's a vehicle that's used for secret purposes."

The MAGA congressman told the Homeland Security Committee, "This is a very significant hearing, Mr. Chairman. And these busses are nefarious in nature and were filled with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters deployed onto our Capitol on January 6. And your day is coming, Mr. Wray."

===

an 11 23

Wray told Higgins, "If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically not."

When Wray said he was unfamiliar with the term "ghost busses," Higgins replied, "It's a vehicle that's used for secret purposes."

===

an 11 23

Wray told Higgins, "If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically not."

When Wray said he was unfamiliar with the term "ghost busses," Higgins replied, "It's a vehicle that's used for secret purposes."

==prove it was 7 23

---

an 11 23

at one point during the trial in Denver over whether former President Donald Trump is disqualified from the Colorado presidential ballot next year, Trump’s attorney quibbled with a witness’s characterization of a confrontation during the violent 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Depicted in a photo, a person uses a flagpole to assault a counter-protester. The witness, Pete Simi, a scholar of far-right extremism, was asked by a plaintiffs’ attorney to discuss the photo as part of a line of questioning about the role of violence in right-wing extremism of the sort Trump enlisted in his effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

Trump’s attorney, Scott Gessler, a former Republican Colorado secretary of state, took a page out of Trump’s own gaslight playbook, and during cross-examination he advanced implausible interpretations of the photo. The attacker could have been trying to pull the flagpole away, Gessler asserted, and there was nothing about the attacker’s attire that indicated he was “a member of a far-right extreme group.”

It takes all of 10 seconds on Google to determine that the photo indeed depicts a right-wing extremist attacker. ABC News’ own caption for the photo, taken by Samuel Corum, is, “A white supremacist tries to strike a counter-protester with a flagpole.” And other photos of the same flagpole-wielding man reveal the scale of his extremism and aggression — they show that his helmet bears the number 1488, a Hitler-supporting hate symbol, and the flag is the neo-Nazi Vanguard America-Texas banner.

Discussion of the photo was a minor moment in the trial, but it exemplified the core meaning of the testimony so far. Whatever the legal outcome of the trial, it has already proved before the American people that Trump’s behavior is morally indefensible and politically intolerable.

The trial is part of a lawsuit filed in Denver District Court in September by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on behalf of six Colorado voters, who argue Trump is disqualified under a provision of the 14th Amendment. Section 3 of the amendment says no person who took an oath to support the Constitution then “engaged in insurrection” can hold any office in the United States.

Trump, the plaintiffs correctly argue, engaged in insurrection when as part of his lie that he won the 2020 election, he incited his followers to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and violently disrupt the certification of Biden’s victory. The landmark case is seen as the first major test of the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause since the Civil War era.

Trump and his allies rely on dishonesty, misdirection and both-sidesism to deflect blame for the insurrection and avoid accountability, and his defense team has leaned on those same tactics in court this week. But unlike lies shouted at a rally or broadcast unchallenged on One America News, baseless assertions are subject in a courtroom to exacting scrutiny, and Trump’s team is incapable of credibly defending their client.

Fabricate. Obfuscate. Make counter accusations. Assert little falsehoods about a photo, tell big lies about a national election. This is how the autocrat operates.

As reported by Newsline’s Chase Woodruff, who has covered the trial from the courtroom, the plaintiffs have set out to demonstrate that the Jan. 6 attack was an “insurrection” and that Trump “engaged in” that insurrection.

Gessler in his opening statement attempted to muddy the “insurrection” question by saying, basically, that words have no meaning.

“There are lots of definitions of what an insurrection is,” Gessler said. “When there are numerous definitions, there might as well be none.”

As any layperson grasps, what occurred on Jan. 6 was an insurrection. But more significantly for the trial, “insurrection” has a very distinct meaning in relation to Section 3, as scholarly study and expert testimony this week makes plain.

Trump during his incendiary speech at The Ellipse on Jan. 6, exhorted rallygoers to “fight like hell” before they violently overran Capitol defenses, and MAGA apologists often cite instances when Democratic leaders have also used such phrases in public settings. Gessler did the same during the trial. During cross-examination of Simi, who testified about Trump’s influence on violent extremist groups in the run-up to Jan. 6, Gessler played video clips of Biden, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats calling on listeners to “fight” for this or that cause. The implication was that the hallmarks of extreme enmity for political opponents “fits both sides of the political spectrum,” as Gessler put it.

But no matter how much the Trump team tries to scramble the English language or obscure facts, Trump committed a grave betrayal of the Constitution out in the open, and we all saw it. Many politicians call on followers to “fight” for a cause, yes, but this rhetorical style in most cases serves a legitimate political goal, whereas Trump sought actual violence in pursuit of a lie. This was made clear in the years since Jan. 6, most substantially in the final report of the Jan. 6 House committee, and testimony during the trial only adds to our understanding of Trump’s treachery.

In his opening statement Monday, Gessler protested that the lawsuit constitutes “a number of historical firsts,” such as asking the court to be the first in American history to disqualify a presidential candidate under the 14th Amendment. The answer to this complaint, of course, is firsts beget firsts. Trump is the first traitor president, and the nation’s response therefore must be unprecedented.

But it was another passage in Gessler’s remarks that exposed the depths of MAGA depravity — he lectured the court about the sanctity of elections, admonishing that “this court should not interfere with that fundamental value, that rule of democracy.” He declared, apparently without shame, though he argued on behalf of a man who attempted a coup from the Oval Office, “this is election interference.”

Fabricate. Obfuscate. Make counter accusations. Assert little falsehoods about a photo, tell big lies about a national election. This is how the autocrat operates. These are the values that Trump and his defenders want to make national norms. But, as the trial forces us to accept, they are incompatible with democracy.

With Trump’s one term in office, America dipped its toe into the foul waters of authoritarianism. Testimony in the trial this week, if it serves any purpose, is notice that if Trump returns to the White House, the United States as envisioned by the framers of the Constitution would effectively be over. It shows, therefore, that if Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is inadequate to disqualify Trump, the country urgently needs a mechanism that would.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.t one point during the trial in Denver over whether former President Donald Trump is disqualified from the Colorado presidential ballot next year, Trump’s attorney quibbled with a witness’s characterization of a confrontation during the violent 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

https://www.alternet.org/desantis-makes-wild-claims-insurrection/

---

no-remorse-bullhorn-lady-slammed-with-nearly-5-years-behind-bars

---

mma 7 23

january 6 defendant Alan Hostetter will reportedly rely on three conspiracy theories at his trial, each of which he could have seen repeatedly on Fox News.

Hostetter, a former police chief, was initially charged alongside four other January 6 defendants who the government has accused of being Three Percenters — an extremist, anti-government ideology. The judge severed his case, however, “in a nod to the unusual nature of Mr. Hostetter’s proposed defense,” according to the New York Times.

The Times further reports:

Acting as his own lawyer, Mr. Hostetter has said that he intends to fight charges of conspiracy and obstruction based on what he calls “three fundamental pillars”: that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald J. Trump; that he and other rioters had no desire to disrupt the challenges to the vote results that were taking place inside the Capitol on Jan. 6; and that, therefore, the assault on the building had to have been staged by “federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”

Fox News embraced Hostetter’s first false claim — that the 2020 election was stolen — across nearly the entire network.Fox cast doubt on the election results almost 800 times in the two weeks after it called the race for President Joe Biden, and falsely claimed machines run by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic were unreliable or had been hacked to change vote totals. Dominion sued Fox for defamation, forcing a massive settlement on the day the trial was set to open. Smartmatic also filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox, which is ongoing.

Fox News also pushed Hostetter’s second inaccurate claim,that the rioters were simply tourists or otherwise not looking to disrupt the transfer of power. As recently as this March, prime-time host Laura Ingraham argued the insurrectionists were “old ladies walking through the halls of Congress taking selfies.” In January, her guest Miranda Devine, a Fox News contributor, claimed “most of the people that they've been rounding up are just guilty of trespassing. A lot of them were confused.” Fox’s Mark Levin said the rioters were simply “parading on public lands,” and compared them to “people in the civil rights movement.” On the day after the riot, Fox & Friends insisted the insurrectionists were at the Capitol to “voice their concerns” and to “defend our Republic.” That type of language was a fixture of Fox’s coverage, with on-air talent and guests calling the rioters “nonviolent” and “political prisoners." [twt]

hostetter’s final claim, that the insurrection was an inside job orchestrated and manufactured by federal law enforcement, was also a mainstay on Fox News. Like much of the network’s January 6 revisionism, this particular myth was largely, but not exclusively, driven by former marquee star Tucker Carlson. He filled his prime-time show and a documentary-style series called Patriot Purge with unsupported allegations that the riot was driven by FBI agents or informants, a claim that doesn’t stand up to even the mildest scrutiny.

Carlson promoted the series on Fox & Friends, during which co-host Brian Kilmeade asked, “Do you think maybe, perhaps and maybe you don't want to give away your series, you find indications that the FBI was actually pushing for this invasion?”

Hostetter recently criticized the network’s decision to fire Carlson in a rambling, incoherent defense motion that also referenced the JFK assassination and The Wizard of Oz. Prior to his ouster, Carlson had defended Hostetter as a victim of deep state persecution.

But Carlson wasn’t alone in spreading the conspiracy theory that the federal government was behind the attempted insurrection. Ingraham devoted a segment in October 2021 to the conspiracy theory that a man named Ray Epps was an FBI informant who had surreptitiously provoked the riot. She suggested in March of this year that FBI informants were “working the crowd either before they entered the Capitol or while they were in the Capitol.” Her guest in that segment was American Greatness’ Julie Kelly, a leading January 6 conspiracy theorist, who frequently pushed the same line on Carlson’s program as well.Levin interviewed Kelly in November 2021, asking, “Was this attack on the Capitol building instigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 6?” And a guest on the radio program of Fox’s Sean Hannity recently suggested that then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “planned and conjured up” the riot to add drama to her daughter’s documentary film.

As the Times reports, prosecutors in Hostetter’s case are worried about the trial devolving to a “circuslike atmosphere.” If it does, Fox News will have played no small role in providing the elements for Hostetter’s spectacle.

---

vs terrorist chalk snowflake scotus

https://www.alternet.org/man-weapons-j6-obama-home/

---

fukwit got 12 yrs, taze --> fanon had heart attack

https://www.alternet.org/michael-fanone-could-not-care/

---

an 6 23

a new report in the Washington Post sheds some light on why it has taken so long to investigate former President Donald Trump's incitement of deadly riots at the United States Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

Specifically, the Post reports that top officials at the United States Department of Justice and the FBI "quashed a plan by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office to directly investigate Trump associates for any links to the riot, deeming it premature."

Although Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray were not the ones who quashed the plan by prosecutors, they did embrace the strategy that critics of the plan recommended by holding the rioters themselves and then slowly moving up the chain if the evidenced justified doing so.

"In the weeks before Jan. 6, Trump supporters boasted publicly that they had submitted fake electors on his behalf, but the Justice Department declined to investigate the matter in February 2021," the newspaper writes. "The department did not actively probe the effort for nearly a year, and the FBI did not open an investigation of the electors scheme until April 2022, about 15 months after the attack."

The Post's sources say that efforts to investigate potential Trump involvement in the riots was planned by J.P. Cooney, the head of thefraud and public corruption section at the U.S. attorney’s office, who wanted to start with Trump ally Roger Stone and "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander, whom he believed had planned a violent response to the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election.

However, others in the department viewed Cooney's efforts as "premature," reports the Post, because he could not turn up enough evidence to definitively link Stone to a crime.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Defending the Proud Boys’ innocence, undermining the charges, and calling the trial a “set-up”

Founder of the Proud Boys Gavin McInnes posted on Telegram: “Antifa and BLM burn down this country with impunity. Proud Boys wander through a riot and now they’re facing twenty years. These guys have kids. This might as well be the death penalty.”
Right-wing YouTuberSteven Crowder complained that the seditious conspiracy theory charge was too broad, asking, “Can someone give me the definition of seditious conspiracy?” He added, “We're all seditious conspiracy theorists.”
Newsmax’s Greg Kelly called the “whole damn thing” a “sham and a shame.” He also claimed that Tarrio “was just unjustly convicted of the worst possible thing.”
QAnon influencer The Patriot Voice posted on far-right social media site Gettr, “There is NO JUSTICE here.” He added, “They are being made an example of in the WORST way possible…Do this we will RUIN YOUR LIFE. SICK.”
Right-wing radio host Mark Levin suggested that the trial was a miscarriage of justice, saying, “You don't have to be big big fans of the Proud Boys to believe in civil liberties and due process.”
Infowars’ Alex Jones called the trial a “total set up,” before attacking trans people.
Proud Boys’ lawyer Norm Pattis used his appearance on Infowars to ask Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to “get that weaponization committee to subpoena the trial transcripts in this case, all of them, including the transcripts that are under seal.”
Gateway Pundit published a post titled: “JUSTICE DENIED: Proud Boys Members Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy by DC Kangaroo Court – Face 20 Years in Prison –After FBI Created and Planted Evidence in Their Chat Room.”
Right wing social media account Carpe Donktum tweeted: “The entire thing was a total set up, and the cops were in on it. YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS IN DC, THEY WILL SET YOU UP AND LOCK YOU UP.”
Conservative reporter Patrick Howley called the conviction, “a miscarriage of justice,” adding that they were found guilty by a “Soviet-style court.”
Anti-muslim activist and failed GOP congressional candidate Laura Loomer attacked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Speaker Kevin McCarthy for not issuing a statement, adding, “How many more American patriots will be charged w/ ‘seditious conspiracy’?”
Right-wing pundit DeAnna Lorraine reacted to the news saying, “DESPICABLE. Any last shred of Justice in America is DEAD.”

Suggesting that the Proud Boys’ conviction opens the door for the same charges to be brought against Trump

Conservative radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted: “What’s happened to the Proud Boys is a travesty and it would frighten you more if you realized they’re gonna do the same thing to you. First it was them. Then it will be Trump. Then it will be you.”
Right-wing influencers the Hodgetwins tweeted: “Corrupt and biased prosecutors, judge, and jurors just convicted the Proud Boys of Seditious Conspiracy, a 20 year felony, for Jan 6. They’re setting it up to indict Trump next…”
White nationalist conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec tweeted: “Clear now the Biden Admin is going to charge Trump with seditious conspiracy. This is the end goal of the Garland grand jury and the Proud Boys convictions. GOP primary challengers are telling donors they are betting on it taking him out of the race.”
On the May 4 episode of his show The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, co-host Buck Sexton hypothesized that “they're going to try to bring a seditious conspiracy charge against Donald Trump.
When asked if she thought charges would be brought against Trump on the May 5 episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, guest and political commentator Julie Kelly alleged that, “None of this is by accident. It is a warning shot to not just Trump, but people around him, possibly John Eastman and others, for allegedly conspiring.”

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/several-january-6-defense-teams-have-cited-fox-news-reason-storming-capitol

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news**/right-wing-media-celebrate-expulsion-tennessee-lawmakers-and-liken-it-january-6

---

https://theintercept.com/2023/03/10/jan-6-capitol-riot-fugitives/

---

https://boingboing.net/2023/03/13/capitol-officer-sicknick-time-traveled-then-died-from-the-covid-vax-suggests-far-right-radio-host.html

---

no lnx twt vid

https://www.alternet.org/gop-to-tucker-carlson/

Brett Wilkins and Common Dreams March 08, 2023

After Fox News' Tucker Carlson falsely dismissed the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump as mostly nonviolent, numerous Republican senators including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blasted the right-wing opinion host's "whitewashing" of the deadly insurrection.

Carlson—who publicly promoted former President Donald Trump's 2020 election lies while privately calling the GOP loser's claims "absurd"—said Monday on his program that "very little about January 6 was organized or violent" and that "surveillance video from inside the Capitol shows mostly peaceful chaos."

Recently deposed as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Carlson echoed colleagues who said under oath that they didn't actually believe Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 presidential contest was stolen by Democrats.

While some of the eight Republican senators (and 135 House members) who voted against certifying President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory have stuck by the Big Lie, numerous others pushed back hard against Carlson's reimagination of the worst attack on the Capitol since Puerto Rican nationalists launched an armed assault on the building in 1954.

"I think it's bullshit," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters Tuesday when asked what he thought of Carlson's narrative. "When you see police officers assaulted, all of that... if you were just a tourist, you should've probably lined up at the visitors' center and came in on an orderly basis."

Also speaking Tuesday, McConnell (R-Ky.) said that Fox News "made a mistake" by airing Carlson's spurious revision of the deadly insurrection.

"With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on January 6," McConnell declared.

As he spoke, McConnell held up a printout of remarks from U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who called Carlson's account "filled with offensive and misleading conclusions" and "conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video."

\u201cSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Tucker Carlson's whitewashing of the Capitol insurrection was a \u201cmistake.\u201d\n\n"My concern is how it was a depicted ... Clearly, the chief of the Capitol Police ... correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on January 6th."\u201d

— The Recount (@The Recount) 1678218192]

Asked whether he thought U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) erred in giving Carlson exclusive access to the footage—a move that prompted watchdogs on Tuesday to call for an Office of Congressional Ethics probe—McConnell said that "my concern is how it was depicted."

:{:{}:

"Clearly," he added, "the chief of the Capitol Police correctly described what most of us witnessed on January 6."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined in the criticism of Carlson, saying, "We don't want to whitewash January the 6th."

:{:{}:

"I think the January 6 committee had a partisan view of things, and I'd like to know more about what happened that day and the day before," Graham added. "But I'm not interested in whitewashing the Covid lab theory, and I'm not interested in whitewashing January 6."

:{:{}:

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) accused Carlson of "feeding falsehoods" to his viewers.

"It's really sad to see Tucker Carlson go off the rails like that," the 2012 Republican presidential nominee told reporters. "The American people saw what happened on January 6. They've seen the people that got injured, they saw the damage to the building."

"You can't hide the truth by selectively picking a few minutes out of tapes and saying this is what went on," he added. "It's so absurd. It's nonsense. And people saw that it was violent and destructive and should never happen again. But trying to normalize that behavior is dangerous and disgusting."

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) condemned Carlson's framing of the attack as "some rowdy peaceful protest of Boy Scouts."

"I think that breaking through glass windows and doors to get into the United States Capitol... is a crime," Cramer argued. "I think... when you start opening the members' desks, when you stand up in their balcony—to somehow put that in the same category as, you know, permitted peaceful protest is just a lie."

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) got straight to his point: "I thought it was an insurrection at that time. I still think it was an insurrection today."

:{:{}:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, called on Fox to keep Carlson off the air this evening.

"To say January 6 was not violent is a lie. A lie, pure and simple," Schumer said on the Senate floor.

:{:{}:

"I don't think I have ever seen a prime-time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night," he added. "I don't think I've ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain. And he is going to come back tonight with another segment. Fox News should tell him not to."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'They certainly deserve it': GOP strategist hopes Fox News defamation suit ends in favor of Dominion ›

'Carcinogenic propaganda from right-wing losers': How the GOP is 'killing its own voters' by hyping Big Tobacco ›

'The smell of freedom': Tucker Carlson and House Republican defend tobacco smoking inside the Capitol ›

‘Baked Alaska’ Sentenced to 2 Months After Livestreaming Himself Rioting on Jan. 6

Twitter Reinstates QAnon Kingpin Ron Watkins

‘Stop the Steal’ Scoundrel Ali Alexander Reinstated to Twitter Day After Praising Brazilian Riot

In addition to his connections with extremist groups, Alexander also had forged connections with far-right members on Capitol Hill. Alexander’s relationship with Gosar appears the most extensive. Alexander testified that in the runup to Jan. 6, Gosar would share messages from Trump with him. “Representative Gosar, if he would talk to the President or meet with the President, might relay some good news back to me,” Alexander told the committee.

When specific plans for Jan. 6 were in development, Alexander testified, he initially sought to hold a morning rally in the shadow of the Capitol — at which Gosar was confirmed to be a speaker.

But planning for the events surrounding Jan. 6 fluctuated as the date neared. The original time slot for Alexander’s Capitol event was pushed back to the afternoon, when Congress would be in session, making Gosar’s participation impossible. Alexander, in turn, got roped into planning for the primary event at the Ellipse, where Trump would address the day’s rabid throng.

Alexander’s participation in that Ellipse rally was not fully welcome. Kylie Kremer, a lead organizer of the Ellipse rally, told the Jan. 6 committee that “Ali is a shady character.” But she said she chose to keep him in the loop because he was “the devil that you know,” and she “would rather keep him close” than risk having him turn on her.

Caroline Wren was another key organizer and fundraiser for the Jan. 6 rally. Alexander testified that Wren was “my main point of contact with what I’m calling Trump world.” Wren testified that Alexander’s participation was needed because he was a better organizer than Kremer and her mother, Amy, who ran the group Women For America First.

“His website, at the end, had 50,000-plus RSVPs,” Wren testified to the committee. “The Kremers had somewhere around 20,000, and that was after the President of the United States had tweeted it multiple times, the Kremers had promoted it. They had less than half the number of RSVPs that Ali Alexander did.”

As part of his planning for the Ellipse event, according to text messages cited by the Jan 6. committee, Alexander hosted a Jan. 3 conference call about logistics for the event. On the call and afterward, Alexander touted that it was joined by several, high-profile right-wing members of Congress.

Wren, who had to drop off the call early, texted Alexander soon after with the query: “Who are the Members of Congress that were on…?” Alexander responded: “Gosar, Lance Goodman, Lauren B, Marjorie, and maybe Congressman Kelleyat a minimum were on.” In his testimony Alexander said he could not recall the specifics of the call but that “Lauren B” referred to Lauren Boebert and “Marjorie” meant Marjorie Taylor Greene, of whom Alexander said, “she’s awesome.”

If Alexander anticipated a peaceful day on Jan. 6, it’s hard to square with his rhetoric leading up to the event. At a rally in D.C. on Jan. 5 he led a crowd in a chant of “Victory or death!” And in the predawn hours of Jan. 6 he tweeted that it was the “first official day of the rebellion.”

First official day of the rebellion.

— Ali Alexander (@ali) January 6, 2021

Alexander was originally slated to be a speaker at the Ellipse rally, but was ultimately boxed out from a turn at the mic. He was, instead, given VIP access for the president’s speech, which Alexander attended along with Alex Jones.

Alexander testified that he did not stay for the duration of Trump’s speech.Instead, he and Jones were tapped (by either Wren or her aide, he said) to lead protesters from the overflow area listening to Trump’s speech in a march toward the Capitol.

Alexander recalled that he traveled with Jones, accompanied by Jones’ security detail, and that they walked toward the Capitol after Jones first made an impromptu speech.Alexander insisted that he and Jones had the intention of reaching the staging area on the north side of the Capitol where Alexander’s separate Stop the Steal event was permitted to begin that afternoon.

But the agitator told the committee that as chaos began to unfold, he quickly realized that his event wasn’t going to happen. He claimed that he tried to “deescalate” the crowd, but the committee questioner was incredulous. “Can you help me understand that assertion with the fact that you were walking to the Capitol, chanting things such as ‘Stop the Steal’?” (Alexander claimed that by chanting he was “gathering people to us … so that we can then move people where they belong.”)

Alexander wasn’t the only one offering text-message warnings to flee the scene that day. As the violence began to unfold, Wren texted Alexander, warning him that this outcome spelled trouble for him. “I think you should leave,” Wren wrote in a text cited by the committee. “This will come down on you hard.”

Alexander has not been charged for any crime in relation to Jan. 6, nor was he referred for prosecution by the Jan. 6 committee. He did reveal that he’s communicated with the FBI through an attorney. In an opening statement, Alexander told the committee: “I had nothing to do with any violence or law breaking that happened on January 6th. I had nothing to do with the planning of violence. I had nothing to do with the preparation of violence. I had nothing to do with the execution of violence. Any suggestion to the contrary is factually false.”

Neither Alexander, Thomas Van Flein (on behalf of Gosar), nor Wren replied to requests for comment for this story.

Alexander is in the news this week because Elon Musk overturned the permanent Twitter ban he received in the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6. Alexander has shown no signs of being chastened by his close encounter with the insurrection, or of reforming his inflammatory rhetoric. In fact, his reinstatement to Twitter came just hours after he’d cheered on the insurrection by far right Brazialians who stormed key government buildings in Brasilia on Sunday.

For his part, Alexander made clear to the Jan. 6 committee that one social media platform wasmore important than all others as a tool he’d used to whip up the crowds who stormed the Capitol. “Which social media platforms did you use to promote the events on Jan. 6?” a committee questioner asked. Alexander responded: “Primarily Twitter.”

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/almost-two-years-after-january-6-capitol-attack-fox-news-continues

in the two years since the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Fox News has persisted in pushing conspiracy theories about both the 2020 and 2022 midterm elections and downplaying, excusing, and outright justifying the actions of former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

After the 2020 election cycle, right-wing figures frequently targeted Dominion Voting Systems -- which supplied voting equipment to 28 states -- with conspiracy theories, claiming that the company’s machines had switched or otherwise tampered with votes to sway the election. Many of those theories were central to Fox’s post-election commentary, which amplified the narrative that the election was stolen from Trump, even though reporting suggests that the network’s prominent figures knew that was not true. Dominion filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News in March 2021.

Recent reporting on the lawsuit shows that testimony obtained from Sean Hannity last month contains the Fox host’s admission that he “did not believe it for one second” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by Dominion. However, as Media Matters’ Matt Gertz has detailed, “Hannity discussed Dominion in eight Fox broadcasts between Election Day 2020 and the end of that year. Each time, he tried to inculcate doubt in his audience regarding the credibility of the company’s voting machines.”

Additionally, evidence and testimony received by the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack have undermined several of Fox’s on-air falsehoods. A series of text messages released by the committee between Fox News’ Ingraham Angle host Laura Ingraham and former chief of staff Mark Meadows showed that Ingraham pleaded with Meadows to get Trump to tell the crowd to disperse. On her show, however, Ingraham consistently claimed that Trump and his supporters did no wrong. Hannity also exchanged similar texts with Meadows. Even Hannity’s oft-repeated lie that Trump had ordered thousands of National Guard troops to the Capitol was dispelled by testimony given by then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

As official inquiries into the attack made headway, many Fox figures bent over backward to malign the House select committee, often relying on the same dismissive and whitewashed approach to the violence and hatred displayed on January 6. Here are some of the major lies and distortions that Fox pushed during the committee hearings:

Tucker Carlson released a multipart propaganda reel painting the attack as a false flag operation to purge patriots.
Ingraham Angle host Laura Ingraham maligned the House select committee as “bad programming.”
Mark Levin, speaking on his radio show, threatenedstaffers for the House select committee after claiming that Trump’s potential witness tampering could not be a crime.
Network hosts downplayed testimony from key witnesses and those close to Trump and his inner circle.
Major Fox figures repeatedly validated the rioters as patriotic and nonviolent protestors comparable to those from the civil rights movement.

Fox News has also continued to peddle election conspiracy theories -- this time around the November midterms -- and attacks on Dominion during the last year:

In November 2022, Carlson implied that the use of electronic voting machines is a “threat to democracy” as the machines “didn’t allow people to vote apparently” and shook their “faith in the system.”
As early voting began in Georgia’s midterm elections, Fox hosts repeatedly claimed that there was no voter suppression did not exist, while simultaneously ignoring armed voter intimidation in Arizona.
Carlson, along with Mark Levin, primed their Fox viewers in October to doubt the validity of the following month's Pennsylvania Senate election over debunked claims of voter fraud.
Fox News also jumped on the bandwagon of spreading suspicion about the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election results:
- Fox host Pete Hegseth cast doubt on why ballots were still being counted, mentioned that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs “is in charge of the elections there,” and said, “We don’t know whether people are cheating or not.” Hegseth lamented the rate of ballot counting in Arizona, stating, “You want to see a threat to democracy? It’s what we’re watching in Arizona right now.”
- Carlson hosted Republican candidate Kari Lake to sow doubt about why the race had not been called yet, and set her up to join him in validating online insinuations that Hobbs “knew she could sit back, hide in the basement, do nothing and win due to cheating.”
- Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo hosted Lake to discuss election machine tabulation issues and repeatedly asked Lake why Hobbs had not recused herself, suggesting it was inappropriate for her to oversee an election she was running in.
- Carlson insinuated nefarious motives behind the machine issues and suggested Democrats could be intentionally cheating, asking, “Is this fraud? We're not sure. And on some level it doesn't matter what it is. What we know is that the mechanics of our elections are not working, almost exclusively in states and cities run by Democrats. Are they cheating?”
- Hannity claimed that votes “magically appeared” while ballots were being counted in Arizona, saying, “What, they just magically appeared? How do we keep adding hundreds of thousands of votes to the vote count that were not counted?”

---

Newly elected congressman, Max Miller, desperately tried to minimize his involvement in helping organize Jan. 6 when speaking to the House Select Committee investigating the attack on Congress.

Miller, who previously worked for Donald Trump as the advance director, despite his criminal rap sheet, decided to run for Congress in 2022. Miller recently sued former chief of staff to the first lady, Stephanie Grisham, for her allegations of his abuse in her book. He lost the suit.

Miller's testimony released Tuesday evening by the House Select Committee revealed an awkward moment where he seemed confused about the timeline on Jan. 6,Politico's Kyle Cheney highlighted.

At first, Miller attacked campaign press secretary Katrina Pierson, who worked for Trump in 2016.

Pierson listed recommendations for keeping the Ellipse portion of the event intimate and official to control the narrative." Her second recommendation is to limit 2016 surrogates and in parentheses, it reads "vetted and on your team not their own." She also suggested eliminating convicted felons "that could damage the other speakers."

When Miller was asked about the recommendations he said he'd never talked about them. "If she's saying — I'm sorry; if she's saying this, this did not happen, and the answer is no. And this is frightening if — I'll shut up, but the answer is no." He was then asked about Pierson's agenda suggesting to "keep the fringe on the fringe."

He said he didn't remember that either. "I think this is a woman who got one meeting with the president and got very over-excited and exaggerated a lot. in my opinion, from what I understand from that meeting. I'm sorry."

Miller went on to say that the former president had very high expectations for the crowd size attending the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6. Trump has long been obsessed with the size of his crowd, with his campaign frequently posting photos of events to strategically display a rally crowd. The notorious example was the first day of the Trump presidency in which then-press secretary Sean Spicer said that the inaugural crowd was the largest in history because people watched it online.

Trump thought a million people were going to be at the White House on Jan. 6. The D.C. Metro Police Department estimated 10,000 and 30,000 people attended the rally at the Ellipse. The rally's organizers told the Park Police they anticipated about 30,000 or less.

Pierson tried to limit expectations for Trump, which Miller confirmed.

He then tried to downplay his role, and requested that they bring up his call log to jog his memory.

"So, I wanted you to bring that up to show you, look, no one called me, right, when things were going wrong — or whatever happened on that day," said Miller."I'm trying to put this into perspective for you all, that if I was actually a power player for this event itself, Mark Meadows would have been calling me. Tony Ornato would have been calling me. Dan Scavino would have been calling me. I mean, I just wanted to bring that up, just to share with everyone who's listening and on the committee, it's — I mean, you have to understand, if I was truly integral into this whole event, you better believe that I would have been getting a million fricking phone calls, and my butt would have been at the White House in .2 seconds."

The committee had to correct him that the call log times at 10 am and 6 pm were Greenwich Mean Time. In fact, Miller got many many calls throughout the course of the event.

"Forget the time. Time is not important. I just, you know, whatever," Miller explained.

See the full transcript highlighted by Politico's Kyle Cheney here.

---

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/19/977879589/yes-capitol-rioters-were-armed-here-are-the-weapons-prosecutors-say-they-used

many lnx docs vid

Yes, Capitol Rioters Were Armed. Here Are The Weapons Prosecutors Say They Used

March 19, 2021

Heard on Morning Edition

Tom Dreisbach

TIM MAK

Pro-Trump extremists clashed with police during the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The rioters may not have fired shots, but many were armed with other weapons, court documents show.

Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

In the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a popular narrative has emerged: that because rioters did not fire guns that day, they were not really "armed."

But a review of the federal charges against the alleged rioters shows that they did come armed, and with a variety of weapons: stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs. An additional suspect also allegedly planted pipe bombs by the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties the night before the riot and remains at large.

Those weapons brought violence and chaos to the Capitol. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died one day after two rioters allegedly sprayed him and other officers with what prosecutors describe as an "unknown chemical substance." Four other people in the crowd died in the insurrection, and more than 100 police officers suffered injuries, including cracked ribs, gouged eyes and shattered spinal disks.

Some supporters of former President Donald Trump have argued that the dangerousness of the Capitol rioters has been overblown. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has said, for example, "This didn't seem like an armed insurrection to me."

Others have echoed that view, and conservative and pro-Trump media, like Breitbart, The Epoch Times and the Washington Examiner, have seized on the congressional testimony of FBI Assistant Director Jill Sanborn, who said the bureau did not confiscate firearms from suspects that day. But FBI spokesperson Carol Cratty told NPR that Sanborn was talking only specifically about arrests by the FBI, and not other police agencies that made arrests on the day of the riot — including arrests of people allegedly carrying guns.

The Capitol siege: The cases behind the biggest criminal investigation in U.S. history

INVESTIGATIONS

The Capitol Siege: The Arrested And Their Stories

Antifa Didn't Storm The Capitol. Just Ask The Rioters.

INVESTIGATIONS

Antifa Didn't Storm The Capitol. Just Ask The Rioters.

Police officers have a much different memory of that day. "I've talked to officers who have done two tours in Iraq who said this was scarier to them than their time in combat," Robert J. Contee III, the acting chief of Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department, said in January. At the time of his comments, he had just spoken with an officer who was attacked with a rioter's stun gun.

Federal court records, included in NPR's database of more than 300 criminal cases, allege that at least three dozen people who took part in the riot used or possessed some kind of weapon that day.

This number is likely a low estimate of the total number of weapons that rioters brought with them. As the Justice Department has noted in court filings, "no crowd member submitted to security screenings or weapons checks by Capitol Police or other authorized security officials." Most of the people who stormed the Capitol were not arrested during the riot itself. Many are still at large.

"This was a pretty heavily armed crew of people compared to what you usually see at protests," said Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. "Even when you see people who are armed at protests in states, for example, where they have open-carry laws, they aren't storming into a building using the weapons in the way that we saw at the Capitol."

Lorenzo Boyd, a former director of the Center for Advanced Policing at the University of New Haven, called attempts to downplay the deadliness of the weapons used on Jan. 6 a "false narrative."

"There were a lot of weapons that could be lethal weapons as applied," said Boyd. In his view, the fact that the rioters were armed with a variety of weapons clearly contributed to the Capitol Police's failure to protect the building. "If you see a lot of resistance and you're being outgunned, outmanned, outpowered, you tend to kind of fall back a little bit," said Boyd.

The FBI continues to seek suspects from the Capitol riot, including those seen on video attacking police officers with weapons. The government released this video on March 18, and appealed to the public to help identify suspects.

FBI YouTube

Beirich said downplaying the violence also undermines efforts to combat domestic extremism more generally.

"There is a reluctance on the part of some in conservative circles to accept that domestic terrorism is largely coming from right-wing extremist groups," said Beirich.

Here are some of the myths about the weapons used in the Capitol riot and what thousands of pages of court documents can tell us about what actually happened.

Myth 1

The weapons used in the Capitol riot did not actually pose a deadly threat to lawmakers.

The Facts

Many of the weapons allegedly used in the riot are considered "less lethal" but are dangerous and can even be fatal, according to experts.

The Cases

"In America, we have this thought that everything is focused on a gun, on a firearm," Boyd said. "And we miss the fact that so many other people are killed with so many other weapons."

At least one of the rioters was allegedly found with a stun gun. Richard Barnett was photographed sitting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office with his feet up on a desk. Barnett, who self-identifies as a "white nationalist," was seen in that photo with what federal law enforcement later identified as a "ZAP Hike N Strike 950,000 Volt Stun Gun Walking Stick." According to a product description, the weapon "delivers 950,000 volts of knock down power, causing loss of muscle control and disorientation that bring attackers to their knees and makes them incapable of further aggression." (A Reuters investigation found that, as of 2017, more than 1,000 people died after police used a stun gun on them.)

Other defendants allegedly brought a variety of blunt objects. Around 400 Americans are killed by blunt objects every year, according to FBI data.

Prosecutors allege some people charged in the Capitol riot had batons. It's unclear how many people brought batons to the Capitol that day and how many batons were taken from law enforcement.

Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

A number of those charged were found to have possessed batons, although it's unclear how many were brought to the riot and how many were seized by rioters from law enforcement during the violent demonstrations. Prosecutors allege Bruno Joseph Cua was captured in a video allegedly wielding a baton, while Scott Kevin Fairlamb was seen on Capitol grounds carrying a collapsible baton. Colorado resident Jeffrey Sabol allegedly told federal investigators that he picked up a baton from a law enforcement officer but did not recall whether he struck the officer with it because "he was in a fit of rage and the details are cloudy."

Jonathan Mellis can be allegedly seen on footage from a Metropolitan Police Department body camera "repeatedly striking and making stabbing movements towards the officers" using a large stick. According to court documents, Mellis appears to be "attempting to strike the officers' necks between their helmets and body-armor where they are not protected."

Federal prosecutors have called Michael Foy "one of the most violent of the Capitol rioters" and have said that evidence shows him "brutally assaulting law enforcement officers" with both a hockey stick and a "sharpened pole" during the riot. Foy's attorney has argued that Foy was acting in self-defense and that his actions were "justified" and not premeditated.

Myth 2

People involved in the Capitol riot were not "armed" because they did not have any guns.

The Facts

At least three people arrested in connection with the Capitol riot are facing gun charges, though the government has not alleged that those three were part of the actual breach of the building. Other defendants are suspected of possessing guns during the riot but, like the vast majority of the estimated 800 rioters, were not searched that day.

The Cases

Federal prosecutors say that Christopher Michael Alberts of Maryland was arrested on Capitol grounds on the evening of Jan. 6 while carrying a Taurus G2c 9 mm handgun with one round in the chamber and a full 12-round magazine. He also allegedly had an extra magazine in his pocket and was carrying a gas mask, pocket knife and first-aid kit.

[A Tale Of 2 Radicalizations

INVESTIGATIONS

A Tale Of 2 Radicalizations

Across The Internet, A Game Of Whac-A-Mole Is Underway To Root Out Extremism

INVESTIGATIONS

Across The Internet, A Game Of Whac-A-Mole Is Underway To Root Out Extremism

UCLA Student Charged In Capitol Riot Took Inspiration From Online Extremist

INVESTIGATIONS

UCLA Student Charged In Capitol Riot Took Inspiration From Online Extremist]

Lonnie Leroy Coffman of Alabama was also arrested that evening after law enforcement found two firearms on his person, as well as what a federal judge referred to as a "small armory" in his truck, which was parked near the Capitol. According to the court, the government found "a loaded handgun," "a loaded rifle," "a loaded shotgun," "a crossbow with bolts," "several machetes," "a stun gun" and "11 mason jars containing a flammable liquid, with a hole punched in the top of each jar." According to the government, surveillance footage showed him "in attendance at the events at the Capitol," though he has not been charged with breaching the building.

Cleveland Grover Meredith of North Carolina planned to arrive in D.C. for the Trump rallies on Jan. 6, according to federal prosecutors, but he was delayed because of car trouble. He was arrested the following day for allegedly assaulting a man in Washington, D.C., in a traffic-related incident and for making death threats against the D.C. mayor and Pelosi.

During a search, law enforcement said they found in his possession "a Glock 19, nine millimeter pistol, a Tavor X95 assault rifle and approximately hundreds of rounds of ammunition." Citing text messages sent by Meredith, a federal prosecutor argued in court that he "relished in the carnage of January 6th."

The government's case against members of the far-right, anti-government militia known as the Oath Keepers alleges that the group discussed planning a "Quick Reaction Team" with weapons just outside Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. One such defendant, Thomas Caldwell, allegedly wrote in a text message on Jan. 3, "we could have our Quick Response Team with the heavy weapons standing by, quickly load them and ferry them across the river to our waiting arms." Caldwell's attorney, meanwhile, has argued that references to such a team demonstrate that the group was purposely adhering to D.C.'s strict gun laws. Caldwell's attorney also argued that the messages were not about storming the Capitol, stating that the team was "nothing but a contingency plan hatched up by retired military guys strategizing in the event that Antifa launched a coordinated attack against rally-goers." (There is no evidence antifa played any role in the events of Jan. 6.)

Prosecutors believe other defendants in the Capitol riot possessed guns on Jan. 6, though those rioters were not arrested and searched for weapons that day.

For example, Guy Wesley Reffitt allegedly "led a group of rioters up the Capitol steps" and "confronted law enforcement" but retreated after being pepper-sprayed. Reffitt was wearing tactical gear and "carrying his pistol" during the riot, according to the government, and also brought plastic flex cuffs.

Federal prosecutors say Reffitt is a member of the Texas Three Percenters, a far-right militia group. Reffitt's son told federal investigators that when Reffitt returned home from Washington, D.C., he brought an "AR-15 rifle and a Smith & Wesson pistol" in the house along with his other things. Reffitt was arrested on Jan. 18.

:{:{}:

Samuel Fisher allegedly posted photos of himself, along with a rifle and handgun, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. He posted on Facebook early that day that he was leaving things in a parking garage, "maybe except pistol," and added, "if it kicks off I got a Vest and My Rifle." Fisher was arrested on Jan. 20 and is facing charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building, as well as disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, but not weapons charges.

Nolan Cooke, another Capitol riot defendant, allegedly told FBI agents that he "brought one or more firearms" to Washington, D.C., but he claimed he did not bring the weapons to the Capitol itself. He was arrested on Jan. 21.

The pillars of the U.S. Capitol are seen through a shattered window on Jan. 7, the day after the riot.

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images]

Myth 3

A Capitol Police officer was killed after being hit with a fire extinguisher.

The Facts

Early news reports appear to have gotten this wrong. Some officers were attacked with fire extinguishers, but Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was actually attacked with an unidentified chemical spray, per court documents, and died the following evening.

The Cases

Two men — Julian Khater and George Tanios — allegedly conspired to injure police officers defending the Capitol and used an unidentified chemical spray on three officers, including Sicknick. Prosecutors say Khater said on video "give me that bear s***" at one point, suggesting the chemical was bear spray.

"All three officers were incapacitated and unable to perform their duties for at least 20 minutes or longer while they recovered from the spray," federal prosecutors say. Two officers told investigators that the spray was "as strong as, if not stronger than, any version of pepper spray they had been exposed to during their training as law enforcement officers."

Sicknick died on Jan. 7, but officials have not yet made public details about the exact cause of his death.

Khater and Tanios were not the only suspects who, prosecutors say, used pepper spray on Jan. 6. At least five other individuals charged with crimes around the Capitol riots were found to have possessed some sort of irritant spray.

Self-declared Oath Keepers member Jon Ryan Schaffer, for example, allegedly sprayed Capitol Police with bear spray as he and others tried to press forward into the Capitol building. Robert Gieswein was armed with a baseball bat and an "irritant spray" and allegedly used both against police officers who had been assigned to protect the Capitol. He was charged with "assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon."

Credit: Parler video via ProPublica

In this video originally posted to Parler and later published by ProPublica, Jan. 6 rioters can be seen throwing different objects at police, including flagpoles and a fire extinguisher.

And even though Sicknick does not appear to have been attacked with a fire extinguisher, other defendants allegedly did use fire extinguishers as weapons.

Matthew Miller is accused of discharging a fire extinguisher on the steps leading to an entrance to the Capitol building. And Robert Sanford allegedly struck three U.S. Capitol police officers in the head with a fire extinguisher.

Myth 4

Rioters in the crowd were not dangerous because they were just carrying flags.

The Facts

In at least seven cases, federal prosecutors say rioters used flagpoles as weapons to attack law enforcement or destroy property.

The Cases

Federal prosecutors accuse Jeffrey McKellop of assaulting police officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon on Jan. 6. An FBI affidavit cites police body camera footage that allegedly shows McKellop wearing a gas mask and tactical gear and attacking police with a flagpole. At one point, prosecutors say, he threw a flagpole like a "spear" and lacerated an officer's face.

A video cited in federal court records allegedly shows Peter Stager striking a police officer repeatedly with a flagpole while the officer lays facedown on the steps of the Capitol building. Court documents allege Thomas Webster attacked an officer by lunging toward him and striking him with a flagpole numerous times.

Chad Barrett Jones allegedly used a "long, wood flagpole" to strike out a door's glass panel near the Speaker's Lobby as the mob shouted, "Break it down!" and "Let's f***ing go!" Soon after, rioter Ashli Babbitt tried to climb through one of the doors' broken windows and was shot and killed.

New Yorker reporter Luke Mogelson followed rioters into the Capitol on Jan. 6 and told WHYY's Fresh Air that bringing flags seemed to be a concerted tactic. The flagpoles were unlikely to be confiscated by police earlier in the day but could still be used as weapons. That observation appears to be borne out in the court documents.

Federal prosecutors allege that Dana Winn stated on video that he brought flagpoles to the Capitol to "hit antifa in the head if need be."

William Chrestman, whom prosecutors identified as a member of the Proud Boys extremist group, also allegedly carried "a long wooden stick, which was initially wrapped in a blue flag, that the government believes to be anaxe handle." In a court opinion regarding Chrestman, federal judge Beryl Howell stated, "a defendant's carrying or use during the riot of a dangerous weapon, whether a firearm, a large pipe, a wooden club, an axe handle, or other offensive-use implement, indicates at least some degree of preparation for the attack and an expectation that the need to engage in violence against law enforcement or, indeed, the Legislative branch, might arise."

NPR's Investigations intern Emine Yücel contributed to this report.

austin politico fact check

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2022/06/15/fact-check-were-firearms-other-weapons-capitol-jan-6/7621149001/

Here's why: As the first House hearing dedicated to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol aired, Fox News host Tucker Carlson repeated the debunked claim that no one in the crowd was found with a gun.

"Just to be clear on terms, an insurrection is when people with guns try to overthrow the government," Carlson said during his June 10 segment. "Not a single person in the crowd on January 6 was found to be carrying a firearm. Not one," he said.

That’s wrong. Court documents, video evidence and news coverage directly contradict this characterization. Several rioters had firearms and dozens more wielded knives, bats and other real and makeshift weapons.

We reached out to Carlson for comment but did not hear back.

---

mma 12 22

...The report said that there were maybe six cases where people were observed carrying guns. Which, by the way, shows this was not an organized physical insurrection, because the weapons of use in insurrections are not screwdrivers. The weapons of use in insurrections typically happen to be firearms. There were very few of those among the thousands of people at the rally, maybe 100,000 people at the rally by some estimates. And there were very few of them, I'm not even aware of any, that actually got into the Capitol Building, in terms of guns.

Ben Shapiro defends Trump's alleged remarks about taking down metal detectors at his Jan 6 rally

06/29/22

Sinclair aired a misleading interview about the Capitol attack withSen. Ron Johnson, who promoted election fraud lies

04/20/21

Fox personalities dismiss January 6 committee’s criminal referrals for Trump

12/20/22

---

mAGA Capitol rioter 'can't believe' that he is 'going to jail' for 'NFT salesman' Donald Trump

Brad Reed Raw Story

December 15, 2022

Notorious Capitol rioter Tim Gionet, better known by his Twitter name "Baked Alaska," was suddenly filled with regret over his life decisions after watching former President Donald Trump hawk digital trading cards...

---

an raw 12 22

The massive trove of text messages turned over by Mark Meadows to the House select committee show Republican elected officials were willing to violate the U.S. Constitution on "bizarre" and obviously phony evidence.

Talking Points Memo reporter Hunter Walker obtained the messages, which show the former White House chief of staff communicating with GOP officials at all levels of government about far-fetched conspiracy theories to justify overturning Donald Trump's election loss, and he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that their lack of sophistication was genuinely shocking.

"We're touching on something that is really a central thing here," Walker said. "I covered the Trump White House, and a big question is how many people are in on the joke and how many people are true believers. I first, you know, became familiar with the text log when i was working on my book, The Breach, which is about the Jan. 6 investigation. I co-wrote it with [former GOP lawmaker] Denver Riggleman. He knows a lot of these people, and he was shocked when he opened the text log. He led the [select committee's] phone team, it was like looking into the mouth of madness, and even with that introduction, I had a similar reaction."

"Adults in government, not only engaging in frighteningly undemocratic language, but their base intelligence is called into question," Walker continued. "You're talking about the wild Italian theory, people were taking it seriously. We see another instance where someone has a bizarre theory from a Romanian YouTube video that any of us would know not to tweet, based on stuff from 2005 that they somehow thought carried over to 2022.The information literacy of our members of Congress is called into question here, and that's part of why we thought it was more important to present more of the totality of the these texts you have seen anywhere before, and our text team made sure you can see them in a phone as they were received, because the typos, the wild links, all of this is really important."

"One last point, and this is something that shouldn't be lost in this discussion," he added. "We see the pressure, we see it in real time in these texts on people like Doug Ducey, that was on people like Brad Raffensperger, that was on people like the Arizona attorney general. Scott Perry, the same guy sending this Italian theory, is talking about lobbying to have Trump pressure the Italian government and Pennsylvania legislatures, and you know, I think one of the things we see is if these people had given into the pressure, all of this plotting just might have worked."

Watch belowor at the link

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/marjorie-taylor-greene-texts-insurrection/

an 10/17/22

When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia debated Marcus Flowers, her Democratic challenger in the 2022 midterms, on October 16, he lambasted her for encouraging the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. Greene angrily responded that it was unfair to blame her for that attack in any way. But an article written by journalist/author Hunter Walker and published on SubStack following that debate demonstrates that Greene promoted the Big Lie after the 2020 election and encouraged MAGA efforts to overturn the election results.

Greene, during the debate, told Flowers, “You cannot accuse me of insurrection. I was a victim of the January 6 riot just as much as any other member of Congress. That was the third day I had on the job. I had nothing to do with what happened there that day, and I will not have you accuse me of that. That is wrong of you to do. You’re lying about me, and you will not defame my character in that manner.”

But text messages that Greene sent to former White House Chief of Starr Mark Meadows before January 6, 2021, according to Walker, “indicate” that she “was involved in organizing the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election at the U.S.”

Walker has had a lot to say about the January 6, 2021 insurrection. He wrote the new book, “The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation into January 6th,” with former Rep. Denver Riggleman — a conservative/libertarian who served in the U.S. House of Representatives via Virginia before losing a GOP primary and has been vehemently critical of the MAGA movement.

In one of her pre-January 6, 2021 messages to Meadows, according to Walker, Greene wrote, “Good morning Mark, I’m here in DC. We have to get organized for the 6th. I would like to meet with Rudy Giuliani again. We didn’t get to speak with him long. Also anyone who can help…. We are getting a lot of members on board. And we need to lay out the best case for each state.”

In another text, Greene told Meadows, “Last night Sen (Lindsey) Graham told me that if I found 100 names of dead voters in GA that he would object. I have 100 dead voters names!!.... Tell President Trump!”

After the insurrectionists attacked the Capitol, Walker reports, Greene promoted the bogus conspiracy theory that they were members of Antifa.

“Mark we don’t think these attackers are our people,” Greene told Meadows. “We think they are Antifa. Dressed like Trump supporters.”

On January 7, 2021, Greene told Meadows, “Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked. I don’t think that President Trump caused the attack on the Capitol. It’s not his fault. Antifa was mixed in the crowed and instigated it, and sadly people followed. But when people try everything and no one listens and nothing works, I guess they think they have no other choice.”

Greene continued, “Absolutely no excuse and I fully denounce all of it, but after shut downs all year and a stolen election, people are saying that they have no other choice. I defended Trump last night on Newsmax. He has been the greatest President. I will continue to defend him.”

---

10 22 trial an

A former Oath Keepers member testified Thursday that he believed group founder Stewart Rhodes was in contact with a Secret Service agent.

John Zimmerman told jurors that Rhodes, who's on trial for seditious conspiracy, claimed at a September 2020 rally to have the phone number of someone with the Secret Service who was in contact with former president Donald Trump.

Zimmerman testified that he didn't know whether Rhodes had a connection to Trump, whom he tried to speak with directly by phone the night of the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to another Oath Keeper militant who pleaded guilty seditious conspiracy in May.

William Todd Wilson told a federal court earlier this year that he joined Rhodes at a hotel near the U.S. Capitol shortly after the deadly attack and listened as themilitia group's leader called a Trump intermediary on speakerphone but was denied.

“[Rhodes] repeatedly implore the individual to tell President Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose a transfer of power,” Wilson said in his guilty plea.

Zimmerman testified Thursday that Rhodes believed in November 2020 that the former president would invoke the Insurrection Act to handle a "rogue government."

"Kind of like what we're going through now," Zimmerman testified, "with Congress just seeming to do whatever they want."

Rhodes called the person Zimmerman believed to be his Secret Service contact during a Trump rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in September 2020 to ask what "parameters we could operate under," the former Oath Keepers member testified.

---

an 11 22

A federal judge on Monday wasted no time incarcerating Riley Williams, ordering U.S. Marshals to take into custody the Pennsylvania woman immediately after the jury handed down guilty verdicts in six of the eight charges in her January 6 Capitol riot trial.

Politico reports jurors convicted Williams, who was 22 on the day of the insurrection, on charges related to “participating in a civil disorder, impeding officers who tried to clear the Capitol Rotunda and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.”

“But the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on two of the central counts in the case: whether Williams ‘aided and abetted’ in the theft of a laptop from Pelosi’s office that the speaker used to make Zoom calls amid the Covid pandemic, and obstruction of Congress’ Jan. 6 proceeding — a felony that carries a 20-year maximum penalty.”

NBC News describes Williams as a “far-right extremist,” and reports she is “a devotee of Nick Fuentes and a far-right, white nationalist movement she is affiliated with called the ‘Groypers.'” Fuentes has been described as a Christian nationalist, white nationalist, and “white supremacist leader and organizer.”

Williams, The Washington Post reported last week, “was among a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the building while Congress was meeting to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, according to prosecutors. She is charged with eight crimes, including aiding and abetting the theft of a laptop that Pelosi (D-Calif.) used to conduct video conferences with U.S. and foreign officials.”

During the trial, “jurors were shown video of Williams exhorting rioters to push past security lines of police and climb stairs to the House speaker’s suite of offices. In his closing argument Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Dalke described Williams as a zealous instigator who helped ‘weaponize’ a seemingly rudderless crowd.”

Dalke also told jurors that the “danger of the mob is in the numbers, in the crush of people in that chaos.”

“And the danger is so much worse when someone … is focusing the power of that mob. Everywhere the defendant went on January 6th, she dialed up the chaos.”

CBS News Congressional Correspondent Scott MacFarlane, who’s been extensively covering the January 6 trials, reports: “Judge orders Riley Williams go directly to jail. She’ll be in US Marshals custody until her February sentencing. Her defense attorney tells me it’s a surprise to Williams.”

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

---

an 9 22

The New York Times reported Monday afternoon that at least 40 subpoenas have been filed for allies of former President Donald Trump over the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election using the fake electors.

At least two of Trump's top advisers had their phones taken by the FBI, sources told the Times. Boris Epshteyn, a Russian-American Republican political strategist who served as a strategic adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign was one of those who had to surrender his phone. The other was Mike Roman an opposition researcher who worked for Trump from 2017 to 2018. He went on to work on the campaign, and became the person who handed off the envelope of fake electors to be given to Vice President Mike Pence.

The Times described it as an indication that the Justice Department's case is escalating after slow movement for the past several months.

Dan Scavino, Trump’s former social media director is also among those who got a subpoena from the case.

Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was another subpoenaed. He was on the team with Rudy Giuliani and helping with the so-called "war room" on Jan. 6 at the Willard Hotel.

Some of the information, the Times explained, was asking about activities around theSave America PAC,which has been the main source of funding for Trump since leaving office.

Read the full report here.

---

big ariz gp: [coudry cowboy] gosar biggs inside ; jones east side trump rally pt?]

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/05/05/where-was-anthony-kern-on-jan-6/

Newly reviewed footage by Arizona Mirror raises new questions about former Republican lawmaker Anthony Kern’s activities around the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as the lawmaker continues to participate in a recount of Maricopa County’s ballots from the 2020 general election.

Kern has continually insisted that he did not breach the Capitol and no footage or other evidence suggested otherwise. Photos show Kern on the front steps.

However, footage reviewed by the Mirror shows that Kern was present at other parts of the Capitol breached by protesters.

:{In a }:{ by a Virginia House of Delegates candidate who attended the protest turned riot, Kern can be seen walking along the West Front area of the Capitol as well. }:

The Mirror analyzed videos archived by ProPublica to determine around what time the video may have been taken and when Kern may have been in this particular area of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

In the video posted on YouTube, a large Trump flag is draped over part of the Capitol building that isn’t seen in many of the videos posted by rioters on the social media platform Parler until shortly after 3 p.m.

By this time in the day, protests in this area of the Capitol had already been violent for some time and protesters had already broken in or were in the process of breaking into the Capitol.

They had been violently clashing with police, throwing water bottles, pushing, punching and finding ways past the D.C. Metro Police, who eventually fell back.

“Come straight, go this way,” an unidentified man in a blue suit says to Kern, leading him through the area seen in the video. The man can be seen in photos with Kern on the Capitol steps holding a sign that reads “Save America” with the url “TrumpMarch.com” which now redirects to Women for America First.

Kern, a Republican from Glendale, did not respond to the Mirror’s questions about the video, who the man in the suit was or provide further details about his activities on Jan. 6 and whether he was aware of the scope of the violence that had occurred by that point.

Kern has been a proponent of the “#StopTheSteal” movement since the election, using the hashtag 17 times on Twitter from November through Jan. 6.

“D-Day in DC to support Arizona’s and America’s duly elected President Donald Trump! #StoptheSteal,” Kern tweeted on Jan. 6 around 10 a.m. with a picture of the stage where Trump would soon speak.

Both Kern and state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, have come under fire for their presence in D.C. on Jan. 6 with Arizona Democrats asking the Department of Justice and FBI to investigate their roles in the violence that occurred.

Kern would later say he agreed with Republican Congressman Andy Biggs that those who broke the law should be prosecuted and that he condemned the violence that occurred that day.

The day before, Kern rallied outside the Capitol with a who’s who of Stop the Steal personas, including the movement’s ringleader,Ali Alexander, and election fraud conspiracy promoter, Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow.

“In Arizona there is a brave man that I am trying to convince to run for state senate or Congress, Anthony Kern,” Alexander saidbefore Kern took the stage as rain poured down on Jan. 5.

“Mitch McConnell, I am not worried about optics here today,” Kern told the crowd before speaking about abortion and comparing the situation to the invasion of Normandy in World War II. “We will not allow the vote to be stolen from our duly elected president.”

There is no evidence that fraud or malfeasance affected the outcome of the presidential election.

On Jan. 6, Kern tweeted in the morning before Trump’s speech and did not tweet again until 3 p.m. That tweet was an image of the Capitol steps, overtaken by protesters.

Images circulated online showing Kern among those protesters on the steps and he later mocked some of his critics on Twitter.

“You ok @AzHouseDems? Want me to call the police?” he tweeted on April 19, responding to criticism by the Arizona House Democratic caucus after news broke that Kern was working on the Arizona audit .

After Kern announced on Twitter that he would participate in the audit, former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a spokesman for the audit, told theMirrorthat the ex-lawmaker would only be serving as a volunteer observer, not counting ballots. Reporters later spotted Kern counting ballots at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Bennett said he’d seen Kern’s name on a list of volunteer observers but didn’t realize that he had also applied to work as a counter.

Kern, who was still a lawmaker the day of the riot, has fought the release of his phone records related to the events of the day. Finchem has released some of the messages that were requested by the Arizona Republic which show that he and Alexander coordinated on some Stop the Steal-related events in Arizona and D.C. Kern has yet to release any records.

---

an raw 822

Congressional investigators hoped that volumes of phone texts that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones accidentally turned over to opposing counsel in civil litigation would yield answers about his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, but the texts reportedly only cover a period through mid-2020.

Mark Bankston, who represents the parents of the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, has reportedly said the cache includes texts with political operative Roger Stone, a longtime friend of former President Donald Trump who, alongside Jones, became a major tribune of the campaign to overturn the 2020 election. The effort by the House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to obtain the texts highlights the panel’s sustained interest in Jones’ role.

To date, Jones has not been charged in the attack, but he has played prominent roles in amplifying the messaging of the campaign to overturn the election and building the infrastructure of the protests in the run-up to the attack, culminating in his presence on the ground at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The committee’s interest in Jones was on display during a hearing on July 12 through recorded testimony of Kellye SoRelle, general counsel for the Oath Keepers. Nine members of the far-right militia face seditious conspiracy charges. SoRelle confirmed that Jones’ name was among three prominent figureheads during the series of protests leading up to Jan. 6.

“You mentioned that Mr. Stone wanted to start the Stop the Steal rallies,” the investigator said. “Who do you consider the leader of those rallies? It sounds like, from what you just said, it wasMr. Stone, Mr. Jones and Mr. Ali Alexander.Is that correct?”

“Those are the ones that became like the center point for everything,” SoRelle responded.

Alex Jones could not be reached for comment for this story.

Through his show on the InfoWars platform, Jones provided a venue for two of the most inspirational figures involved in rallying Trump’s supporters — Stone and retired Lt. General Michael Flynn. But Jones also leveraged his celebrity and following to do his own part in mobilizing Trump’s supporters, and in spreading wild and unfounded claims about election fraud.

In a letter to Jones accompanying a subpoena compelling him to testify and turn over records, the committee took note of a Dec. 20, 2020 broadcast of “The Alex Jones Show,” one day after Trump issued a tweet summoning his supporters to DC for a “wild” rally on Jan. 6.

“He’s calling on you now,” Jones told his audience. “He needs your help. We need your help. America needs to stand up.” Jones said he wanted to see 10 million people in Washington, DC on Jan. 6, adding, “We’re going to descend on the swamp January 6th. The president is going to be attending the rallies. He’s announcing he’s going to be there. This is going to be massive.”

On Dec. 29, Jones homed in on an objective for the Jan. 6 rally, scheduled to coincide with Congress’ session to certify the electoral votes.

“Well, let’s just say you’re going to want to go to DC on the 6th,” Jones said. “It will show the globalists we know Trump really won. And it will begin the process one way or another of removing the globalist puppet Joe Biden. And I mean by impeachment or keeping him from getting in on the 20th.”

Filling in for Jones on New Year’s Eve,guest host Matt Bracken added tactical specificity to the mission.

“We’re only going to be saved by millions of Americans by moving to Washington, occupying the entire area, if necessary, storming right into the Capitol,” Bracken said. “We know the rules of engagement. If you have enough people, you can push down any kind of fence or a wall.”

Amplifying the false claims of election fraud during an InfoWars broadcast on Christmas day, Jones offered his audience a fantastical and nightmarish description of the election that was unsupported by any evidence.

“They close everything out,kick everyone out, pull out briefcases,” he said. “Chinese men and vans come in in Michigan and start just shoving it in the machine. We get the footage showing it all. They’re death-threating witnesses. They’re arresting witnesses.”

Weeks before the 2020 election was held, Stone appeared as a guest on Jones’ show on Sept. 10, 2020. There, Stone previewed an election-fraud narrative and called for martial law that would become familiar during the interregnum between the election and Jan. 6.

“The ballots on election night in Nevada should be seized by federal marshals and taken from the state,” Stone said. “They are completely corrupted. No votes should be counted from the state of Nevada if it turns out to be the provable case.We can prove voter fraud in the absentees right now.Send federal marshals to the Clark County Board of Elections, Mr. President. It’s all there.”

Prompted by Jones’ insistence that “it’s clear they think they can steal it,” Stone recommended that Trump appoint a special counsel “with a specific task of forming an election-day operation using the FBI, federal marshals and Republican state officials across the country to be prepared to file legal objections and, if necessary, physically stand in the way of criminal activity.”

On the eve of the attack on the Capitol, Stone interviewed Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, at the Willard hotel.

Declaring that “there’s a DNA in the American psyche” that “goes all the way back to 1776” — referring to the Revolutionary War — Flynn reeled off a string of baseless claims of election fraud.

“Everybody in this country, everybody in the world knows that this election on the third of November was a total rip-off,” Flynn said. “It was a fraudulent election. We have had foreign interference from multiple countries — I’ll rattle ’em off if you want to get into that — and Donald Trump was the clear winner. For the next four days after the third of November — from about the 4th through the 7th, 8th of November — they just started stuffing the ballot boxes. And everybody knows it, and they got caught.”

The January 6th Committee has also signaled its awareness of Jones’ involvement in organizing the rallies surrounding the mobilization on Jan. 6. Citing press reports and Jones’ own statements, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee chairman, mentioned in his public letter that Jones worked with two women, Cindy Chafian and Caroline Wren to organize the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse, and helped line up a funder, Publix heiress Julie Fancelli, to cover “eighty percent” of the cost.

Jones reportedly said after his testimony earlier this year that the January 6th Committee has already obtained text messages between him and Wren, a former campaign fundraiser who Jones identified as his “White House connection.”

Through Jones’ testimony in January, the committee also confirmed that Jones was on at least familiar terms with the leaders of the neo-fascist street brawling group the Proud Boys, who, like the Oath Keepers, face charges of seditious conspiracy. Jones disclosed that after a rally at the Georgia state capitol in Atlanta in November 2020, he saw Proud Boys at Hooters who were “drinking beer and ate cheeseburgers.” A photo posted on Telegram by Jeremy Bertino, a high-profile Proud Boy who has not been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, shows Jones seated between Bertino and national chairman Enrique Tarrio.

While Jones has so far avoided criminal charges for his role in the events of Jan. 6, two InfoWars personnel — host Owen Shroyer and correspondent Samuel Montoya — have been arrested. Shroyer is charged with knowingly entering or remaining on restricted grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, while Montoya is charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building and disorderly and disruptive conduct, among other offenses.

Erika Wulff Jones, Alex Jones’ wife, went to the Capitol separately from her husband on Jan. 6, riding on the back of a golf cart with Cindy Chafian.

Alex Jones traveled with another contingent to the Capitol, as the January 6th Committee noted in its letter to him. Jones has said that the “White House” told him that after the rally at the Ellipse ended, he was tasked to lead a march to the Capitol where Trump would meet them. While Trump never made it, Jones, Shroyer and Ali Alexander marched to the Capitol.

“Go to the other side of the Capitol,” Jones said, leading the marchers to the east side of the Capitol. “That’s where Trump’s going to be.”

---

no lnx [twt bad code]

amy kremer bus tour ends DC dec 12

https://twitter.com/capitolhunters/status/1489008554455416834

impromptu fuentes sp gets him into inner circle? am 1st flags

...dec 12 DC rally is a bigger success even than Nov 14. Everyone is there. Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio jets in on a private plane and gets a White House tour.Michael Flynn makes a grand entrance flanked by representatives from many groups who’ll make a mark on Jan 6. 31/

...there’s more violence too - 4 stabbed in DC, one shot in WA. In CA Alan Hostetter calls for executing lawmakers. Meanwhile election lawsuits keep failing. The gambit of fraudulent electors fails too, at least for now. On Dec. 14 the electoral college votes for Biden. 32/

byrne, ed martin CNP 1ap...josh macias v4t

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKoIP7SVkAQbqU0?format=jpg&name=small

crazy WH mtg be wild twt

is a late night for many: the MillionMAGAMarch account promotes Jan 6 after 3 AM, and Dan Scavino, Trump’s comms guy, Tweets a warlike video. In the morning: Cindy Chafian requests a permit date change to Jan 6. The next day, the website http://WildProtest.com is created. 37/

---

Feb 2

Influencers start passing around a Serbian video about overthrowing Milosevic: “Police and military aligned with the people after few hours [sic] of fist-fight…when they see that sea of people..” Within hours it’s quoted by AZ GOP chair Kelli Ward. 38/

... next week (Dec. 21-27) sees a stealth power grab by Cindy Chafian & Ali Alexander. Cindy changes the WFAF rally permit to her name. Ali’s group snaps up space close to the Capitol, using a fake organization. Fliers appear for “Operation Occupy the Capitol”. 39/

capitolhunters

Feb 2

Militias book their travel, with others picking up their costs. QAnon’s Ron Watkins calls for “overwhelming numbers”, says he’s aiming for “max ppl for my budget”. Trump signs 41 pardons, incl. fixers Paul Manafort & Roger Stone and Blackwater contractors convicted of murder. 40/

...

on Dec. 28, the Kremers of WFAF realize they’ve been double-crossed, and an epic power struggle begins: email from Dec. 28-29 alone takes up 166 pages of the NPS FOIA. When the dust settles, the Kremers have the Ellipse, with Manafort’s support, & Chafian is bumped to Jan 5. 41/

...

Feb 2

Organizers have to scramble too after Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio is arrested - here's Funes, Couch, & Hughes strategizing. Ex-Marine Charles Donohoe thought he should command instead: “I need to be put in charge of whatever new thing is created…” 45/

On Jan 4 AM in DC, Hughes & Couch met up with other rightwing figures. Couch then got a call from Proud Boy leader Joe Biggs about the arrest of Enrique Tarrio, meant to have had ‘war powers’ on Jan 6. By evening, Couch & Hughes were in a hotel room working on damage control 37/

the night of the 4th, MO Senator Josh Hawley again pushes the Antifa theme, falsely claiming "Antifa scumbags came to our place in DC & threatened my wife and newborn daughter.." Charlie Kirk amplifies. But it's really a small polite protest - watch 46/

the 5th, Trump has a meeting with staff, asks how to "convince Congress" to "do the right thing tomorrow". He also issues a memo directing the State Department to assess whether “Antifa” should be classified as a terrorist organization, claiming horrific violence. 47/

moms for am

first rallies start (new IL Congresswoman Mary Miller: Hitler had some good points!) NPS makes last heroic efforts (same-day permit for tomorrow, sure!) Trump may still think Congress can hand him power, but logistics for an attack are proceeding. 48/

By the 5th evening, Cindy’s rally is in full swing; Ali Alexander shouts “Victory or Death!” Josh Hawley hammers his theme again: “If the Antifa scumbags can terrorize my family, they can do it to any family in America”. Posobiec warns of DC danger. 50/

Quote Tweet

capitolhunters

@capitolhunters

Jul 20, 2021

#SeditionHunters - events in DC required planning. Cindy Chafian organized the fiery Jan 5 rally where Ali Alexander led the crowd in “Victory or Death!” On Jan 6 she marched up the West Capitol steps with bullhorn & entourage and cheered during the assault on Officer Fanone. 1/

poso, infleuncers https://twitter.com/i/status/1489023152898203649 straka chris cox; jnx, roger ali in orange beanie

Listen to the VIPs and influencers at Cindy Chafian’s rally, chatting about what is to come. Alex Jones says “God will fulfill his destiny and will reward the righteous”. They expected to be rewarded the next day. (Video from “Carterrocks”) 51/

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Tq3S_jSYf_k

And then the 6th: Joe Biggs, ex-Army, ex-InfoWars, leads over 200 plainclothes Proud Boys to initiate the attack. Total militia members may be 1000 or more. 52/

---

very good timeline (no pix twt lnx]

https://www.justsecurity.org/74622/stopthesteal-timeline-of-social-media-and-extremist-activities-leading-to-1-6-insurrection/

September 7, 2020

Far-right social media personality and One America News correspondent Jack Posobiec tweets “#StopTheSteal 2020 is coming…” Posobiec has since deleted the tweet and all of his other tweets mentioning Stop the Steal.

(Source: Twitter/archiveis)

That same day, fringe conservative activist Ali Alexander (who previously went by the name Ali Akbar) announces during a now-deleted Periscope live broadcast that he is building the digital infrastructure for a 2020 “stop the steal” effort.Alexander explains he plans to construct a digital database of Trump supporters he could dispatch to ballot counting locations and state officials’ offices if their “physical presence is needed.”

He continues:

In the coming days, we will launch an effort concentrating on the swing states, and we will map out where the votes are being counted and the secretary of states. We will map all of this out for everyone publicly and we will collect cell phone numbers so that way if you are within 100-mile radius of a bad secretary of state or someone who’s counting votes after the deadline or if there’s a federal court hearing, we will alert you of where to go.

Alexander follows through on that promise, building a website and database that would be used to mobilize Trump supporters to Stop the Steal events.

On Facebook that same day, pro-Trump pages deploy the Stop the Steal slogan. Pages “President Donald Trump Fan Club”and “Donald Trump is My President,” which together reach millions of subscribers, post the mantra within hours of Posobiec’s tweet.

(Source: President Donald Trump Fan Club)

(Source: Donald Trump is My President)

September 23, 2020

Trump takes questions from reporters in the White House press briefing room. When asked whether he would commit to the peaceful transition of power if he lost the 2020 election, Trump declines to answer directly.

“Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump says. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”

Trump also states that he believes the election results would wind up at the Supreme Court and argues that it was a reason to fast-track the appointment of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

“This scam that the Democrats are pulling, it’s a scam, the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court,” Trump says, “and I think having a 4–4 situation is not a good situation.”

(Source: Washington Post)

September 24, 2020

The Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump blog and font of misinformation surrounding the 2020 election, publishes several articles mentioning the Stop the Steal effort beginning in September.One article offers readers advice on actions they can take to “STOP THE STEAL,” warning that North Carolina’s acceptance of mail-in ballots up to Nov. 12 was “only boot camp for what’s coming.”

“If you are not willing to fight the Communists you will be ruled by the Communists,” blog publisher Jim Hoft writes. “Obviously, Democrats will win the 2020 election if they ARE ALLOWED to steal the vote in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina.”

(Source: Gateway Pundit)

The Gateway Pundit would later be de-platformed by Twitter in February 2021.

September 29, 2020

Biden and Trump participate in a televised debate, during which moderator Chris Wallace asks Trump if he would denounce white supremacists and militia movement groups that had appeared in opposition to racial justice protests earlier that year. Trump asks for the name of a group, to which Biden interjects with the name of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys. The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the Proud Boys as a hate group.

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump says. “But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what,somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem.”

(Source: AP) [RUBBER GLUE WHATABOUTISM]

Trump’s remark about the Proud Boys reportedly results in a surge of new followers to the group. That night, members of the Proud Boys respond with jubilation. The group also goes on to sell shirts with Trump’s words printed on them. Joe Biggs, a prominent Proud Boys figure who was later arrested for his role in the Capitol attack, posts on Parler: “Trump basically said to go fuck them up! this makes me so happy.”

(Source: Parler)

Notably, Trump’s mention of “Antifa” was neither his first nor his last. The president and his allies spent years painting opponents of far-right groups as violent threats to the nation, and specifically mounted a sustained effort throughout the racial justice protests over the summer to characterize Antifa as a highly organized and violent “terrorist” group.

October 7, 2020

The Department of Justice announces indictments against a group of men who were allegedly planning to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The orchestrators of the would-be plot were part of a self-styled “militia” group called the Wolverine Watchmen, the indictment alleges, and met at anti-lockdown protests.

Earlier that year, Trump and his allies had repeatedly singled out Whitmer and the state of Michigan. In April, armed protesters had stormed the state capitol, earning the praise of Trump.

“The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire,” Trump tweeted on May 1. “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.”

Many unlawful militia groups involved in anti-COVID lockdown and pro-gun rallies that included shows of force at various state capitols participated in the Jan. 6 attack. The kidnapping attempt against Whitmer was an early warning of the potential consequences of misinformation campaigns on a national level.

October 15, 2020

In a televised town hall in Miami, Trump refuses to disavow QAnon. “I know nothing about QAnon … What I do hear about it, they are very strongly against pedophilia, and I agree with that.” When the moderator Savannah Guthrie says, “there’s not a satanic cult,” Trump responds, “No, I don’t know that and neither do you know that.” [SCI DOES NOT UNDERSTAND GW]

Online, QAnon communities celebrate this statement as a tacit endorsement.The Washington Post reports that members of anonymous image boards where QAnon is promoted praised Trump’s answer, with one user writing, “This was the biggest pitch for QANON I’ve ever seen.”

October 19, 2020

Prominent conservatives circulate misleading information suggesting that Trump voters are being targeted for violence, animating extremist groups. The DFRLab found that the sourcing for the claims, which were spread by leading Republican figureheads likeMatt Schlapp, failed to withstand basic scrutiny and that QAnon conspiracy-theory-adjacent accounts were the first to post the material on social media.

(Source: Twitter)

October 20, 2020

Users in a chatroom for dues-paying members of the Oath Keepers question what their course of action will be if Biden is elected and authoritarian rule is implemented, responding to a video uploaded online by the conspiracy theory outlet Infowars. One user replies, “Choose a side and fight, looking down the sights of a rifle at our fellow Americans. You’d think we would have learned our lesson the last time.”

(Source: OathKeepers)

October 26, 2020

Users in a group chat on the platform MeWe called “AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 2.0” discuss the potential for bloodshed after the election. The group contains several unlawful militia members and supporters. One user with the display name “William Flatt” writes “Leftists have already fired the first shots” and promises that “when the Right eventually hits back, the bloodshed will be Biblical.”

(Source: MeWe.com)

October 27, 2020

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes tells conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones that members of his militia movement group plan to station at polling locations across the country to “protect” Trump voters. During the same interview, Rhodes says his group would station near Washington, D.C. on Election Day to protect Trump in the event of a “Benghazi-style” attack on the White House.

October 31, 2020

Video clips circulate showingTrump supporters in Texas surrounding a Biden campaign bus on the highway. According to Biden campaign staff, drivers attempted to slow the bus down and drive it off the highway. The incident prompts the Biden campaign to cancel a campaign event over concerns about public safety and security.

That evening, Trump shares video of the incident on Twitter, with the declaration: “I LOVE TEXAS!”

(Source: Twitter)

November 2, 2020

The DFRLab notes an increase in online organizing and heated rhetoric among right-wing extremist groups ahead of Election Day, particularly in unlawful militia groups:

The decentralized and secretive nature of modern extremist movements makes it difficult to infer every group’s plans regarding the election. However, trends in online conversation convey a general sentiment among extremists that they believe they should stealthily monitor the voting process and prepare themselves for potential unrest after results are announced. Users in extremist communities online observed by the DFRLab have repeatedly engaged in recruitment efforts and encouraged individuals to organize among themselves for scenarios in which they may act at local, regional, and state levels. Individuals in militia movement digital spaces have also encouraged communications networking between groups.

November 3, 2020 (Election Day)

Early morning on election day, Posobiec tweets the hashtag #StopTheSteal.

(Source: Twitter)

A subsequent DFRLab analysis of tweets using the hashtag #StopTheSteal between approximately 9 p.m. ET Nov. 2 through 5 a.m. ET Nov. 4, finds that among its top promoters were accounts used by the Philadelphia GOP,Human Events publisher Will Chamberlain,Trump-supporting actor James Woods, Islamophobic activist Pamela Geller, conservative writer Carmine Sabia, and online influencers Posobiec and Mark Dice.

( NICE GFX Source: Jean Le Roux/DFRLab)

As predicted, Election Day ends with many states still counting legitimately cast votes and no definitive election result.

November 4, 2020

In the early morning hours following Election Day, Trump falsely declares premature victory to his supporters at the White House. He makes several unsubstantiated claims about supposed voter fraud, calling it “a major fraud on our nation.” He then calls for vote counting to stop.

(Source: ABC News)

Several prominent right-wing social media influencers begin promoting the Stop the Steal effort, including newly elected Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp, and far-right media personalities Mark Dice and Michelle Malkin.Greene leverages the effort to fundraise for her congressional campaign fund.

(Source: Marjorie Taylor Greene for Congress)

Multiple Facebook groups emerge rallying around the Stop the Steal effort. One group, founded by pro-Trump organization Women for America First, called “STOP THE STEAL” gains hundreds of thousands of members before Facebook shuts it down on Nov. 5. Before deletion, the group hosted an events section, which publicized rallies organized by multiple groups occurring across the country.

(Source: Stop The Steal)

That same day, conservative activist Ali Alexander updates his Stop the Steal website to prompt visitors to input their contact information for future organizing. The website receives significant traction on Facebook, according to analysis conducted using the Facebook monitoring tool CrowdTangle.

(Source: CrowdTangle)

Meanwhile, protests reach a fever pitch across the United States.

In Arizona, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar and far-right social media personality Michael Cernovich rile protesters, including several who openly carry firearms, outside the Maricopa County Elections Department. Far-right extremists are reportedly present, including militia movement groups and QAnon supporters. Reuters reports that some attendees said they joined the protest after seeing tweets about the event posted by Cernovich, who drove seven hours from California to speak at the protest. Trump supporters would continue to gather at the elections department for days.

(Source: Twitter)

In Michigan, Trump supporters attempt to enter a vote-counting center in Detroit. Several chant “stop the count” while others are filmed banging on the windows of the room where ballots were being counted.Group of ppl shouting “stop the count”, some banging on windows of TCF absentee ballot counting board in #Detroit pic.twitter.com/vTqP6ba2bp

— Annalise Frank (@annalise_frank) November 4, 2020

(Source: Twitter)

November 5, 2020

At 9:12 a.m. ET, Trump tweets, “STOP THE COUNT!”

(Source: Twitter)

Police arrest two armed men in Philadelphia near a vote-counting location. The men had traveled to the city from Virginia Beach, Virginia, in a silver Hummer displaying a QAnon conspiracy theory sticker on its rear window. In a Facebook video provided by the Anti-Defamation League to the Associated Press, one of the men — Anthony Macias of Veterans for Trump — is seen standing outside the ballot-counting location telling viewers, “We are in a fight for America as we know it.”

In Atlanta, about 100 pro-Trump protesters assemble outside a ballot-counting location and chant “stop the cheat.”

Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon and his podcast co-hosts discuss beheading National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray. “I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats,” Bannon says.

Alexander’s StopTheSteal.us website is updated to include listings for protests in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Advertised rallies include prominent far-right personalities and disinformation spreaders as featured speakers.

(Source: StopTheSteal.us)

November 6, 2020

More than 200 protesters, including militia movement members, gather to protest in Detroit, Michigan. A group of Trump supporters target a local news station for a protest in Youngstown, Ohio. More protests take place in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

November 7, 2020

Late in the morning, the Associated Press and major television networks announce that Biden is projected to become the 46th president of the United States.

That afternoon, in addition to the widespread public celebrations over Biden’s victory, Stop the Steal protests take place across the United States at state capitols and ballot-counting locations. At the Pennsylvania state capitol, extremists including armed militias, white supremacists, QAnon believers, and Proud Boys participate in a heavily armed protest.

Extremists, including white nationalist movement leaders and Proud Boys, also begin promoting and planning a “Million MAGA March” in Washington D.C. for Nov. 14.

(Source: Parler)

November 8, 2020

Amy and Kylie Jane Kremer of the organization Women For America First re-brand a Facebookgroup called “Boot Pelosi” to “March for Trump.” Retooling existing online assets is a common tactic, taking an audience that came together for one particular cause and redirecting them toward another one — in this case, a ready-made group of Trump supporters who might express interest in participating in a march. The Facebook group has more than 9,000 members at the time of publication. A significant portion of online infrastructure established in prior political campaigns, including anti-COVID-19 lockdown protests, are retrofitted to deliver misinformation about the election and to organize rallies.

Promotional materials for a “Million MAGA March” circulate among extremist communities online and began to appear on militia movement recruiting forum boards and chat rooms.

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes streams live video from a Stop the Steal rally in Purcellville, Virginia.At the time of publication, the Oath Keepers channel remained accessible on YouTube. (Warning: The following video contains explicit and otherwise offensive material.)

November 9, 2020

Jones’ outlet Infowars promotes the Stop the Steal cause and organizes a multi-state caravan to Washington, D.C. Infowars personalities urge viewers to follow a Parler account with the handle @stopthestealcaravan. Host Owen Shroyer will go on to travel in a custom armored vehicle from Texas to D.C., making stops in several cities along the way. The outlet continues to promote the protest with additional videos and posts.

(Source: InfoWars)

Women for America First updates its website to promote Nov. 14 protests in Washington, D.C. and to share the names of conservative influencers to follow online. The listed influencers include a convergence of white nationalists, anti-Muslim voices, conspiracy theorists and spreaders of COVID-19 disinformation.

(Source: TrumpMarch.com)

November 10, 2020

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes tells Alex Jones that he had men stationed outside Washington, D.C. prepared to engage in violence on Trump’s command. According to Media Matters:

Rhodes said Trump should task special forces leaders in the military to gather and process the information because “he cannot trust the normal military intelligence services.” Noting that he has previously been opposed to U.S. military intervention in domestic matters, Rhodes said that in this case Trump should invoke The Insurrection Act to accomplish this goal.

Rhodes then said that, in support of Trump, “we have men already stationed outside D.C. as a nuclear option in case they attempt to remove the president illegally, we will step in and stop it” and emphasized that these men are “armed” and “prepared to go in, if the president calls us up.” In addition to activity outside of the capital, Rhodes said he will have Oath Keepers inside the city this coming weekend to support a caravan of Infowars supporters being led by Shroyer who say they will hold an event on November 14. The Infowars contingent is one of several far-right groups that say that they will rally in the city to support Trump. Stewart added that his group has been doing “recon” for the past week in the Washington, D.C., area.

Alex Jones, Owen Shroyer and Stewart Rhodes. (Source: Media Matters)

Inside a chatroom for dues-paying Oath Keepers members, users discuss their intentions to attend the Nov. 14 rally. Around the same time period, users also advise those fellow members attending to “watch your backs” and refer to those who plan to attend as “soldiers.”

(Source: Oath Keepers)

November 12, 2020

According to notes shared by an Oath Keepers member inside a chat room for dues-paying group supporters, Rhodes says that members of his group will be stationed near Washington, D.C. until Trump is installed as president.

(Source: Oath Keepers)

That same day, then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany says during a Fox News appearance that she expects turnout at the Nov. 14 protest in Washington, D.C. to be “quite large.”

Trump, meanwhile, teases a visit to the Nov. 14 rally in D.C. “Wow!” he writes. “Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA”

(Source: The Trump Archive)

November 13, 2020

Trump campaign allies host a bewildering press conference at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping company in Philadelphia, where they air grievances over the counting of votes. Almost every single Trump campaign challenge against the results of the election will be tossed out of court, and the small number of legal challenges won will do nothing to change the result of the vote.

(Source: AP)

November 14, 2020

Trump supporters and far-right extremists gather by the thousands in D.C. to protest the results of the 2020 election. Trump pays a visit to theMillion MAGA March with a presidential motorcade drive-by. That night, members of the Proud Boys and Trump supporters engage in violence in downtown D.C., feuding with civil rights counter-protestors. At least one person is stabbed and hospitalized.

“While much of the day unfolded peacefully, brief but intense clashes erupted throughout,” the Washington Post writes. “Activists spewed profanity and shouted threats, threw punches and launched bottles. On both sides, people were bloodied, and at least 20 were arrested, including four whose allegiances remain unknown on gun charges. The chaos also left two officers injured.”

Footage pulled from my IG live from last night. I’m positioned in front of PBs with antifascists behind me. When PBs moved in is when my phone got thrown. Looks like someone picked it up to catch bike cops coming through. Explains why I found it on the curb! pic.twitter.com/5TZpWBH0oQ

— talia (@mxtaliajane) November 15, 2020

Just after 8 p.m., the Proud Boys and other Trump supporters receive praise from the president for brawling with counter-demonstrators.

(Source: Twitter. Note time stamp for this image is Pacific Time.)

November 15, 2020

Trump tweets that the Georgia recount was “a scam, means nothing.” His tweet amplifies QAnon-supporting lawyer Lin Wood and echoes unsubstantiated claims about “fraudulent signatures.”

(Source: Twitter)

November 16, 2020

Alex Jones urges fans to travel to Georgia and surround the governor’s mansion. White nationalist leader Nicholas Fuentes will appear at the protests and speak.

(Source: InfoWars)

Georgia is quickly becoming a hot spot for election conspiracy theorists, as its electoral votes were decisive in Biden reaching 270 votes. Meanwhile, both of Georgia’s Senate elections will go into a run-off on Jan. 5, determining which party will control the chamber, increasing tensions on the ground, particularly among Trump supporters who see Democratic wins in the two Senate seats as an existential threat.

November 18, 2020

Far-right figures and fans gather for the first of several days of protest at the Georgia capitol. During the movement’s time in Georgia, leaders of the protests including Stop The Steal organizer Ali Alexander, white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones enter the state capitol.

(Source: irehr.org)

Over on MeWe, users in a militia movement group chat make call-outs to attend the Georgia rally.

(Source: MeWe)

November 20, 2020

On social media, flyers and posts advertising the sequel to the Nov. 14 Million MAGA March begin to circulate. The event is announced prominently by Infowars and Alex Jones, who was in the Georgia state capitol two days prior.

Leading figures from the Trump campaign host a press conference regarding their legal challenges to the election. Attorney Sidney Powell falsely alleges that the voting systems used in the 2020 election were created at the order of deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to change votes after the fact “to make sure he never lost an election.”

November 21, 2020

Trump acknowledges Stop the Steal protesters in Georgia on Twitter in a reaction to a Breitbart News article. “The proof pouring in is undeniable. Many more votes than needed. This was a LANDSLIDE!” Trump writes.

At the Pennsylvania Capitol, several militia groups protest the result of the 2020 election. Militia movement supporters march in Richmond, Virginia, openly violating area gun laws.

(Source: Youtube)

The DFRLab discovers aflyer for a Dec. 12 protest in D.C. decorated with militia movement insignias circulating among pro-militia communities online.

(Source: TrumpMarch.com)

November 29, 2020

A prolific Oath Keepers member in the group’s paid chat room calls on other users to attend election protests in D.C. on Dec. 12. The user specifically asks for law enforcement officers with firearm permits to attend.

(Source: Oath Keepers)

Women for America First launches a multi-state bus tour, starting in Doral, Florida, and ending at the Dec. 12 march in D.C.

(Source: TrumpMarch.com)

November 30, 2020

Trump campaign lawyer Joe DiGenova appears on Newsmax TV and says that Chris Krebs, the former director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), who managed CISA’s effort to respond to prevalent election-related misinformation and who was fired by Trump by tweet ostensibly for the effort, “should be drawn and quartered. He should be taken out at dawn and shot.”

(Source: Media Matters)

Users in “American Patriots III%,” a MeWe chatroom for supporters of the Three Percenter anti-government militia movement, claim that the organization’s Louisiana members will travel to D.C. for protests on Dec. 12.

(Source: MeWe)

December 1, 2020

Gabriel Sterling, the official overseeing Georgia’s voting system, pleads with Trump to condemn a deluge of Trump supporters who have threatened state officials and election workers. “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed, and it’s not right,” Sterling says.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served as Trump’s first national security advisor and pleaded guilty to lying to federal officials about his contacts with Russia, shares a message on Twitter from a right-wing organization in Ohio urging Trump to declare martial law and re-conduct the 2020 election. “Freedom never kneels except for God,” he writes.

On Parler, Lin Wood writes, “Our Country is headed towards Civil War” and that “Trump must follow the precedent of Abraham Lincoln and Declare Martial Law.”

(Source: Parler)

The calls for martial law initially receive mixed reactions from militia movement groups online. Some, such as the Civilian Defense Network, voice their support for the idea. Others on militia movement forum boards and social media pages expressed skepticism. [GUBMINT]

December 5, 2020

Armed protesters surround Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s home, [NO TERRORIST CHALK]chanting “Stop the Steal” and spouting conspiracy theories about the election popularized by Trump and his allies. Activist Genevieve Peters live-streams the event, including the caption, “Michiganders head to Secretary of States Jocelyn Benson’s HOUSE in dead of night to let her know: WE AIN ‘T TAKING THISCORRUPT ELECTION!! FORENSIC AUDIT PERIOD!”

(Source: Facebook)

In Dallas,Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodesspeaks at a Stop the Steal rally hosted by the Texas Republican Party.

(Source: Facebook)

December 6, 2020

Following Women for America First’s bus tour rally in Des Moines, a confrontation between Trump supporters and counter-protesters ends in a shooting. Michael McKinney, who expressed support for the Proud Boys on Facebook, approaches a car with four Black teenage girls, pulls a handgun from his waistband, and fires one shot into the vehicle from 15 feet away; a 15-year-old is shot in the leg. He is charged with five felony counts, including attempted murder.

December 7, 2020

Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander tweets that he is “willing to give [his] life for this fight.”The Arizona Republican Party shares the tweet and adds, “He is. Are you?”

(Source: Twitter)

December 9, 2020

Neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin posts an article on Daily Stormer urging his readers to attend the Stop the Steal rally on Dec.12, writing: “There is nothing you could be doing that could be more important than this.”

(Source: Daily Stormer)

December 10, 2020

Oath Keepersissues a call to action to participate in pro-Trump protests in D.C. on Dec. 12.

Trump tweets a quote from a supporter: “‘People are upset, and they have a right to be. Georgia not only supported Trump in 2016, but now. This is the only State in the Deep South that went for Biden? Have they lost their minds? This is going to escalate dramatically. This is a very dangerous moment in our history…. The fact that our Country is being stolen. A coup is taking place in front of our eyes, and the public can’t take this anymore.’ A Trump fan at Georgia Rally on @OANN Bad!”

December 11, 2020

A Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia shares violent imagery on Telegramregarding the Dec. 12 rally. One of the images reads, “SHATTER THEIR TEETH.”

(Source: Telegram)

December 12, 2020

Trump supporters and extremists gather again in Washington, D.C. for several rallies to protest the result of the 2020 presidential election as the Trump campaign’s legal losses continue to pile up. Trump flies over the scene in Marine One. Some speakers at the rally repeatedly discuss intentions to destroy members of the GOP that do not attempt to overturn the results of the election. White nationalist podcasterNicholas Fuentes leads a crowd in a chant of “Destroy the GOP!” Pro-Trump conspiracy theorist and pillow salesman Mike Lindell cautions Republican politicians: “The Republicans out there that were cowards, now’s your chance. We’re not going anywhere and you better stand up.”

That night, brawling breaks out in the streets of downtown D.C. Several people are stabbed and dozens are arrested.

(Source: Twitter)

Members of the Proud Boys vandalize four churches in the city and set fire to a Black Lives Matter banner. Group leader Enrique Tarrio will later be charged for the incident.

(Source: Twitter)

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes calls on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Actin the United States. He adds that failure to do so would result in the Oath Keepers and like-minded individuals engaging in a “much more bloody war.”

(Source: Right Wing Watch)

Militia groups gather at the Georgia state capitol and call for a “citizen tribunal.”

(Source: YouTube)

December 13, 2020

An online “enemies list” of politicians, cyber experts, and election officials who do not support efforts to sow doubt in the integrity of the 2020 election begins to circulate, and it catches the attention of federal law enforcement. The FBI eventually attributes the list to an Iranian information operation. The Iranian disinformation campaign sought to capitalize on the Stop the Steal movement, likely intended to spark domestic violence and push the results of the election deeper into question.

December 14, 2020

A video published by One America News entitled “Exclusive: Stop The Steal Organizers Discuss Reelection Efforts” includes a voiceover stating, “Supporters of President Trump are continuing to fight for four more years, storming the nation’s capital to participate in dueling rallies.” OAN later deletes the video.

(Source: OAN)

OAN also reports that Boris Epshteyn, a Trump 2020 campaign adviser, said that the fight against the results of the election would continue “through January 6.”

December 15, 2020

Pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood tweets, “Better safe than sorry. Make sure you have PLENTY of water, food, flashlights & batteries, candles, radio,2nd Amendment supplies, & a plan to meet with leaders of your communities.”

(Source: Twitter)

Leading Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexanderappears with right-wing activist Ed Martin, Arizona state Sen. Anthony Kern, political strategist Alexander Bruesewitz, andtwo Republican electors from Michigan at a press conference where they threaten retaliation against Republicans who do not attempt to change the results of the 2020 election.

On Parler, Proud Boys figureJoe Biggs claims that the Proud Boys will return to D.C. for Biden’s inauguration.The promise never materializes and is met with resistance from some Proud Boys chapters.

(Source: Parler)

December 16, 2020

The national council of “The Three Percenters — Original” group, one of the oldest and largest Three Percenter anti-government militia groups, issues a statement on the 2020 election alleging that “there was widespread election fraud perpetrated against the American people.”

They continue:

We stand ready and are standing by to answer the call from our President should the need arise that We The People are needed to take back our country from the pure evil that is conspiring to steal our country away from the American people. We are ready to enter into battle with General Flynn leading the charge. We will not act unless we are told to.And we will not act on our own as TTPO, but rather as a united body of American patriots.

December 17, 2020

Ron Watkins, former administrator for the extremist bulletin board 8chan, urges Trump to “cross the Rubicon.” The phrase refers to Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon River with an army to install himself as sovereign, which precipitated starting a bloody Roman civil war. The phrase is echoed by Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward days later.

(Source: Twitter)

The Women for America First bus tour, meanwhile, pays a visit to a firearms academy near Nashville, Tennessee, and tour participant Jennifer Lynn Lawrence posts a video of herself, Kylie Jane Kremer, Dustin Stockton and Amy Kremer posing with rifles.The website for Tactical Response, the location where the video was reportedly filmed, features a tagline on its website: “We teach good people to kill bad people.”

(Source: Facebook)

Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona alleges on Twitter that 700,000 votes were compromised and that Trump won Arizona despite the stated election results. Gosar includes the hashtag #StopTheSteal and tags Ali Alexander in his post.

(Source: Twitter)

December 19, 2020

Trump tweets out a call for his supporters to protest in D.C. on the day when Electoral College votes are set to be certified by Congress. “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election,” Trump says, adding, “Big protest in DC on January 6th.Be there, will be wild!”

(Source: Twitter)

StoptheSteal.us organizer Ali Alexander brags that he had received a phone call from “people from the White House” at a rally in Arizona. In the same speech, Alexander appears to advocate for violence against Republicans in Congress who did not fight to overturn election results.

(Source: YouTube)

Women for America First co-founder Kylie Jane Kremer, meanwhile, reacts to Trump’s tweet by announcing plans for a rally the same day and launches the website TrumpMarch.com for organizing attendance. “The calvary (sic) is coming, Mr. President!” she writes.

(Source: Twitter)

December 21, 2020

Ali Alexander’s Stop the Steal group emails readers to donate to stopthesteal.us and states, “StoptheSteal.us stands ready to FIGHT BACK with this historic protest.” Like Kylie Jane Kremer and the Women for America First team, Alexander is directing followers to go to D.C. to protest on the same day.

(Source: stopthesteal.us)

Newly elected far-right Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) tells Turning Point USA conference attendees, “[C]all your congressman and feel free — you can lightly threaten them. Say: ‘If you don’t support election integrity, I’m coming after you. Madison Cawthorn’s coming after you. Everybody’s coming after you.’”

(Source: YouTube)

December 22, 2020

8chan administrator Ron Watkins shares information for a group on the site Clouthub titled “Patriot Caravan 45.” The page contains details for organizing travel to D.C. for protests on Jan. 6.

(Source: Twitter)

That same day, the DFRLab observes a graphic circulating among unlawful militia groups and conspiracy theorist communities online with instructions for joining vehicle caravans heading to D.C. for the protests.

(Source: DFRLab)

December 23, 2020

Women For America First’s TrumpMarch.com website publishes a map including new dates and locations for their next cross-country bus tour, ending in D.C. on Jan. 6.

(Source: TrumpMarch.com)

BuzzFeed News will later report that the participants of the tour were spouting lies about the 2020 election and repeatedly used violent rhetoric.

December 25, 2020

Ali Alexander posts a since-deleted videoto YouTube on Christmas Day, urging people to come to D.C. on Jan. 6, the day that Congress will finalize Biden’s election as president. With a triumphant soundtrack, the video features Trump at a rally declaring, “We will never give in. We will never give up, and we will never back down. We will never ever surrender.”

The video urges people to register to attend on a website, WildProtest.com — a direct homage to Trump’s tweet from Dec. 19 about the event, directing them to arrive at the U.S. Capitol building by 1 p.m. on the day of the event. The website even offers to help people find rides to get there. The website lists multiple Republican members of Congress as featured speakers, including Reps. Mo Brooks (R-AL), Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Paul Gosar (R-AZ).

Source: WildProtest.com

December 26, 2020

Ali Alexander publishes a tweet containing his now-deleted video. “President Trump invited you so now it’s your turn to invite a fellow patriot,” he writes. “Share the video and tag someone below.” He then cites Trump’s previous comment, “It will be wild!”

Image for postSource: Twitter

December 27, 2020

A stopthesteal.us email with the headline “TRUMP JUST TWEETED JAN 6TH EVENT! AGAIN!” encourages readers to attend the Jan. 6 event to support Trump. It includes a screenshot of Trump’s tweet about Jan. 6. The email states there were event details at the since-removed site wildprotest.com, which includes the hashtags #StopTheSteal, #WildProtest, and #Jan6, adding, “PRESIDENT TRUMP WANTS YOU IN DC JANUARY 6.” The site also includes a map of the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, stating, “We’ve identified six (seven including Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville) that could join our cause. StopTheSteal.us is working closely, whipping the vote up, with patriots in the Congress.” Stopthesteal.us raises $183,777 for Jan. 6 event prep.

(Source: StopTheSteal.us)

(Source: WildProtest.com)

December 29, 2020

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio writes on Parler that the Proud Boys will attend the Jan. 6 event “incognito” and “will spread across downtown D.C. in smaller teams.”

(Source: Parler)

Ali Alexander records a now-deleted Periscope broadcastthat was later saved on the Internet Archive and Youtube. He claims that he had planned the upcoming Jan. 6 protest with Republican Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL).

(Source: YouTube)

December 30, 2020

Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona announces that he will be in D.C. for the protests with “the rest of America.” Gosar states he will “fight back against the leftists who’ve have engaged in sedition to run a Technology Coup.”

(Source: Twitter)

December 31, 2020

Oath Keepersshare details for Jan. 6 protests on its website and announce that the group will be present in an article titled, “JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!”

By this point in time, various forces behind the Stop The Steal movement including Trump-aligned political groups, like Women for America First, racially motivated violent groups like the Proud Boys, and various Republican officials are committed to attending an event in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. Each group was actively engaged in promoting the event to their various members or audiences online.

That same day, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri sends a fundraising email amplifying his stance against certifying the results of the election.

(Source: Twitter)

January 1, 2021

Trump promotes “Stop The Steal” on Twitter, encouraging his supporters to attend the “BIG Protest Rally in Washington D.C.”

The same day, he responds to Kylie Jane Kremer’s Dec. 19 tweet that read “The calvary (sic) is coming, Mr. President!” with the reply, “A great honor!”

(Source: Media Matters)

Meanwhile, pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood tweets that Vice President Mike Pence should be “executed by firing squad.” Days prior to Wood’s tweet, Pence’s legal team had asked that a federal judge reject a lawsuit filed by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) that would have sought to use Pence to throw out election results.

(Source: Twitter)

January 2, 2021

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tweets, “We’re now at well over 100 House members and a dozen Senators ready to stand up for election integrity and object to certification. It’s time to fight back.”

(Source: Twitter)

Women for America First co-founder Amy Kremer announces details for a Jan. 6 event at The Ellipse, south of the White House, and encourages supporters to RSVP at Trumpmarch.com. Kremer uses the hashtag #StoptheSteal in her tweet promoting the event.

(Source: Twitter)

The DFRLab observes apost on Parler with hundreds of thousands of views instructing Jan. 6 rally attendees to send locations and pictures of “BLM and Antifa” to the Proud Boys so that members of the group can “get them before they go out to the streets.”

(Source: Parler)

That evening, Trump retweets a post by Woman for America First’s Kylie Jane Kremer containing event details for Jan. 6.

(Source: Twitter)

January 3, 2021

Jennifer Lynn Lawrence, also from Women for America First, tweets to her followers urging them to attend protests on Jan. 6. “The globalists will not win!” she writes. “We the People are showing up to defend our way life & our President who has put America First!”

(Source: Twitter)

Trump later replies to another tweet by Kylie Jane Kremer, announcing he will attend the protests on Jan. 6.

(Source: Twitter)

Upon being sworn into office based on the results of the same general election he was protesting, Rep. Madison Cawthorn tweets: “There is an ongoing battle for the soul of this nation, and I am prepared to fight for freedom. It’s time to conquer our fears and retake our republic.”

(Source: Twitter)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks at a #StopTheSteal rally, telling the crowd, “We will not go quietly into the night. We will defend liberty.”

(Source: Twitter)

The website marchtosaveamerica.com promotes the protest at Freedom Plaza scheduled for Jan. 5, as well as Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 at the White House Ellipse. It asks supporters to RSVP for the event, opt-in to SMS alerts, andwaive liability of the event organizers for any harms related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.The website states that the events are being planned by the “Stop the Steal Coalition”identified on the website as the following groups:

(Source: marchtosaveamerica.com)

January 4, 2021

On TheDonald.win, a popular pro-Trump forum board, more than 50 percent of top posts that day contain calls for violence in the top five responses, according to Advance Democracy. Users on the forum openly fantasize about storming congressional offices. One user replies to a post on the forum with the comment, “Stop the steal and execute the ‘stealers,’” according to The Daily Beast. Similar violent rhetoric is present on the platform Parler.

Violent posts litter pro-Trump online communities. Users in a thread onTheDonald.win discuss violating weapons laws and overwhelming Washington, D.C. metropolitan police, receiving hundreds of upvotes — signaling community approval of the comments.

(Source: TheDonald.win)

Jeremey Liggett of the Florida-based Guardians of Freedom III% militia movement group uploads a video to Facebook in which he offers advice about carrying weapons and staying safe during the Jan. 6 protests in D.C. Much of the advice would be explicitly illegal due to strict laws and restrictions for carrying firearms within the District of Columbia. He and his group members are dressed in tactical gear.

(Source: Facebook)

The DFRLab also observes an infographic posted several times to TheDonald.win that contains directions for surrounding the U.S. Capitol complex, as well as markings of landmarks and access tunnels that run beneath the Capitol.

(Source: TheDonald.Win)

On Twitter, Charlie Kirk of conservative youth organizing group Turning Point USA claims he is sending more than 80 buses of students to D.C. for protests on Jan. 6.

Meanwhile, event co-organizer Dustin Stockton, who had been traveling with the crew from Women for America First, arrives in D.C. and notes how someone at the airport is carrying a pitchfork. Fellow co-organizer Jennifer Lynn Lawrence replies, “Of course! This is too perfect.”

(Source: Twitter)

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes publishes a blog post announcing that Oath Keepers “will be boots on the ground in our nation’s capitol on Jan 5–6 to assist in protecting multiple scheduled events, speakers, VIPs, and event attendees.” He adds:

All Patriots who can get to DC need to be in DC. Now is the time to stand. It’s not too late to go. Jump on a plane! Jump in your car! Just get there. Show the President you support him taking decisive action as both President andCommander-in-Chief. And show Congress that we thepeople will not stand for the election being stolen to plant an imposter Chicom puppet in the White House. Stand now, or kneel forever.

That evening, pro-Trump blog The Gateway Punditencourages its readers to go to D.C. for the Jan. 6 protests in a post that glorifies Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet encouraging supporters to attend by stating “It will be wild.”

January 5, 2021

Trump supporters descend on D.C., hosting a roughly eight-hour event at Freedom Plaza. That evening, Trump tweets and posts to Facebook, “I hope the Democrats, and even more importantly, the weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party, are looking at the thousands of people pouring into D.C. They won’t stand fora landslide election victory to be stolen.”His message is addressed to Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, and John Thune.

(Source: Facebook)

Reuters reports that Pence will not block the certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory.

White supremacist Anthime “Tim” Gionet, known by his online persona “Baked Alaska,” films a man in D.C. who tells him that Trump supporters “need to go into the Capitol.”

The likelihood that someone dies on stream tomorrow and that it's Baked Alaska or that he's filming it or that he's simply in proximity to it feels strong https://t.co/6yWXyAOxH5

— Tedward B Wang (@TedwardWang) January 6, 2021

(Source: Twitter)

Bikers for Trump founder Chris Cox tells rally-goers at Freedom Plaza that America is on the brink of a revolution and that he would “take the first bullet.” Other speakers invoke rhetoric about civil war, dying for Trump, and acting as an “army.”

(Source: Right Wing Watch)

Trump supporters Jason Phillips and Joshua Allen Fulfer of California broadcast other Trump supporters defacing Black Lives Matter Plaza, which is directly north of the White House and was dedicated earlier in the summer as result of the racial justice protests across the United States.

(Source: Facebook)

That same day, the FBI field office in Norfolk, Virginia, circulates an internal document warning of extremist violence at the Jan. 6 protests. The Anti-Defamation League also publishes a warning that social media organizing was happening around an event titled “Operation Occupy the Capitol.”

The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department makes five arrests, and Park Police make one arrest, on charges related to possession of unlawful arms and assault.

Meanwhile, Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander tweets about considering an order for protesters to occupy D.C., pitching tents and shutting down the city until a “negotiated settlement” is reached.

(Source: Twitter)

Alexander also reports that he spoke with former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, an outspoken supporter of Trump’s campaign and the girlfriend of Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

On Facebook, some of the political posts with the highest engagement contain hyperbolic language about the upcoming protest. The posts include Rep. Madison Carthorn’s campaign page stating that Jan. 6 would determine “the fate of a nation.”

(Source: Facebook)

Charisma News, a Pentecostal publishing outlet, shares an article with the caption: “’There are but two parties right now, traitors and patriots.’ #StopTheSteal.”

(Source: Facebook)

Elsewhere on Facebook, Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies, a website encouraging women to serve as homemakers, posts a note about arriving in D.C. with her husband. She tells her followers, “[W]e must take action when the soul of our nation is at stake! We cannot sit idly by and allow the TREASON of a stolen election to go forward. We will no longer be the USA but another Venezuela. #stopthesteal”

(Source: Facebook)

Back in Texas, politician Sid Miller posts an image with the text, “Legal gun owners have 300 million guns and probably a trillion rounds of ammo. If we were the problem, you’d know it.” He adds the comment, “Don’t make us be the problem. #StopTheSteal”

(Source: Facebook)

On Twitter, BuzzFeed tech reporter Ryan Mac notes that users in a Facebook group called “Red State Succession” had encouraged one another to engage in violence while circulating “addresses of perceived ‘enemies’ in the nation’s capital.”

(Source: Twitter)

Around 10:33 p.m. ET that evening, John Strand of California, who would later be charged by authorities, tweets: “There’s no doubt about the truth of the 2020 election. The only question is: will you act upon that truth? WILL YOU STAND FIRM? This moment will define our country, our generation, & our national destiny. It’s now, or never.”

(Source: Twitter)

January 6, 2021: day of the insurrection

At 8:17 a.m., Trump tweets encouragement to Pence, urging him to overturn the election.

(Source: Twitter)

At 8:30 a.m.,Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado tweets, “Today is 1776.”

Almost an hour later, the Trump campaign posts to Facebook: “STOP THE STEAL!”

(Source: Facebook)

In a MeWe group chat containingunlawful militia members and supporters, a user reports that “some militia boots on the group” in D.C. told them they hadn’t seen so many people carrying weapons in one place before. “He said the police are scared. You can see it in their eyes. DC laws don’t allow guns, but the cops are so outnumbered they don’t dare try to start any shit!” the user wrote.

(Source: MeWe)

During the event held at the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6, organizers play a propaganda video, which asserts that the United States is descending into chaos due to the corruption and greed of government and corporate elites,and that the only way to preserve the American way of life is to restore Trump as president.

(Source: JustSecurity.org/Vimeo)

Speaking at the event, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama tells attendees that Jan. 6 is “the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” He asks the crowd, “Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder! Will you fight for America?”

During his remarks,Donald Trump Jr. tells the crowd, “The people who did nothing to stop the steal. This gathering should send a message to them: This isn’t their Republican party any more. This is Donald Trump’s.” He adds, “If you’re gonna be the zero and not the hero, we’re coming for you and we’re going to have a good time doing it!”

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani also addresses the crowd. “If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of,” he says. “But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. So let’s have trial by combat.”

Around noon, Trump addresses the crowd. He tells the thousands of people assembled there:

Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy.And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down.

Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.

Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.

Later that afternoon, as the violent mob attacks the U.S. Capitol, Ali Alexander films himself from a spot with a panoramic view of the building.

(Source: Twitter)

He tells his viewers, “I don’t disavow this. I do not denounce this.”

…

The 2020 presidential election marked the first time in living history that the United States did not experience a peaceful transition of power. The transition is a natural extension of regular elections, the foundational process of democracy. The images of Trump supporters attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 are irreversibly seared into American history. The insurrectionist attack, although ultimately unsuccessful in changing the factual results of the election or preventing the transition of power, left five people dead and has so far resulted in nearly 200 arrests.

Stop the Steal was, at its core, an anti-democratic movement based on disinformation. Its leaders made abundantly clear that its mission was to refute the legitimate results of the election, invalidate a clear majority of their fellow citizens, and punish public officials who certified the election results. The effort was made possible because Trump did not stop it, but rather encouraged and amplified it, to which the various groups involved in Stop the Steal were responsive and ecstatic.

Ronald Reagan said of the peaceful transition of power during his first Inaugural Address:

:{:{}:

The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every 4-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Americans were viscerally reminded that democracy is not automatic or inevitable.

Federal, state, and local law enforcement, other public safety and national security organizations, and public officials have renewed focus on domestic extremist groups, online disinformation, and the ways they often intersect. Addressing each long-standing problem, made more obvious and urgent after the Jan. 6 attack, will require multifaceted and creative solutions. And effective prevention or interventions will likely be varied across the spectrum of radicalization and conspiracy adherents.

The work will be long but must begin immediately.

If we are to prevent events like the insurrection that occurred at the seat of American government, we must collectively restore the common belief in the basic rules and values of democracy, as well as the shared set of facts on which democracy depends.

Written by Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) and edited by Andy Carvin (@acarvin), Graham Brookie (@GrahamBrookie), Zarine Kharazian (@zkharazian), and Emerson T. Brooking (@etbrooking). Additional research by Jacqueline Malaret (@jacqumalaret), Alyssa Kann (@AlyssaKann), Max Rizzuto (@maxbrizzuto) and Jean Le Roux (@jean_leroux).

---

biz insider

These are the Republican lawmakers facing calls for resignation after they attended the Trump rally ahead of the Capitol riot

Yelena Dzhanova

Jan 10, 2021,

Capitol protests

Supporters of President Donald Trump entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Days after last week's riot at the US Capitol, lawmakers have condemned the violence exhibited during the riot.

Others have referred to the rioters as "patriots" and displayed support for their actions.

Rioters were emboldened not just by President Donald Trump, who was pleading them to protest the election results, but also by the Republican rally attendees, which included state lawmakers.

On GOP state lawmaker has resigned. Here's a list of some of the Republican officials who attended the rally before the riot.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The riot on the US Capitol was preceded by a rally in support of President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

That rally was attended by Republican lawmakers at the state and federal levels.

Emboldened by Trump's urges and pleas to protest the results with him, rioters who attended the rally organized an attempted coup. They stormed the Capitol building as lawmakers were meeting inside to certify the election results.

Days after the event, investigations remain ongoing and lawmakers at-large have been standing against the acts of violence demonstrated by the rioters.

At least five people, including one police officer, died. Members of the Proud Boys, which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, were reportedly present.

Upon news that the riot breached the Capitol building, lawmakers began to shelter in place and many evacuated. One quick-thinking Senate aide secured the boxes containing the electoral votes, rescuing them from possible damage.

The vote to certify President-elect Joe Biden went on as planned hours after the riot began. And a day later, Trump said there would be "an orderly transition" on January 20, Inauguration Day.

The riot spurred calls to once again impeach Trump, this time on a charge for "incitement of an insurrection." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell circulated a memo to Republicans saying Trump cannot logistically be removed from office before Inauguration Day.

Trump, however, is not the only Republican facing a swift backlash. Republican lawmakers, who were present at either the rally or riot, are being accused by their own colleagues of having "galvanized domestic terrorists."

Here are the Republican lawmakers across state and federal levels who were present at Trump's rally that led to the Capitol siege.

Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker Derrick Evans streamed a video of himself storming the Capitol building with a mass of rioters.

"We're in, baby!" he shouted in the video. He also repeatedly shouted Trump's name and warned others not to destroy property.

After the riot, he said he participated as an "independent member of the media to film history."

Evans' participation was condemned by Roger Henshaw, speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates. "Participating in a violent intentional disruption of one of our nation's most fundamental political institutions is a crime that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Henshaw told WV Metro News.

Evans resigned from his role on Saturday, days after previously promising that he would not.

:{:{}:

"I take full responsibility for my actions, and deeply regret any hurt, pain or embarrassment I may have caused my family, friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians," Evans said in his resignation letter.

Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase attended the pro-Trump rally on Wednesday ahead of the riot. She said she left "just in time" before the rioters arrived. But Chase is still facing calls for her resignation for participating in the rally.

"She galvanized domestic terrorists who violated the United States Capitol on Wednesday afternoon through riots, destruction, and desecration, joining them on their march to Capitol Hill," a statement from the Virginia Democratic Senate caucus said.

After the riot, Chase referred to the Trump extremists as "patriots."

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley was photographed raising a fist in solidarity with the rioters outside the US Capitol.

Hawley was the first senator to announce his plans to object to the certification of the Electoral College results in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.

During the riot, Hawley was sheltering in place with his Senate colleagues, who shunned him and left him "in a corner of the room by himself with no one talking to him or acknowledging him," a source told the Wall Street Journal.

Senate colleague Sherrod Brown has called on Hawley to resign for his opposition to certifying the results.

Hawley "betrayed" his oath of office and "abetted a violent insurrection on our democracy," Brown wrote on Twitter.

Tennessee State Rep. Terri Lee Weaver posted on Twitter a photo of the riot outside the Capitol building.

"Epic and historic day gathering with fellow Patriots from all over the nation DC," Weaver tweeted on Wednesday.

It's unclear whether Weaver entered the Capitol building along with the other rioters. But she told the Tennessean that she was "in the thick of it" and hadn't seen any violence.

A petition for her resignation is circulating on MoveOn.org.

Rick Saccone, a former Pennsylvania congressional candidate, was a participant in the riot.

"We are storming the capitol," Saccone posted online to Facebook. "Our vanguard has broken thru the barricades. We will save this nation. Are u with me?"

The posts were deleted but are still available online.

Saccone also posted a video in which he said he and the other rioters would "run out all the evil people in there, and all the RINOs that have betrayed our president."

In the days after the riot, Saccone announced his resignation from his adjunct teaching role at Saint Vincent College.

"I decided to resign for the betterment of the school," Saccone told local outlets. "I've been there 21 years. I didn't want all this terrible media kerfuffle to tarnish the school. I decided it would be better if I just resigned."

Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano was photographed with Saccone at the riot.

Mastriano is widely seen as a potential candidate for the state's 2022 gubernatorial race, according to WESA, an NPR affiliate.

State Senate Democrats are urging Mastriano to resign, according to KDKA, a CBS News affiliate.

Illinois state Rep. Chris Miller was present at the rally that preceded the riot.

"We're engaged in a great cultural war to see which world view will survive, whether we will remain a free people, a free market capitalism, or whether they will put us into the tyranny of socialism and communism and the dangerous Democrat terrorists that are trying to destroy our country," Miller said in a video of him in the crowd at the rally against the 2020 election results.

Arizona state Rep. Anthony Kern was in Washington, DC, for the Trump rally just ahead of the riot on Wednesday.

"In DC supporting @realDonaldTrump and @CNN @FoxNews @MSNBC are spewing lies again," he wrote on Twitter.

Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones warmed up the rally crowd ahead of the riot,according to local news reports.

"To the peaceful Patriots who came to our nation's Capitol today, we can not drown out our message with violence," he wrote on Twitter, adding a photo of himself before a crowd.

"We are Americans who believe in the rule law [sic] and follow the principles of our constitution."

Jones was a lifelong Democrat until Wednesday when he said he was joining the Republican Party.

"They don't know they have awakened a sleeping giant," he told the crowd.

[Trump called McConnell a 'disloyal sleaze bag' after the Jan. 6 committee aired a clip showing the senator blaming him for the Capitol riot

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection

p1 of many no lnx

Sean Hannity’s main lie against the January 6 committee shatters amid new testimony

07/27/22 10:06 AM EDT

Watch the January 6 committee read as evidence the hypocritical and revealing texts from Fox News hosts to Trump officials

07/21/22 9:55 PM EDT

U.S. Capitol building with Fox logo

They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them

07/22/22 11:12 AM EDT

The Latest

On YouTube, Trump coup memo author John Eastman and Dinesh D'Souza spread lies about the 2020 election

08/03/22 5:15 PM EDT

black and white image of Sean Hannity; clip art microphone; audio wave graphic

Sean Hannity: “It looks like last night's Arizona primary delivered a little poetic justice to the January 6 committee witness”

08/03/22 4:35 PM EDT

Steve Bannon touts efforts of election denier Cleta Mitchell to train poll workers: “We need the army of the awakened to get this information”

08/02/22 1:07 PM EDT

screen grab

Steve Bannon promotes Republican Big Lie candidates ahead of contested Arizona primaries

08/01/22 4:54 PM EDT

Trump covered in newspaper text

Top national newspapers quickly drop front-page story of DOJ probe into Trump's January 6 role

08/01/22 4:32 PM EDT

Mark Levin 7/31/22

Mark Levin passionately defends Trump's fake electors scheme: “You might think it's weird, you might think it's unethical, but it's not a crime”

08/01/22 1:33 PM EDT

screen grab

Fox News legal analyst shows complete double standard on Trump and political violence

07/28/22 5:07 PM EDT

Chris Hayes documents Sean Hannity and Fox News repeatedly pushing lie about Trump and January 6

07/28/22 1:04 PM EDT

Laura Ingraham Merrick Garland July 2022

Fox News runs defense for Trump following revelation of Justice Department investigation

07/28/22 9:17 AM EDT

still of Carlson; chyron: WAPO: DOJ is investigating Trump over Jan 6

Tucker Carlson claims Justice Department investigation of Trump for January 6 is a violation of the First Amendment

07/27/22 8:28 PM EDT

A mix of right-wing messaging about the January 6 committee, calling it a "sham committee," a "theatrically produced sham hearing," and "boring remarks" with a sketch of the Capitol building in the blue-green background

Right-wing media have been dismissing, downplaying, and attacking the January 6 hearings

07/27/22

p2 no lnx

Sean Hannity’s main lie against the January 6 committee shatters amid new testimony

07/27/22 10:06 AM EDT

Watch the January 6 committee read as evidence the hypocritical and revealing texts from Fox News hosts to Trump officials

07/21/22 9:55 PM EDT

U.S. Capitol building with Fox logo

They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them

07/22/22 11:12 AM EDT

The Latest

chyron reads, "WASH POST: DOJ FORMALLY INVESTIGATING TRUMP"

Laura Ingraham calls Justice Department investigation of Trump’s role on January 6 a “political vendetta”

07/26/22 10:55 PM EDT

still of Katie Pavlich; chyron: Rpt: DOJ investigating Trump

Fox’s Katie Pavlich says an indictment of Trump for January 6 riot “would look corrupt”

07/26/22 8:23 PM EDT

Alyssa Farah The View

The View's hiring of serial liar and Trump propagandist Alyssa Farah Griffin is a huge mistake

07/26/22 5:48 PM EDT

still of Gutfeld; chyron: "Quit, Joe, quit!" Liberal media ramps up calls for Biden to bow out

Fox's Greg Gutfeld makes ridiculous claim that the January 6 hearings are “exonerating Trump”

07/25/22 5:37 PM EDT

Tucker Carlson with Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch

No, the Murdochs haven’t turned on Trump

07/25/22 11:26 AM EDT

OAN defends January 6 insurrectionist who entered Nancy Peloosi's office

As January 6 hearing kicked off, OAN counterprogrammed with a fawning interview of insurrectionist who posed at Speaker Pelosi's desk

07/22/22 1:17 PM EDT

GOP nominee for governor Dan Cox

The Maryland GOP is fielding a QAnon gubernatorial ticket

07/22/22 12:08 PM EDT

Here's who advertised on Fox last night while the network ignored and mocked the bombshell January 6 hearing

07/22/22 11:54 AM EDT

Covering Jan. 6 hearing, Fox News covers up Trump's remark that he didn't want to say the election was over

07/22/22 11:19 AM EDT

U.S. Capitol building with Fox logo

They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them

07/22/22 11:12 AM EDT

Watch the January 6 committee read as evidence the hypocritical and revealing texts from Fox News hosts to Trump officials

07/21/22 9:55 PM EDT

black and white image of Mark Levin; clip art microphone; audio wave graphic

Fox News host Mark Levin says Andrew Weissmann “would have been on the wrong side of the Nuremberg trials”

---

tarrio tag: https://www.emptywheel.net/tag/enrique-tarrio/

random eg of much detailed info:

https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/07/16/what-doj-was-doing-while-everyone-was-whinging-doj-wasnt-doing-anything/

ALEX JONES

April 13, 2021: Jones videographer Sam Montoya arrested on trespassing charges related to January 6.

August 19, 2021: Jones sidekick and January 5 speaker Owen Shroyer arrested for violating a non-prosecution agreement by trespassing; Shroyer did not enter the Capitol.

January 20, 2022: Judge Tim Kelly denies Shroyer’s motion to dismiss, effectively agreeing with DOJ that Shroyer (and so Alexander and Jones) weren’t invited by cops to the East steps and didn’t de-escalate the crowd.According to his pre-released testimony, Alexander had claimed they were de-escalating in his sworn testimony to the January 6 Committee.

May 5, 2022: Montoya asks for 60 day extension to discuss plea deal.

May 9, 2022: At status hearing, Shroyer attorney Norm Pattis describes talks of a plea deal.

June 14, 2022: Long-time Jones attorney Norm Pattis, who is representing Owen Shroyer, joins Joe Biggs’ defense team.

June 23, 2022: DOJ provides Shroyer unscoped contents of his phone, to provide scoped contents later.

ALI ALEXANDER

January 25, 2021: Brandon Straka arrested for trespassing and civil disorder. Straka was a key player in the Stop the Steal movement, playing a key role at the riot at the TCF vote counting center in Michigan after the election, spoke at the January 5 rally, sat next to Mike Flynn at Trump’s speech, and stopped at the Willard before heading to the riot. Straka was also on Alexander’s Stop the Steal LISTSERV.

February 17, 2021: First FBI interview with Straka.

March 25, 2021: Second interview with Straka.

December 8, 2021: In released testimony for an appearance before J6C, Alexander told a story that DOJ had already debunked in the Owen Shroyer case. For this and other appearances, Alexander was represented by Paul Kamenar, the same attorney that guided Andrew Miller through stalling the Mueller investigation for a year.

January 5, 2022: Third interview with Straka.

January 13, 2022: DOJ includes sealed cooperation memo in Straka’s sentencing memo.

April 19, 2022: After 15 months of continuations, Anthime “Baked Alaska” Gionet charged with a single trespassing charge, a charge understood to have required some cooperation in advance.

May 11, 2022: Anthime “Baked Alaska” Gionet balks at a plea hearing for a cooperative misdemeanor plea. It is understood that Gionet shared certain materials to avoid a felony indictment. Gionet was given two months (until July 22) to plead to the misdemeanor or face the prospect of felony charges relying on his cooperation.

June 24, 2022: Ali Alexander testifies before grand jury.

June 28, 2022: Alexander returns to DC....

---

seth a

https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/breaking-news-new-revelations-indicate

extensive on Ginni

Caroline Wren, the top aide of top Trump adviser (and then-secret Donald Trump Jr. fiancée) Kimberly Guilfoyle, told Dustin Stockton that Jenny Beth Martin’s group and Women for America First—the latter the insurrectionist outfit behind the January 6 event that incited the attack on the Capitol—were only able to work together because Ginni Thomas, who’d served as an “early Tea Party activist” with Women for America First leader Amy Kremer, had worked diligently to make that cooperation possible.

Without Ginni Thomas, the Times indicates, the “years[-long]…bitter legal dispute” between Kremer and Martin would have made their cooperation impossible—and thus the January 6 White House Ellipse event that launched an insurrection a non-starter.

---

https://www.justsecurity.org/77681/mark-meadows-timeline-the-chief-of-staff-and-schemes-to-overturn-2020-election/

Former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was directly involved at major intersections of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. What follows is a detailed timeline of all the publicly available information.

The timeline shows why Meadows may face significant criminal exposure for directly participating in a scheme to pressure the Justice Department to investigate baseless election fraud claims. The timeline also describes a “parallel track” reportedly created by Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, and Meadows’ repeated involvement in Donald Trump and the Trump campaign’s political efforts.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent Meadows a request to appear for a transcribed interview several weeks ago. The evidence below raises, among other questions, whether Congress should coordinate with the Justice Department so as not to tread on any potential criminal investigation, whether the House and Senate committees investigating these matters should make a criminal referral to the Justice Department in the course of their oversight work, and why there is no indication that the Justice Department has started such a criminal investigation on its own initiative. Notably, Meadows would have more difficulty resisting a subpoena to appear before a grand jury than he would a request or subpoena to appear before Congress. Also significant, Meadows may have greater legal exposure than others involved because he presumably understood well when Attorney General William Barr and others informed him that the allegations of widespread election fraud were without any foundation.

Nine highlights from the Timeline below:

:{1. :{Meadows and Giuliani created a “parallel track” to raise election fraud claims}:

2. Trump campaign staff followed up on “Meadows’ theory” that tens of thousands of “illegal aliens” voted in Arizona

3. Meadows helped introduce President Trump to DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, who was plotting to oust the acting attorney general and use the Justice Department to overturn election results in Georgia

4. Meadows expressed upset, along with Trump, in response to Attorney General Barr’s having told the Associated Press there was no election fraud that could have affected the outcome in the election

5. Meadows made a surprise visit to Georgia where he met with the Secretary of State’s lead elections investigator. Trump called her the next day on Meadow’s suggestion and in the call urged her to find fraud in Fulton County

6. Meadows arranged and participated in the call in which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes”; and during the call Meadows asked the Georgia officials to share voting data even after they told him they could not because it was protected by law

7. In several communications with the Justice Department—in violation of White House and DOJ contacts policies—Meadows pressured the Department to investigate baseless allegations of election fraud

8. Then-Acting Secretary of Defense’s chief of staff Kash Patel says he spoke to Meadows “nonstop” on Jan. 6

9. In his final days in office, Trump hoped to issue a preemptive pardon for Meadows, Giuliani and possibly himself}:

Timeline

Election night: As results are coming in, Giuliani proposes, “just say we won” in several swing states. Meadows reportedly thinks the plan is incoherent and irresponsible.

Meadows thought Giuliani’s argument was both “incoherent and irresponsible,” Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report. “We can’t do that,” Meadows said, raising his voice. “We can’t.”

On Nov. 4, 2020: The morning after the election, “Cleta Mitchell [is] dispatched by Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to help the Trump campaign in Georgia,” Jane Mayer reports.

In a radio show, Mitchell says Meadows, who she has “known for many years,” called her on the morning of Nov. 4 asking her to go to Atlanta “because he was worried about Georgia … because [Trump’s lead] kept shrinking.” “Probably if anybody else had called me, I would have said you’re two months late, but because it was Mark Meadows and I love the president, I said yes I’d go help.”

Mitchell does not explain how the chief of staff would have a role in such a political assignment. She appears to alternate between saying she was working on behalf of the president/administration and on behalf of the campaign. She states that she worked in Georgia from Nov. 4 to Jan. 8 and did so on a volunteer, unpaid basis.

Note-1: Mitchell later participates, along with Meadows, in the Jan. 2 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger (see entry for Jan. 2 below).

Note-2: For background on Mitchell: Michael S. Schmidt and Kenneth P. Vogel, “Trump Lawyer on Call Is a Conservative Firebrand Aiding His Push to Overturn Election,” New York Times; Jane Mayer, “The Big Money Behind the Big Lie,” New Yorker.

On Nov. 9, 2020: Meadows calls to inform Defense Secretary Mark Esper he is being dismissed for not being “sufficiently loyal.”

Around 1:00 PM, Esper’s chief of staff Jen Stewart receives an email that the president is firing Esper. At the same time, Meadows calls Esper to say “the president’s not happy… And we don’t think you’re sufficiently loyal. You’re going to be replaced. He’s going to announce it this afternoon” (Leonnig and Rucker book).

Four minutes later, Trump tweets: “I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately.”

On or around Nov. 12, 2020: Meadows reportedly tells President Trump that Giuliani has asked him to look into allegations that tens of thousands of “illegal aliens” may have voted in Arizona. Trump campaign staff investigate “Meadows’ theory.”

Meadows tells Trump that Giuliani’s team has asked him to look into the issue. “Professionals on the campaign staff investigated Meadows’s theory,” Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report, but it proves invalid (emphasis added). The vast majority of the cases were U.S. citizens living abroad who voted legally.

In mid-November 2020: Meadows and Giuliani create a “parallel track” in a joint effort to raise election fraud claims.

The Trump campaign sets up a team in Georgia. However, “a parallel track was underway from the Oval Office where Giuliani and Meadows, who was just returning to work after being sidelined by Covid, started bringing in their own people,” the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender reports in his book.

(Meadows returned to the White House on Nov. 16.)

In mid-November-December 2020: Meadows introduces President Trump to Jeffrey Clark who plots to oust the acting Attorney General and overturn results in Georgia. Meadows also introduces the president to Mark Martin, who has radical theories of how Pence can stop certification.

Bender reports that, according to DOJ officials, “Meadows had helped introduce Trump to DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark, who was putting together a secret plan to oust Rosen, the acting attorney general, and force Georgia to overturn its results” (emphasis added). Meadows denies any involvement.

Note: The New York Times reported that Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), a member of the Freedom Caucus that Meadows helped found, “first made Mr. Trump aware that a relatively obscure Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, the acting chief of the civil division, was sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s view that the election had been stolen, according to former administration officials who spoke with Mr. Clark and Mr. Trump.” Perry later confirms the New York Times report. Neither the report, nor Perry mention Meadows.

Following their introduction, Trump communicates and meets with Clark without alerting Justice Department officials in apparent violation of the White House and Department of Justice contacts policies. The New York Times reports:

Department officials were startled to learn that the president had called Mr. Clark directly on multiple occasions and that the two had met in person without alerting Mr. Rosen, those officials said. Justice Department policy stipulates that the president initially communicates with the attorney general or the deputy attorney general on all matters, and then a lower-level official if authorized.

Meadows also reportedly connects President Trump with former North Carolina Supreme Court justice Mark Martin, who told him that Vice President Pence could stop the certification of Electoral College results.

According to Leonnig and Rucker’s book, senior administration officials blamed Meadows for neglecting his gatekeeper role. One senior official said Meadows facilitated the president’s being “exposed to crazy people spouting lunatic theories about the election and his ability to overturn it. That is all Meadows.” Meadows “reinforced [Trump’s] instincts,” they said. Politico also reports, “many blamed [Meadows] for feeding Trump’s belief that he won the election.”

Around Thanksgiving: Meadows acknowledges to the White House communications director that he knows Trump lost the election.

Alyssa Farah reportedly tells Meadows she wants to step down as communications director. “We need to give a graceful exit and acknowledge that Biden won,” she tells Meadows. “I know, I know,” Meadows says. “We’re going to get the president there.” Earlier in the month, Meadows had multiple conversations with Sen. Mitch McConnell in which Meadows assured that “they would pursue all potential avenues but recognized that they might come up short” and that “Trump would eventually bow to reality and accept defeat,” the New York Times reported.

Despite what he told McConnell and Farah. “Meadows couldn’t get the president to acknowledge the reality that he had lost. There wasn’t any indication that he had even tried,” Leonnig and Rucker report.

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020: In White House meetings, Meadows and President Trump express displeasure with Barr for telling news media the Justice Department had found no election fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election.

In the early afternoon, the Associated Press publishes an interview with Barr, in which the Attorney General said, “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

Barr attends a previously scheduled meeting with Meadows at 3:00 PM. Pat Cipollone joins the meeting. “Surprisingly to Barr, Meadows hated” the news story, but the chief of staff also seemed to acknowledge the election outcome, Leonnig and Rucker report.

President Trump hears Barr is in the White House and asks to see him. According to Leonnig and Rucker, President Trump yells at Barr about the AP report while Meadows is present. Present in the meeting as well are Will Levi, Barr’s chief of staff; Eric Herschmann, senior White House adviser (who earlier served as a personal attorney on Trump’s first impeachment team); and Pat Cipollone, White House Counsel. Bender described President Trump’s reaction in the meeting as a “volcanic eruption.”

Barr responds in the meeting by stating that Trump’s allegations of election fraud are completely false. Barr calls the allegations, “bullshit,” and that Trump’s legal team is a “clown show” (reporting by Leonnig and Rucker; Bender, Jonathan Karl. “No self-respecting lawyer is going anywhere near it. It’s just a joke. That’s why you are where you are,” Barr says in the meeting.}:

Leonnig and Rucker also report the following part of the exchange:

“Bill, did you say this?” Trump said, his voice sharp and quick. “Yeah,” Barr said. “I said it.”

“How could you say that?” Trump asked.

Barr replied that his statement was true, and that he was merely answering the reporter’s question.

“Why didn’t you just not answer the question?” Trump said.

Then the president, his voice getting higher, switched oddly to speak of himself in the third person.

“There’s no reason for you to have said this!” he said. “You must hate Trump!”

“We’ve looked into these things, and they’re nonsense,” Barr says in the meeting.

On the specifics, “It’s complete nonsense,” Barr says about an allegation that Pennsylvania ballots had been backdated, and that there was no evidence of ballot stuffing in Georgia. Barr also explains in detail why Trump’s allegations of fraud in Wayne County, Michigan were false. “There’s no evidence of substantial fraud that would change the election,” Barr reiterates.

“Meadows sat silently on the opposite side of the dining room, with his arms crossed, a posture that seemed to say, This is DOJ’s problem,” Leonnig and Rucker report (see also Karl). Cipollone, in contrast, “at one point interjected to tell the president that Barr’s department had been dutifully investigating the fraud claims.”

After Barr leaves the room, the president tells Meadows he had every reason to and should fire Barr (Leonnig and Rucker).

As indicated, the meeting is reported in three different books. “The details of this meeting were described to me by several people present,” Karl writes.

Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020: Meadows asks Attorney General Barr to stay until the end of the term.

Meadows calls Barr early in the morning to ask him to stay until the end of the term. According to Bender, “Barr agreed, and immediately regretted it.” Barr resigned on Dec. 14 and was replaced by Jeffrey Rosen.

Karl reports the following exchange:

“I think there’s a way through this,” Meadows told him. He could prevent Trump from firing him, but he wanted an assurance from Barr that he wouldn’t resign. “Are you willing to stay?” Meadows asked.

“I’m not going to sandbag you,” Barr said. “I will give you a warning if I’m going to leave, and No. 2, I’ll stay as long as I’m needed.”

Friday, Dec. 11, 2020: Trump decides not to fire Gina Haspel, despite Meadows’ attempts to have her removed.

As rumors circulate that Haspel is going to be fired, she attends a routine intelligence briefing and reminds Trump “of how effective the CIA had been on her watch.” After the meeting, Trump asks Pence, Cipollone, and Kellogg whether he should fire her. Pence speaks strongly in her favor: “Gina’s done a lot for this nation… She’s done a lot of heavy lifting.” Kellogg agrees, “She killed a lot of bad guys.” Trump decides she can keep her position (Leonnig and Rucker book).

Meadows reportedly “had a burr under his saddle about Haspel” and “questioned her loyalty to Trump and indicated he wanted a more politically supportive leader at the CIA,” according to Leonnig and Rucker. He tells Haspel that he has offered Kash Patel the deputy CIA director position, unaware that the president has changed his mind. Haspel threatens to resign. Meadows has to “swallow his pride and reverse the order,” according to Axios.

Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley warns Meadows about making personnel moves....

---

https://www.justsecurity.org/74138/:(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}::{incitement-timeline:(style="background-color:#ffff66ff"):}::{-year-of-trumps-actions-leading-to-the-attack-on-the-capitol/

...January 20, 2020: President Trump enthusiastically expresses support for heavily armed 2nd Amendment protesters in Richmond, Virginia.

President Trump tweets: “The Democrat Party in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia are working hard to take away your 2nd Amendment rights.”

April 17, 2020: Following armed anti-pandemic lockdown protests at several state capitals, Trump tweets: “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”

The tweets come in response to armed protests in several states, including Michigan, where protesters chanted “lock her up,” referring to Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The tweets prompt a leading legal expert on militias Mary McCord to write that Trump has “incited insurrection” against state governments.

April 30, 2020: Armed protestors storm the Michigan state capitol building. Two of the protestors are eventually charged in the attempted kidnapping of Governor Gretchen Whitmer (see entry for Oct. 7, 2020).

The New York Times reports that one of the protestors carried a sign that read, “Tyrants Get the Rope,” and another carried an American flag that had a doll made to look like Ms. Whitmer hanging from it.

May 1, 2020: Trump tweets in favor of the Michigan protestors. [AT WHAT PT CNP CABAL DOING DR PRONG AND ~STAY AT HOME EENTS?]

The president tweets: “The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.”

May 28, 2020: Trump retweets, with praise, a video of a supporter saying, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”...

no lnx twt

May 29, 2020: Trump tweets, in reference to riots in Minneapolis, saying, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

June 4, 2020: The Trump campaign sends out a fundraising email asking supporters to enlist in the “Trump Army.”

July 9, 2020: President Trump refuses to say whether he will accept the election results.

In an interview with President Trump, Fox News reporter Chris Wallace asks him whether he will accept the election results. Trump responds, “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either.”

August 17, 2020: President Trump condemns Antifa as the Proud Boys descend on Portland, Oregon.

The Proud Boys lead an “End Domestic Terrorism Rally” in Portland, Oregon, in self-proclaimed opposition to Antifa; the rally is met by counter-protestors and a heavy police presence. Trump tweets, “Major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an “ORGANIZATION OF TERROR.” Portland is being watched very closely. Hopefully the Mayor will be able to properly do his job!” SECRET POL NO ID UNMARKED VANS GRAB PPL OFF STREET// bortac?]

August 17, 2020: Trump claims the only way he will lose the election is if it is rigged.

In a speech in Wisconsin, Trump says, “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged, remember that.” It is a statement he will repeat in a speech on Aug. 24 at the Republican National Convention (“The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election”).

Note: Since May, Trump had been tweeting that mail-in-ballots would mean the election is rigged, which he also repeated in media appearances and other public statements.

August 19, 2020: President Trump acknowledges and appears to tacitly endorse QAnon for the first time.

When asked at a White House press conference what he thinks about QAnon and what he has to say to the movement’s followers, the President says:

“Well I don’t know much about the movement, but from what I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate. I have heard that it is gaining in popularity, and from what I hear these are people that… They watch the streets of Portland, when they watch what happened in New York City in just the last six or seven months . . . these are people that don’t like seeing what’s going on in places like Portland and places like Chicago and New York City and other cities and states and I’ve heard these are people that love our country and they just don’t like seeing it.”

When asked about their belief that he is fighting a secret global battle against a cult of pedophile cannibals, he says, “Well I hadn’t heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? If I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it, and we are actually, we are saving the world from a radical left philosophy that will save this country.”

August 31, 2020: After the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, President Trump declines to condemn white nationalist-led violent protests.

Trump expresses sympathy to 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with shooting and killing two people, and the president suggests he may have been acting in self defense. In response to the violence in Kenosha and Portland, Oregon, Trump also says: “Well, I understand that had large numbers of people that were supporters, but that was a peaceful protest…And paint is not — and paint as a defensive mechanism, paint is not bullets. … These people, they protested peacefully. They went in very peacefully.”

In response to Trump’s failure to denounce the violence, then-candidate Biden states: “He wouldn’t even repudiate one of his supporters who is charged with murder because of his attacks on others. He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it.”

Later reports suggest that DHS officials were directed to make sympathetic statements toward Rittenhouse. It is unclear whether these directions originated at the White House or within the DHS press office, NBC reports.

September 8, 2020: Brian Murphy, a whistleblower in the Department of Homeland Security submits a complaint that claims that the two most senior DHS officials tried to suppress threat assessments of white supremacy because it would reflect poorly on President Trump.

The complaint alleges that acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli wanted Murphy to “ specifically modify the section on White Supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe, as well as include information on the prominence of violent ‘left-wing’ groups.” The complaint also alleges that DHS leadership asked Murphy to “modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with the public comments by President Trump on the subject of ANTIFA and ‘anarchist’ groups.”

The complaint garners wide media attention.

September 23, 2020: In response to a direct question, President Trump refuses to say he will ensure a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election.

In a White House press conference, a reporter asks the president if he will “commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transferal of power after the election?” President Trump answers, “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens.” He further raises alarms about a potential transition of power: “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.”

September 29, 2020: First Presidential Debate.

When asked by debate moderator Chris Wallace, if the president will urge his supporters to “stay calm during this extended period, not to engage in any civil unrest,” President Trump answers vaguely that “bad things happen in Philadelphia. Bad things. And I am urging my people. I hope it’s going to be a fair election.” His answers heighten concern of “election day chaos.”

Later in the debate, when asked to condemn white supremacist militias like the Proud Boys, Trump tells them to “Stand back and stand by,” and that “somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

The President’s comments are widely interpreted as a boost for the Proud Boys and other white nationalist groups. In response to the statement and lack of denouncement of white supremecists, a known social media account associated with the Proud Boys makes “stand back and stand by” its new slogan. A user on the Proud Boys’ Telegram account also writes, “Standing down and standing by sir.” Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs likewise posts that he is “standing by,” and that Trump “basically said to go f— them [antifa] up.”

October 07, 2020: The Justice Department indicts ring for attempting to kidnap Michigan Governor.

The Justice Department announces indictments of 13 men charged with attempting to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan. Whitmer cites Trump statements failing to condemn white supremacists and other rhetoric is seen as a “rallying cry” for such violent groups.

Trump responds to the plot at a rally in Lansing, MI: “It was our people — my people, our people that helped her out. And then she blamed me for it. She blamed me and it was our people that helped her. I don’t get it. How did you put her there?” (The crowd chants “lock her up” at the rally in response).

Trump tweets, “I do not tolerate ANY extreme violence. Defending ALL Americans, even those who oppose and attack me, is what I will always do as your President! Governor Whitmer—open up your state, open up your schools, and open up your churches!”

October 15, 2020: President Trump claims to know nothing about QAnon, and refuses to denounce it.

When asked at a televised town hall whether he disavows QAnon, Trump responds, “I know nothing about QAnon … What I do hear about it, they are very strongly against pedophilia, and I agree with that.” When pressed on whether he believes a satanic pedophile ring exists, he retorts, “No, I don’t know that and neither do you know that.”

November 1, 2020: President Trump praises supporters who, with their cars, swarm a Biden campaign bus traveling between San Antonio and Texas.

A Biden campaign spokesperson says the vehicles “attempted to slow the bus down and run it off the road,” and that following the incident an event at the Texas AFL-CIO was canceled out of an “abundance of caution.”

“Did you see the way our people were protecting his bus?” Trump boasts at a frigid rally in Washington, Mich., hours after tweeting a video of the caravan with the message: “I LOVE TEXAS.” “They had hundreds of cars. Trump. Trump. Trump, and the American flag.”

“These patriots did nothing wrong,” he tweets in response to news the FBI is investigating the caravan.

November 13, 2020: In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, President Trump’s allies spearhead a media campaign and a call to action of the President’s supporters.

“This is as serious a constitutional crisis as our nation has ever faced. We will only be the beacon of hope for the world if we are willing to stand with courage and integrity & defend our republic,” General Mike Flynn, former National Security Advisor, tweets. Sidney Powell echos the statements, saying in an interview that “This is essentially a new American revolution. And anyone who wants this country to remain free needs to step up right now.”

December 1, 2020: While the President’s supporters continue to ratchet up calls of martial law and use of force, Republicans beg the President to tamp down his rhetoric, concerned that it will lead to violence.

Lin Wood proclaims on Parler: “Our country is headed to Civil War…President Trump must follow the precedent of Abraham Lincoln and declare martial law.”

Meanwhile, as media attention focuses on battleground states, Gabriel Sterling, a Republican election official in Georgia, implores Trump in a passionate viral speech:

“Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.”

December 2, 2020: Violent rhetoric by President Trump’s allies continues as the Georgia Senate runoff race nears.

“We’re going to slay Goliath, the communists, the liberals, the phonies. Joe Biden will never set foot in the Oval Office of this country. It will not happen on our watch. Never gonna happen,” Lin Wood claims at the Stop the Steal Rally in Alpharetta, Georgia.

December 6, 2020: Armed protestors arrive at the home of Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, threatening violence after the results of the election.

December 8, 2020: The official Twitter account of the Arizona GOP asks supporters whether they are willing to die for President Trump.

In response to a Stop the Steal tweet saying “I am willing to give my life for this fight,” the Arizona GOP tweets, “He is. Are you?” The GOP account also tweets a clip of the 2008 movie “Rambo,” as the character proclaims, “This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something.” After public criticism, both tweets are deleted.

December 9, 2020:“I believe there will be violence in our streets soon.” Lin Wood predicts during an interview on the pro-Trump TV station, New Tang Dynasty Television.

December 12, 2020: On the day of “Stop the Steal” rallies, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio posts photos of himself taken at the White House, although the White House later denies he was invited.

Tarrio posts photos on Parler of himself on the White House portico, claiming that he had received a “last minute invite to an undisclosed location” while attending a protest in Washington D.C. The White House refutes the invitation and states that Tarrio did not meet with Trump, but does not explain how he passed screening for a public tour.

December 12, 2020: “Stop the Steal” rallies occur across the country and turn violent; President Trump expresses his support for his supporters’ participation in the rallies.

Trump tweets his encouragement: “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA”

While Trump supporters also gather in Olympia, Washington, St. Paul, Minnesota, Trump allies Mike Flynn and Sebastian Gorka speak at the Washington D.C. rally. Flynn compares the protestors and Trump supporters to the story of Jericho, a Biblical story where the people peacefully conquer a city after marching around it.

December 14, 2020: As the Electoral College plans to meet in statehouses across the country to certify the 2020 election, credible threats of violence force building shutdowns in Michigan.

Arizona’s state capitol building receives increased security in advance of the vote as well.

December 17, 2020: Michael Flynn publicly floats the idea that President Trump could use the United States military in response to what the President falsely claims to be a rigged election.

“If he wanted to, [President Trump] could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states.” “Martial law has been instituted 64 times. I’m not calling for that,” Flynn backtracks. “We have a constitutional process. … That has to be followed. But I will tell you I’m a little concerned about Chief Justice John Roberts at the Supreme Court. We can’t fool around with the fabric of the Constitution of the United States.”

Flynn’s interview sparks concerns that President Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act. North Carolina state senator Bob Steinburg (R) calls on Facebook (in a now deleted post) for President Trump to “declare a national emergency” and “invoke the Insurrection Act” in response to false claims that the election had been stolen from President Trump.

December 18, 2020: Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell meet with Trump and top administration officials in a heated meeting at the White House. Trump reportedly asks Flynn to inform him about the martial law idea; other advisors talk Trump out of this notion.

December 19, 2020: Trump begins to rally support around a large gathering of his supporters in Washington D.C. on January 6th, immediately following the Senate elections in Georgia and coinciding with Congress’ certification of President-elect Biden’s victory.

Trump tweets: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election” and “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

December 20: General Flynn retweets a call for President Trump to “cross the Rubicon” made by Kelli Ward, Chair of the Arizona Republican Party.

Ward tweets, “Mr. President @realDonaldTrump – we are with you in #Arizona. We are working every avenue to stop this coup & to stop our Republic from crumbing. Patriots are united. Those who are against us are exposing themselves. #Liberty & #freedom are on the line. #CrossTheRubicon @GenFlynn.”

Originated by Ron Watkins, who once ran the far-right message board 8kun, where “Q” posts cryptic messages to QAnon followers, the hashtag #CrossTheRubicon soon proliferates across pro-Trump social media. It refers to Julius Caesar’s fateful decision to lead his army across the Rubicon River from Gaul into Italy, a clear violation of Roman law and a de facto declaration of war on the Republic. The phrase has more generally come to refer to passing a point of no return.

December 21, 2020: Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) tells attendees at a Turning Point USA rally to “call your congressman and feel free — you can lightly threaten them.”

December 27, 2020: Trump tweets, “See you in Washington, DC, on January 6th. Don’t miss it. Information to follow.”

December 28, 2020: Former Trump White House official Olivia Troye says she is “very concerned that there will be violence on January 6th because the president himself encourages it.”

Troye elaborates, “This is what [President Trump] does. He tweets. He incites it. He gets his followers and supporters to behave in this manner, and these people think that they’re being patriotic because they are supporting Donald Trump.”

December 29, 2021: The Proud Boys announce they will attend the January 6 event, saying they will do so “incognito.” The statement is widely reported including in conservative news outlets (e.g., Fox News; Washington Times).

Special note: The Timeline includes acts of commission, and it is difficult to include acts of omission. However, it is important to note that President Trump does not issue any statement that the Proud Boys are not welcome.

January 1, 2021: Momentum builds for the January 6th rally, with increased calls for violence by Trump supporters.

Trump himself tweets, “The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C. will take place at 11:00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!”

He also retweets Kylie Jane Kremer, chair of Women for America First, an organizer of the rally. “The calvary[sic] is coming, Mr. President! JANUARY 6th,” Kremer had tweeted on Dec. 19. The President responds, “A great honor!” in his retweet on New Years Day.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) says on Newsmax that as a consequence of the dismissal of his lawsuit enjoining Mike Pence to overturn the election results, “you got to go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM.” The following day, Gohmert tweets a statement saying that he does not advocate violence.

January 3, 2021: Support continues to grow for the January 6th event, as President Trump and ally Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) encourage supporters to show up.

At a rally ahead of the Georgia Senate special election, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) says, “We will not go quietly into the night. We will defend liberty. And we are going to win.”

Meanwhile, Trump retweets @CodeMonkeyZ (now suspended by Twitter): “If you are planning to attend peaceful protests in DC on the 6th, i recommend wearing a body camera. The more video angles of that day the better.”

January 4, 2021: On the eve of the two-days of events in DC, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is arrested in Washington D.C., as President Trump and Donald Trump Jr. call for supporters to “fight like hell.”

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is arrested in Washington D.C. for burning a Black Lives Matter banner that he had taken from a Black church during December’s Stop the Steal rallies. He is found to be in possession of two high capacity firearm magazines, and he is charged for their possession.

At a pre-election rally in Georgia, Donald Trump, Jr., introducing his father, tells the crowd, “We need to fight.” President Trump then takes the stage, telling supporters, “They’re not taking this White House. We’re going to fight like hell.”

January 5, 2021: General Flynn directs veiled threats to Congress while speaking at a rally. “Those of you who are feeling weak tonight, those of you who don’t have the moral fiber in your body — get some tonight because tomorrow we the people are going to be here.”

January 6, 2021: In the morning, President Trump and his allies encourage his followers to show up for the protests over Twitter.

President Trump tweets, “The States want to redo their votes. They found out they voted on a FRAUD. Legislatures never approved. Let them do it. BE STRONG!”

“Today is 1776” tweets newly elected Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who had earlier in the week made a video purporting to carry her firearm into the Capitol.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tweets, “FIGHT. FOR. TRUMP.”

January 6, 2021: President Trump, members of his family and supporters speak at the rally on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

Donald Trump Jr. warms up the crowd, saying of Republican lawmakers, “If you’re gonna be the zero and not the hero, we’re coming for you.”

Rudy Giuliani is next. “If we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. So let’s have trial by combat … I’ll be darned if they’re going to take our free and fair vote…We’re going to fight to the very end to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Finally, President Trump makes a series of incendiary statements during his speech:

“I would love to have if those tens of thousands of people would be allowed the military, the Secret Service and we want to thank you and the police and law enforcement great you’re doing a great job, but I would love it if they could be allowed to come up with us.”

He directs them to the Capitol: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol– and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.”

“You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

“Something is wrong here, something is really wrong, can’t have happened and we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

“So we are going to–we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we are going to the Capitol, and we are going to try and give–the Democrats are hopeless, they are never voting for anything, not even one vote but we are going to try–give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re try–going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”

January 6, 2021: Senator Josh Hawley raises a fist.

As he enters the Capitol, the Missouri Republican makes a clear gesture of support for the pro-Trump crowd.

Other Republican lawmakers show support for the growing protests. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) states at the rally, “Today is a time of choosing and tomorrow is a time of fighting. Today is also a day of revelation and separation…Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.”

January 6, 2021: The attack on the U.S. Capitol begins.

At 1:49PM, Trump tweets a link to a video of his remarks at the Ellipse.

At 2:24PM, Trump tweets: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”

Trump is reportedly “initially pleased” by events as he watches them unfold, and “disregard[s] aides pleading with him to intercede.”

According to a close adviser of the president, “rather than appearing appalled, Trump was voraciously consuming the events on television, enjoying the spectacle and encouraged to see his supporters fighting for him.”

According to Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, White House aides say that President Trump is “delighted,” while “walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team [are]n’t as excited.”

President Trump initially rebuffs and refuses requests to mobilize the D.C. National Guard. Eventually, the Guard is mobilized after an order from Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller. Vice President Mike Pence approves the order and the Guard is deployed.

Republican House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy demands that Trump make a statement denouncing the rioters. He refuses, leading to a “screaming match” between the two men.

Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter and advisor, tweets (and later deletes) a call for the violence to end, but addresses the tweet to “American Patriots,” earning swift backlash.

At 2:38 PM, President Trump tweets, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

A person familiar with discussions about what the president should tweet told the Washington Post that Trump had resisted adding the final sentence, “Stay peaceful.”

At 4:17 PM, President Trump releases a recorded statement on Twitter, reiterating his claims of a rigged election but telling the rioters that “You have to go home now, we have to have peace … We love you, you’re very special.”

At 6:01 PM, Trump tweets, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

January 6, 2021: Pro-Trump supporters gather across the country as events in the Capitol unfold, with some state buildings evecuating as violence errupts.

Armed supporters of the President rally in Washington state, breaching a fence of the governor’s residence, though are unsuccessful in advancing further. State buildings are closed in Denver, Colorado, Austin, Texas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico as rallies occur outside.

In Oregon, protestors burn an effigy of Governor Kate Brown, while in Arizona, a guillotine with a Trump flag is set up outside the statehouse. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) Facetimes the crowds in Arizona, shortly after objecting to the certification of President-elect Biden’s victory in the state, telling protestors “I’m so proud of you for being out there, gotta love you for keeping the fight.”

January 6, 2021: The FBI counters claims that Antifa was involved.

Some conservative politicians and pundits immediately lob baseless claims that the riot was a false flag attack by Antifa. On a call with the press, an FBI spokesperson says, “We have no indication” of Antifa involvement. The arrests of 120 individuals over the next few days shows that longtime Trump supporters and right-wing militants comprised the attackers, an Associated Press report shows.

January 6, 2021: Death toll

Five people die in the assault on the Capitol, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. Another fifteen officers are hospitalized, with 56 in total initially reported injured. [Update: As of Feb. 24, 2021, Capitol police officials state, “Around 140 officers were injured during the insurrection including officers with crushed spinal discs, broken kneecaps, and traumatic brain injuries” and that “some of these officers may never return to duty. Many more are experiencing signs of PTSD.”]

For days, the White House is criticized for not flying the mast at half mast for the death of officer Sicknick. On January 10, officer Howard Liebengood, who had helped defend the Capitol, commits suicide. That day, President Trump finally orders the White House flag lowered to half mast.

---

okafor cited 94% in oversight:

https://www.thetrace.org**/2021/01**/john-lott-trump-appointee-leave-justice-department-gun-data/

j m

Lott, a controversial pro-gun researcher who was hired last fall as a senior advisor for research and statistics at the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs, left the position this week.

Lott’s departure was revealed in a January 16 email sent by the Crime Prevention Research Center, a nonprofit he founded that publishes research papers and articles with a pro-gun bent. The email, from Nikki Goeser, CPRC’s executive director, claims that Lott’s hiring “generated more opposition than almost any other Trump appointment,” and that “gun control activists also launched a fierce email and telephone campaign demanding Lott’s firing.” Lott will return to the CPRC as its president.

As The Trace reported in December, gun violence researchers were alarmed by Lott’s appointment to the DOJ, and the possibility that he could influence the release of firearms data. A trained economist, Lott rose to prominence after the 1998 publication of his book More Guns, Less Crime, which argued that the proliferation of civilian-owned firearms deters violence.Respected academics have repeatedly discredited Lott’s work.

Lott’s work during his short stint at the DOJ still remains something of a mystery. But documents provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by The Trace provide a glimpse. In October, Lott was slated to attend a meeting about the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) — a system he’s derided in the past. In 2018 he pushed the false narrative that NICS improperly blocked gun sales to “millions of law-abiding citizens” simply because they have names and birthdates that are the same as or similar to someone disqualified from possessing firearms.

Lott also had a meeting in late October about JustGrants, the DOJ’s grant payment management system, the documents show. The Office of Justice Programs, where Lott was an advisor, conducts research into violent crime and provides billions in grants to local, state, and federal authorities to implement crime-prevention strategies, and also funds research on firearm violence and prevention.

The documents also provide more clarity on the nature of Lott’s appointment at the DOJ. He was a Schedule C employee, a designation for political appointees. According to the Office of Personnel Management (OJP), which signs off on Schedule C employees, “incumbents of most of these positions customarily resign at the request of the new incoming administration or before a new agency head takes office.” His annual salary was listed as $116,353.

In the CPRC email, Goeser wrote that Lott’s “political appointee position ends with the end of the Trump administration.” Tannyr Watkins, a spokesperson at the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division of OJP, did not reply to a query about the exact date and circumstances of Lott’s departure.

The possibility that Lott may have been in a position to disrupt research that informs grantmaking had alarmed gun violence researchers, who feared he could manipulate or withhold federal data in order to support his agenda. “I’ve seen him in different venues literally start making stuff up,” Daniel Webster, the director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University, told me last month.

Lott has argued that mass shooters seek out gun-free zones, despite evidence to the contrary.And research has consistently demonstrated that states with less restrictive concealed carry laws actually have higher rates of violent crime than states with no such laws. Even conservative researchers have detailed issues with Lott’s work, and questioned why some media organizations continue to repeat his findings.

Lott’s hiring also concerned lawmakers. In a letter to then-Attorney General William Barr in December, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said his hiring “raises concerns about the continued integrity of the nonpartisan career civil service.”

During his time at DOJ, Lott also aided in former President Trump’s effort to overturn the electionwith unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, producing a report in December that said 289,000 “excess votes” had been found across six decisive swing states due to “dead people voting, ineligible people voting, or even payments to legally registered people for their votes.” Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro used the findings to call for postponing the U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia.

---

claremont inst WAR GAMES

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/john-eastman-2020/

The Trump advisor who wrote the infamous pseudo-legal justification for overturning the 2020 election also helped to create a blueprint for what Donald Trump could do to hang onto power by force.

John Eastman joined a couple dozen right-wing operatives in simulating the aftermath of a closely contested election. The report was published in mid-October 2020 and co-sponsored by the Claremont Institute, the think tank where Eastman works.

The authors of the report are clear their simulation had a very serious purpose: to prepare real public officials for real violence in the event of a disputed election. The authors say they fully expected the necessary preparations to crush dissent would be perceived as the run-up to a military coup. But in their view, that couldn't be helped. It was important to come up with legal justifications for overwhelming political violence before the election, they said.

The report is a blueprint for how Donald Trump could fuse federal power, local police and criminal gangs like the Proud Boys to hang onto power. It seems to foreshadow Eastman's plan for a procedural coup on January 6, except projected onto Biden supporters.

The Claremont simulation started from the assumption that left wing violence was a "near-certainty" and that Trump's Defense Department, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security must be prepared to crush Biden supporters in the event of a contested election.

The simulation starts from the following half-baked premise: All the networks call the contest for Biden on Election Night, because he appears to have won Texas, bringing his electoral vote total to 270.

Somehow, all the networks fail to notice that Russia had taken the entire electoral apparatus of Texas offline before all the votes came in. (This wouldn't get past Steve Kornacki, let me tell you.) Texas goes back in the "too close to call" column. Biden is still two electoral votes ahead, but the nation explodes with rioting and arson by "antifa" and Black Lives Matter. Fourteen police officers are shot on election night.

Thus begins Choose Your Own Adventure: Death Squads. There's an elaborate procedural and legal backstory about how an uncertain Election Night metastasizes into a constitutional crisis to be worked out probably by the Supreme Court, but I won't bore you with it because it's obviously a figleaf. This is a manual for state violence.

With the nation in flames, the players have Trump's Department of Defense deploy military personnel carriers to multiple states, which local mayors rudely call "tanks." These pesky mayors aren't cooperating with the Trump administration's desire to clamp down on dissent.

So, their police departments go completely rogue and join forces with the Trump administration. The NYPD seems to have overthrown Bill De Blasio. The Chicago Police Union refuses to protect Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Federal law enforcement with no identifying insignias encircle the White House to defend it with heat rays.The Proud Boys, Three Percenters and Oath Keepers form posses to "assist."

Tellingly, Eastman and his fellow players assume that pro-Biden forces will try to gather at the Capitol on January 6. So they thwart their political adversaries by tracking their phones, setting up police checkpoints and using Trump's Homeland Security fusion centers to identify and detain their leaders. The players protect the Capitol with an army of federal agents, snipers and of course more heat rays. Trump's FBI hunts down more antifa leaders in the DC suburbs.

War games often reveal more about the players than they do about the future, and this exercise is no exception. The report shows that John Eastman and his confederates expected a disputed election would set off a wave of civil unrest that would culminate in the US Capitol on January 6, supported by insurrections at key state houses that same day. The report projected this strategy onto Biden supporters, but that's exactly what Trump confederates did on January 6.

A showdown on January 6 might feel inevitable in retrospect, given the horrific events of that day. But it wasn't an obvious choice. January 6 was the date of the certification of the presidential election, which has historically been a pro-forma affair. Results have already been decided.

The states have certified their election results, the Electoral College already has voted and all that's left to be done is the little ceremony during which the Congress counts the electoral votes. It doesn't make sense to have your last stand to win a contested election after the results are already set in stone, unless you think you can change them.

John Eastman did in fact come up with a crackpot legal excuse for how Mike Pence could throw the election to Trump. His argument was to the law as creationism is to biology, but it was good enough for Trump. We know Trump pressured Pence to act on Eastman's advice. Eastman shared a dais with Trump as well as Rudy Giuliani at the rally immediately before the siege. The crowd was chanting "Hang Mike Pence," because Pence had refused to comply with Eastman's scheme.

Eastman later claimed he wasn't serious about the memo, but the results of this simulation suggests he and fellow right-wingers had sized up the certification of the presidential election as their moment to stage a procedural coup with physical reinforcements waiting.

---

https://documented.net/reporting/republican-attorneys-general-dark-money-group-organized-protest-preceding-capitol-mob-attack

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021.

As a 501(c)(4), RLDF is not required to reveal its donors. RLDF has received at least $175,000 from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners. Other RLDF donors include Judicial Crisis Network, the Rule of Law Project, and the Edison Electric Institute.

RAGA is a 527 political organization that helps elect Republican attorneys general and can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. As previously reported by Documented, RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020, including Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k).

RLDF appeared in a list of groups “Participating in the March to Save America” on the March to Save America website alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others. (MarchtoSaveAmerica.com has been taken down but an archived version of the website can be accessed through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.)

RLDF also sent out a robocall detailing where and when the protest would take place.

[aud]

documented · Rule Of Law Defense Fund Robocall

“I'm calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message,” the robocall stated. “The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President's Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”

RLDF’s role in organizing the protests, which turned into a violent mob attack inside the Capitol, is ironic given its 2020 election campaign warning of “lawless liberal mobs'' burning down buildings and. The campaign, dubbed “Lawless Liberals”, came in the aftermath of the largely peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by police and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

“The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)’s five-month Lawless Liberals video campaign repeatedly warned Americans about the dangerous reality of lawless liberals run amok in cities across the country,” RAGA said in a statement.

[twt]

republican attorneys general have been heavily involved in efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after Joe Biden was declared the winner, Republican attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to reject some mailed ballots in the state of Pennsylvania. Republican attorney general Ken Paxton--who has been embroiled in bribery, abuse of office and other criminal allegations--filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding four battleground states and alleging unconstitutional changes to their voting laws before the 2020 election. Prior to the protests, Paxton appeared on Fox News and said he hoped to be at both rallies.

RAGA and Republican attorneys general issued statements denouncing the violence. “The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and the Republican attorneys general (AGs) stand together to condemn the violence, destruction, and rampant lawlessness occurring at the U.S. Capitol today. These actions are an affront to the rule of law, our Constitution, and our American political discourse.”

After Documented published the robocall, RAGA issued a statement to reporters: "Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization of Wednesday’s event."

The Democratic Attorneys General Association revealed in a tweet RAGA originally appeared on the March to Save America website under "Coalition Partners". The website later took out RAGA and put in the Rule of Law Defense Fund under "Participating in the March to Save America".

---

FOIA TO DOJ OSG SEEKING ‘BURROWED’ OFFICIAL’S COMMUNICATIONS WITH RIGHT-WING GROUPS

02/02/2022

https://www.americanoversight.org/document/foia-to-doj-civil-division-seeking-burrowed-officials-communications-with-right-wing-groups

https://www.americanoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DOJ-CIV-22-0121.pdf

Requested Records

American Oversight requests that your office produce the following records within

twenty business days:

All email communications (including emails, email attachments, complete email

chains, calendar invitations, and calendar invitation attachments) and text

messages or messages on messaging platforms (such as Slack, GChat or Google

Hangouts, Lync, Skype, Twitter direct messages, Facebook messages,

WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, or Parler) between (a) Director of the Federal

Programs Branch Alex Haas both or anyone communicating on Haas’ behalf,

such as a Chief of Staff, scheduler, or assistant, and (b) any of the external parties

listed below:

External Parties

1. Any person communicating on behalf of Heritage Action, including but not

limited to Jessica Anderson, Garrett Bess, or any person communicating

from an email address ending in @heritageaction.com

2. Any person communicating on behalf of the Heritage Foundation, including

but not limited to Ed Meese, Bridgett Wagner, Hans von Spakovsky, or any

person communicating from an email address ending in @heritage.org

3. Kris Kobach (including, but not limited to, communications with the email

kkobach@gmail.com or kris@kriskobach.com)

4. Anyone communicating on behalf of the Public Interest Legal Foundation

or the Election Law Center, including but not limited to J. (John) Christian

Adams, Maureen Riordan, or any person communicating from an email

address ending in @publicinterestlegal.org or @electionlawcenter.com

5. Anyone communicating on behalf of FreedomWorks, including but not

limited to Cleta Mitchell, or any person communicating from an email

address ending in @freedomworks.org or @foley.com

Anyone communicating on behalf of True the Vote, including but not

limited to Catherine Engelbrecht, Courtney Kramer, or any person

communicating from an email address ending in @truethevote.org

Anyone communicating on behalf of Susan B. Anthony List, American

Principles Project, or the Election Transparency Initiative, including but not

limited to Ken Cuccinelli, or any person communicating from an email

address ending in @sba-list.org, @americanprinciplesproject.org, or

@electiontransparency.org

8. Anyone communicating on behalf of the Federalist Society or the Honest

Elections Project including but not limited to Leonard Leo, Jason Snead, or

any person communicating from an email address ending in

@honestelections.org, @fed-soc.org, or @jasonsnead.com

Anyone communicating on behalf of the State Policy Network, including but

not limited to Tracie Sharp, Kathleen O’Hearn,or any person

communicating from an email address ending in @spn.org

10. Anyone communicating on behalf of the American Greatness Fund or the

Thomas Moore Society, including but not limited to Jenna Ellis, or any

person communicating from an email address ending in

@americangreatnessfund.com or @thomasmoresociety.org

11. Phill Kline (phillklineva@gmail.com), Luis Cornelio

(lcornel001@citymail.cuny.edu), or anyone communicating on behalf of the

Amistad Project or the American Voter’s Alliance (@got-freedom.org)

Anyone communicating on behalf ofALEC, including but not limited to

Michael Bowman, Bill Meierling, or any person communicating from an

email address ending in @alec.org

13. James Bopp, or any person communicating from an email address ending in

@bopplaw.com

14.Will Consovoy, Michael Connally, or any person communicating from an

email address ending in @consovoymccarthy.com

15. Jason Torchinsky or any person communicating from an email address

ending in @hvjt.law

16. Stefan Passantino, Justin Clark, or any person communicating from an email

address ending in @michaelbest.com

Sidney Powell, and anyone communicating on behalf of Sidney Powell, P.C.,

including anyone communicating from an email address ending in

@federalappeals.com

18. Mike Lindell or anyone communicating from an email address ending in

@mypillow.com

19. Kurt Olsen (kurtols@protonmail.com)

William Olson (williamolson@lawandfreedom.com, wjo@mindspring.com)

21. Patrick Byrne (including, but not limited to patrick@deepcapture.com), or

anyone communicating on behalf of the America Project, including anyone

communicating from an email address ending in @americaproject.com

22. Colonel Phil Waldron (phil@onewarrior.com, JWRLLC@gmail.com, or

p@bonfiresearch.org), Russell Ramsland (ryuks9sq@alliedspecialops.us or

yrku9sqs@protonmail.com), James Keet Lewis III (keet@jkeetlewis.com), or

anyone communicating on behalf of Allied Security Operations Group

(@alliedspecialops.us)

23. John Eastman (including but not limited to, from the email address

jeastman@claremont.org or jeastman@chapman.edu), or anyone

communicating on behalf of Constitutional Counsel Group (@ccg1776.com)

Anyone communicating on behalf of theAmerica First Policy Institute,

including Brooke Rollins, Chad Wolf,or anyone communicating from an

email address ending in @americafirstpolicy.com

25. Anyone communicating on behalf of America First Legal, including Stephen

Miller, Gene Hamilton, Russ Vought, or anyone communicating from an

email address ending in @aflegal.org

:{:{}:

Please note that American Oversight does not seek, and that this request

specifically excludes, the initial mailing of news clips or other mass-distribution

emails. However, subsequent communications forwarding such emails are

responsive to this request. In other words, for example, if Director Haas

received a mass-distribution news clip email from a listed domain, that initial

email would not be responsive to this request. However, if Director Haas

forwarded that email to another individual with his own commentary, that

subsequent message would be responsive to this request and should be produced.

Please provide all responsive records from November 3, 2020, through the date

the search is conducted.

---

https://yyy.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/30/trump-2020-election-steal-presidency-coup-inside-story

guk no lnx

startling memo, a surreal Oval Office encounter – just some of the twists in the unfolding story of Trump’s bid to cling to power, which critics say was no less than an attempted coup

Ed Pilkington in New York

@edpilkington

Sat 30 Oct 2021

Last modified on Wed3 Nov 2021

On 4 January, the conservative lawyer John Eastman was summoned to the Oval Office to meet Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence. Within 48 hours, Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election would formally be certified by Congress, sealing Trump’s fate and removing him from the White House.

Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Appears At National Review Ideas Summit

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 29: Fox News host Tucker Carlson discusses 'Populism and the Right' during the National Review Institute's Ideas Summit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel March 29, 2019 in Washington, DC. Carlson talked about a large variety of topics including dropping testosterone levels, increasing rates of suicide, unemployment, drug addiction and social hierarchy at the summit, which had the theme 'The Case for the American Experiment.' (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Tucker Carlson condemned over ‘false flag’ claim about deadly Capitol attack

The atmosphere in the room was tense. The then US president was “fired up” to make what amounted to a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results and snatch a second term in office in the most powerful job on Earth.

Eastman, who had a decades-long reputation as a prominent conservative law professor, had already prepared a two-page memo in which he had outlined an incendiary scenario under which Pence, presiding over the joint session of Congress that was to be convened on 6 January, effectively overrides the votes of millions of Americans in seven states that Biden had won, then “gavels President Trump as re-elected”.

The Eastman memo, first revealed by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book Peril, goes on to predict “howls” of protest from Democrats. The theory was that Pence, acting as the “ultimate arbiter” of the process, would then send the matter to the House of Representatives which, following an arcane rule that says that where no candidate has reached the necessary majority each state will have one vote, also decides to turn the world upside down and hand the election to the losing candidate, Donald Trump.

Eastman’s by now notorious memo, and the surreal encounter in the Oval Office, are among the central twists in the unfolding story of Trump’s audacious bid to hang on to power. They form the basis of what critics argue was nothing less than an attempted electoral coup.

[Attorney John Eastman speaks to Trump supporters gathered on 6 January 2021 to challenge the election results.

John Eastman speaks at the Trump rally on 6 January. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters]

:{In an interview with the Guardian, Eastman explained that he had been asked to prepare the memo by one of Trump’s “legal shop” [CLETA?] . :{“They said can you focus first on the theory of what happens if there are not enough electoral votes certified. So I focused on that. But I said: ‘This is not my recommendation. I will have a fuller memo to you in a week outlining all of the various scenarios.’”}:

Inside the Oval Office, with the countdown on to 6 January, Trump urged Pence to listen closely to Eastman. “This guy’s a really respected constitutional lawyer,” the president said, according to the book I Alone Can Fix It.

:{:{}:

Eastman, a member of the influential rightwing Federalist Society, told the Guardian that he made clear to both men that the account he had laid out in the short memo was not his preferred option. “The advice I gave the vice-president very explicitly was that I did not think he had the authority simply to declare which electors to count” or to “simply declare Trump re-elected”.

Eastman continued: “The vice-president turned to me directly and said, ‘Do you think I have such powers?’ I said, ‘I think it’s the weaker argument.’”}:

Instead, Eastman pointed to one of the scenarios in the longer six-page memo that he had prepared – “war-gaming” alternatives. His favorite was that the vice-president could adjourn the joint session of Congress on 6 January and send the electoral college votes back to states that Trump claimed he had lost unfairly so their legislatures could have another go at rooting out the fraud and illegality the president had been railing about since election day.

“My advice to the vice-president was to allow the states formally to assess the impact of what they had determined were clear illegalities in the conduct of the election,” Eastman said. After a delay of a week or 10 days, if they found sufficient fraud to affect the result, they could then send Trump electors back to Congress in place of the previous Biden ones.

The election would then be overturned.

“Those votes are counted and TRUMP WINS,” Eastman wrote in his longer memo, adding brashly: “BOLD, certainly … but we’re no longer playing by Queensbury rules.” [IF WE DO IT OR AS HE'S WRITING? IS HE SUGGESTING BIG LIE IS TRUE, THUS OK TO CHEAT/BREAK LAW?]

Eastman insisted to the Guardian that he had only been presenting scenarios to the vice-president, not advice. He said that since news of his memos broke he had become the victim of a “false narrative put out there to make it look as though Pence had been asked to do something egregiously unconstitutional, so he was made to look like a white knight coming in to stop this authoritarian Trump”. [MARK MARTIN?]

The problem is that for many close observers of American elections, Eastman’s presentation to Pence just two days before the vice-president was set to certify Biden’s victory leaves a very different impression.

Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Centerfor Justice at New York University, a leading authority on US election issues, sees Eastman’s set of alternative scenarios as nothing less than a “fairly detailed roadmap for a constitutional coup d’état. That memo was a plan for a series of tricks to steal the presidency for Trump.”

The 2020 presidential election was the largest in US history, with a record 156 million votes cast and the highest turnout of eligible voters since 1900. By all official accounts, it was also among the most secure and well-conducted in US history.

:{:{}:

“It was something of a civil miracle,” Waldman said. “To have this massive turnout, an election that was extraordinarily well run, in the middle of a pandemic – this was one of America’s finest hours in terms of our democracy.”}:

And yet, Waldman went on, what happened next? “Trump’s big lie, his campaign to overturn the election, the insurrection.”

Alarm bells began to ring months before America went to the polls on 3 November 2020. As early as July Trump was laying into mail-in voting, which was seeing huge voter take-up as a result of Covid-19, deriding the upcoming poll as the “most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history” and calling for it to be delayed.

At the time, Biden was holding a steady opinion poll lead over Trump in battleground states.

By September, Trump was refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. He told reporters: “We’re going to have to see what happens.”

When we did see what happened – Biden winning the presidency by a relatively convincing margin – Trump refused to concede. Now, something that had only been posited as a remote and extreme possibility was unfolding before Americans’ eyes.

“The events of 2020 were unprecedented,” said Ned Foley, a law professor at the Ohio State University. “A sitting president was trying to get a second term that the voters didn’t want him to have – it was an effort to overturn a free election and deprive the American people of their verdict.”

Since the violent incidents of 6 January when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, resulting in the deaths of five people, information has begun to amass about Trump’s extensive ploy to undo American democracy. Congressional investigations by the US House and Senate have added granular detail that has astonished even seasoned election-watchers in terms of the scale and complexity of the endeavour.

For Foley, a picture has come into focus of a “systematic effort to deny the voters their democratic choice. It was a deliberate, orchestrated campaign, and there’s nothing more fundamentally undemocratic than what was attempted.”

Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine who has written a report on 2020 election subversion, said that as time has passed the scope of Trump’s ambition has become clear. “There was much more behind the scenes than we knew about. We came much closer to a political and constitutional crisis than we realized,” he said.

Trump supporters attended a rally in Washington on 6 January 2021 to overturn the election results and keep Trump in office.

The rally at the Capitol.‘Be there, will be wild!’ Trump had exhorted his followers. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

In his Guardian interview, Eastman justified his Oval Office presentation to Pence on scenarios of how to overturn an election by pointing to widespread irregularities in the 2020 voting process. He claimed there were “violations of election law by state or county election officials” and “good, unrebutted evidence of fraud”.

Asked how he would answer the charge that has been levelled at him that he had sketched out an electoral coup, he replied: “That begs the question: was there illegality and fraud? If there was, and it altered the results of the election, then that undermines democracy, as we have someone put in office who has not been elected.”

But why would such widespread fraudulent activity be directed against Trump and not, say, Biden, or before him Barack Obama? Eastman said that it was because Trump was “pushing back against the deep state in American politics”.

The “deep state” had become such an entrenched bureaucracy that it was “unaccountable to the ultimate sovereign authority of the American people”, Eastman said. “Trump’s punching back had all of the forces aligned with that entrenched bureaucracy doing everything to stop him.”

Contrary to Eastman’s claim that widespread fraud occurred during the election, all the main federal and state authorities charged with safeguarding the 2020 election, including law enforcement, have declared it historically secure. In several instances, that conclusion was reached by Trump’s own hand-picked Republican officials.

[Then President Trump shakes hands with Chris Krebs, who was put in charge of protecting the integrity of the 2020 election. Trump would later fire Krebs for rejecting Trump’s claims of election fraud.

Trump shakes hands with Chris Krebs, who was put in charge of protecting the integrity of the election. After Krebs vouched that the election was historically secure, he was fired. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

They included Chris Krebs, who had been appointed by Trump to be director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) in charge of protecting the integrity of the 2020 election. On 12 November, Cisa put out a joint statement from election security officials that found the presidential vote to be “the most secure in American history”.

Five days later Krebs was out of a job. “He fired me by Twitter,” Krebs told the Guardian. “One of Trump’s own nominees saying the election was legitimate was a credibility issue for him. What he did to me shows there were lengths to which the former president would go which were well beyond any previous norms.”

Bill Barr, then US attorney general, was another Trump appointee who challenged the false claims of mass election fraud. Two days after the election, Barr bowed to pressure from the president and allowed federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voting irregularities, a break with a longstanding justice department norm that prevented prosecutors from interfering in active election counts.

Yet later in November, Barr met Trump at the White House and told him bluntly, according to Peril, that stories of widespread illegality were “just bullshit”. Then, on 1 December, the attorney general told Associated Press that the FBI and prosecutors had found no fraud on a scale sufficient to impact the election result.

Barr stood down as the nation’s top prosecutor two weeks later.

Another prominent Republican lawyer who thoroughly rejects Trump’s “big lie” that the election was stolen from him isBen Ginsberg. For almost four decades, Ginsberg was at the center of major election legal battles as counsel to the Republican National Committee as well as to four of the last six Republican presidential nominees, through his law firm, Trump included.

Ginsberg was also a central figure in the white-hot recount in Florida in 2000 that handed the White House to George W Bush.

“What we’ve seen has been different from anything in my experience, because Donald Trump has made an assertion about our elections being fraudulent and the results rigged,” Ginsberg told the Guardian. “I know from my 38 years of conducting election-day operations that that simply is not true, there is no evidence for it. What Donald Trump is saying is destructive to the democracy at its very foundations.”

Ginsberg likened Trump to an arsonist firefighter. “He is setting a fire deliberately so that he can be the hero to put it out. The problem is that there is no real fire, there is no systemic election fraud. The destruction is unnecessary.”

Trump’s campaign to subvert the election began with a flurry of tweets after election day. The New York Times calculated that in the three weeks from 3 November he attacked the legitimacy of the election to his vast social media following more than 400 times.

In the past few weeks, as congressional investigations have deepened, it has become clear that Trump’s efforts to overturn the election result were much more extensive and multi-layered than his Twitter rages. “This wasn’t just some crazy tweets,” Waldman said. “There was a concerted effort to push at every level to find ways to cling to power, even though he had lost.”

Politico estimated that in the month after the election, the sitting president reached out to at least 31 Republicans at all levels of government, from governors to state lawmakers, members of Congress to local election officials. Such was the obsessive attention to detail, the sitting US president even called the Republican chairwoman of the board of canvassers in Wayne county, Michigan, to encourage her not to certify Biden’s victory in a heavily Democratic area.

At the centre of the operation was a ragtag bunch of lawyers assembled by Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who was acting as Trump’s personal attorney. Few of the team had experience in election law; Barr referred to them, according to Peril, as a “clown car”.

Among the comical conspiracy theories amplified by Giuliani and the Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell was “Italygate”, the idea that an Italian defense company used satellites to flip votes from Trump to Biden.

Such florid fantasies, and the accompanying absence of hard and credible data, did little to endear Trump’s legal team to the courts. By the end of December, 61 lawsuits had been lodged by Trump and his acolytes in courts ranging from local jurisdictions right up to the US supreme court. Of those, only one succeeded, on a minor technicality.

Yet the epic failure to persuade judges to play along with Trump’s efforts at subversion should not disguise the seriousness of the endeavour, nor how far it was allowed to proceed. “What I find most disturbing is how far this plot got with such thin material to work with,” Foley said.

One of the most alarming aspects of the fraud conspiracy theories peddled around Trump was that so many senior Republicans and the Republican party itself endorsed them.

On 19 November, Powell was invited to appear in front of cameras at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee. Four days earlier, the Trump campaign had circulated an internal memo that thoroughly debunked a bizarre claim championed by Powell – that Biden’s victory was the product of a communist plot. Yet Powell went ahead nonetheless, using her RNC platform to double down on the palpably false claim that Dominion voting machines created by Venezuela’s deceased president Hugo Chávez (they weren’t) had been manipulated to redirect Trump votes to Biden (they hadn’t).

Complicity in the lie of the stolen election reached right to the heart of the Republican party. Even on 6 January, while shattered glass lay strewn across the corridors of Congress following the violent insurrection hours earlier, 139 House Republicans – more than half the total in the chamber – and eight Senate Republicans went ahead and voted to block the certification of Biden’s win.

Many other Republicans also acted as passive accomplices in Trump’s subversion plot, by failing publicly to speak out against it. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the US Senate, waited until 15 December to recognize Biden as president-elect.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sits in the House Chamber hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to halt Congress from ratifying the election results.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, in the chamber hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. McConnell waited until 15 December to recognize Biden. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty

For six weeks, McConnell watched and waited. He remained silent, as every day the big lie grew stronger, amplified through the echo chambers ofFox News, the far-right OANN news network and a web of Trump benefactors including the MyPillow founder, Mike Lindell.

Ginsberg told the Guardian that “the greatest disappointment to me personally is seeing people I know to be principled, with only the best intentions for the country, stand aside as Donald Trump wreaks havoc through American democracy. I don’t understand that, and I think it has really negative ramifications.”

Ginsberg added: “Many of them are guilt-ridden about that. It is a very unfortunate, disappointing situation.”

On 7 November, the Associated Press called Pennsylvania, and with it the presidency, for Biden. At that point, Trump’s efforts to subvert the election went into hyper-drive.

“Trump appeared to think he had a viable path to staying in power,” said Hasen. “His outlook morphed into an actual attempt to use the claims of fraud to try and overturn the election.”

Trump turned to what has been dubbed the “independent state legislature doctrine”. This is a convoluted legal theory that has been increasingly embraced by the right wing of the Republican party.

Those who adhere to the doctrine point to the section of the US constitution that gives state legislatures the power to set election rules and to determine the “manner” in which presidential electors are chosen under the electoral college system. If those rules are changed by other legal entities without the approval of the state legislatures, then, the theory goes, election counts can be deemed illegitimate and an alternate slate of electors imposed.

“It’s an extreme legal theory that does not depend on fraud but on claimed irregularities between the way 2020 was conducted and how the states had set up the election,” Hasen said.

Trump and his legal advisers began bearing down on critical swing states which Biden had won, attempting to browbeat state legislators into taking up the doctrine and using it as a means of overturning the result. Lawmakers in Arizona, Pennsylvania and other battleground states were encouraged to call a special session to highlight the disparities in election procedures, with the end goal being to replace Biden’s presidential electors with an alternate slate of Trump electors.

In his Guardian interview, Eastman said he was part of this effort. “I recommended that the legislatures be called into special session to assess the impact of the illegality. If there were cumulative illegal actions greater than the margin of victory, then the legislature needed to take the power back.”

A month before Eastman gave his presentation to Trump and Pence in the Oval Office, he appeared before the Georgia legislature. By that point Georgia had already held a full hand recount of the almost 5m votes cast and was poised to announce the results of a third count – all of which confirmed Biden had won.

In a half-hour presentation on 3 December, Eastman called on Georgia’s lawmakers to effectively take the law into their own hands. “You could adopt a slate of electors yourselves,” he told them. “I don’t think it’s just your authority to do that, but, quite frankly, I think you have a duty to do that to protect the integrity of the election in Georgia.”

And then Trump took the fight to the next level: into the heart of US law enforcement. An interim report from the Senate judiciary committee published earlier this month chronicles the bombardment to which senior Department of Justice officials were subjected in the days leading up to 6 January.

It is a fundamental DoJ norm that the president and his allies should never interfere in any investigation, let alone to undermine American democracy. Yet the Senate report shows that on the day after Barr’s departure was announced, 15 December, Trump began ratcheting up pressure on his replacement to try to get him to adopt the big lie.

When Jeffrey Rosen, the new acting attorney general, demurred, Trump turned to a relatively lowly justice official, Jeffrey Clark, and propelled him into the thick of a mounting power struggle that had the potential to turn into a full-blown constitutional crisis. Clark, who was recently subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the 6 January insurrection, drew up a draft letter which he intended to have sent out to six critical swing states.

In essence, it called on state legislatures won by Biden to throw out the official will of the people and reverse it for Trump.

When Rosen refused to authorize the letter, Trump prepared to fire him and put Clark in his place. It took a showdown in the Oval Office at which key justice department officials threatened to resign en masse, accompanied even by the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, before Trump stood his threat down.

That volatile three-hour meeting on 3 January was one of the most dramatic incidents in which US democracy was pushed to the brink of collapse. It was not the only one.

As the clock ticked down towards Trump’s final appointment with fate on 6 January, he grew more and more agitated. On 27 December, he called Rosen to make another attempt at cajoling the justice department to come on board with his subversion plot.

Handwritten notes taken by Rosen’s deputy record an astonishing exchange:

:{:{Rosen: “Understand that the DoJ can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election, doesn’t work that way.”}:

Trump: “Don’t expect you to do that, just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R[epublican] congressmen.”}:

Then, on 2 January, Trump made his by now notorious call to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s top election official as secretary of state. A recording of the conversation obtained by the Washington Post captured Trump telling Raffensperger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes” – one more vote than Biden’s margin of victory in the official count.

Raffensperger politely rejected the request. Four days later, Pence turned his back on Eastman’s scenarios, and announced that he would do his constitutional duty and certify Biden as the 46th president of the United States.

:{:{}:

Trump had run out of road. He had nothing left, nowhere else to turn. Nothing, that is, except for his adoring, credulous and increasingly angry supporters.

“Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Trump exhorted his followers in a now excised tweet.}:

Just how direct was Trump’s involvement in inciting the insurrection is now the stuff of a House select committee inquiry. The committee is aggressively pursuing Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist in the White House, over any role he might have played in the buildup towards the violence.

:{:{}:

Bannon, who faces criminal charges for defying congressional subpoenas, was among a gathering at theWillard Hotel in Washington on the eve of 6 January that the House committee has dubbed the “war room”. Also present were Giuliani and Eastman. According to Peril, Trump called into the meeting and spoke with Bannon, expressing his disgust over Pence’s refusal to play along and block the certification just as Eastman had outlined.}:

When 6 January finally arrived, all eyes were on the Ellipse, the park flanking the White House where Trump was set to headline a massive “Stop the Steal” rally. Before he spoke, Eastman said a few words.

The law professor recounted one of his more lurid conspiracy theories – that voting machines had secret compartments built within them where pristine ballots were held until they were needed to increase Biden’s numbers and put him over the top. “They unload the ballots and match them to the unvoted voter and … voilà!”

Then Trump took the stage. He encouraged his thousands of followers to march to the Capitol. “Fight like hell. If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more.”

The Guardian asked Eastman whether he had any regrets about what happened, personal or otherwise.A week after the insurrection he was pressured into stepping down from his post at Chapman University in California.

“Regrets, yes, that people are taking action against me for telling the truth,” he said. “Regrets that I told the truth and that I continue to do so? Absolutely not.”

Eastman’s pledge to continue “telling the truth” will not soothe the anxieties of those concerned about American democracy. Already, speculation about another Trump run in 2024 is causing jitters.

Liz Cheney, a member of the House committee inquiry into the insurrection, has issued a stark warning to her Republican colleagues. Unless they start really telling the truth, she has told them, and countering the lies about election fraud, the country is on the path of “national self-destruction”.

Rick Hasen shares her fears. “Donald Trump has been underestimated before,” he said. “He is telling us he’s planning on running. He’s continuing to claim the election was stolen. The situation in the United States right now is desperate.”

---

an 722

A video posted on Tuesday by NBC News' Ryan Reilly shows that some supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 seemed reluctant to believe that he really wanted them to go home.

Roughly three hours after rioters breached the Capitol, Trump put out a video urging his followers to vacate the building, although not without once again inflaming their anger with false claims about the 2020 election being "stolen" from him.

"This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people," Trump said. "We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special."

The video posted by Reilly shows several Trump supporters at the Capitol standing around a phone held by Jacob Chansley, a.k.a., the "QAnon Shaman," and watching the twice-impeached former president's plea to leave.

After watching the video, one Trump supporter immediately expressed skepticism that it was real.

"That looks prerecorded!" she yelled, which prompted Chansley to tell her to "chill the f*ck out."

"When did he record that?!" the woman demanded to know. "I don't see where he recorded that!"

"Calm down and go home, sweetheart," Chanlsey said again.

According to Reilly, the video was recorded by Pam Hemphill, who was sentenced to 60 days in prison for her actions on January 6th.

Watch the video below or at this link.

---

an 6 25/22

Trump told Congressional cronies how to getpardons for aiding his bogus election scheme, GOP Rep. says

Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are panic-tweeting after revelations they sought pardons

Conservative insider denounces Republicans who wanted Trump to provide pardons for their involvement in his election scheme

Mo Brooks texts email to CBS containing instructions from Donald Trump on how to request pardons

---

Tuesday’s televised public hearing held by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack will include details about former President Donald Trump’s “hot-blooded, contentious, deranged” meeting late last year, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told NBC News.

Committee members were told by a witness Raskin has yet to name that a December 18, 2020 meeting was “the craziest meeting in the Trump presidency.”

Rep. Raskin described “it as ‘hot-blooded, contentious, deranged’ when the president met with outside and internal legal advisers for a ‘Hail Mary desperation ploy’ to subvert an election they had lost, including possibly seizing state election machines and appointing Trump ally Sidney Powell as a special counsel,” NBC adds.

Raskin, a former constitutional law professor who lead the second Trump impeachment, is also leading Tuesday afternoon’s hearing, along with Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL).

Raskin also revealed that former Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who testified before the Committee last week, “corroborated almost everything that we’ve learned from the prior hearings.”

“I certainly did not hear him contradict Cassidy Hutchinson,” Raskin also said. “He had the opportunity to say whatever he wanted to say, so I didn’t see any contradiction there.”

Tuesday’s hearing, the seventh the Committee has held, is scheduled to begin at 1:00 PM ET.

Watch live below or at this link.

an 7 22

on June 16th, 2022, America's Frontline Doctors founder Simone Gold was sentenced to 60 days in prison and one year of probation for her role in the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol.

Gold was among the armed horde of former President Donald Trump's supporters that besieged the seat of American democracy while Congress was certifying President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over Trump in the 2020 election.

Gold, an outspoken peddler of misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19, was also ordered to pay a $9,500 fine "and another $500 to the Capitol architect to compensate for damage the rioters did to the building," according to MedPage Today.

District of Columbia District Court Judge Christoper Cooper sternly reprimanded Gold over her lack of contrition.

"Sitting here today, I don't think you have truly accepted responsibility," he told her. "Your organization has used your notoriety to raise money to garner support for you in connection with the sentencing and for its general operations by mischaracterizing what this proceeding is all about ... telling your supporters that this is a political prosecution of a law-abiding physician that's designed to threaten and intimidate any American who dares to exercise their First Amendment rights."

Cooper also smacked down Gold's insistence that she was merely a proverbial fly on the wall.

"It is obvious from the video that we watched today that you were part of an angry and aggressive, I would say mob, crowd of people intent on getting past law enforcement and entering the East Rotunda through those doors," Cooper said. "Regardless of how the door got opened, the police were obviously trying to keep people out."

Nevertheless, Gold recently released a video in which she complained about having to face the consequences of her actions.

:{:{“As you probably have heard by now, I was sentenced for a misdemeanor trespass with a shocking 60 days in federal prison. It’s unheard of. I don’t know anyone who’s ever gone to prison for a misdemeanor, let alone misdemeanor trespassing for a nonviolent mid-career female. It’s unconscionable," Gold griped.}:

"I'm here to say this tyranny is coming to our nation and that we need to have every person, first of all, be aware of it and to speak up about it. I do feel as though conservative voices have been, have allowed themselves to be completely silenced on the matter of January 6th defendants," Gold continued. "It is not right when one person loses their civil liberties illegally then it threatens all of us."

Watch here via Ron Filipkowski.

The premise of Gold's argument – that she was merely exercising their right to free speech and seeking a redressing of her grievances – is familiar among suspected and convicted participants in Trump's coordinated attack on the federal government.

:{:{The first major problem with what Gold said, however, is that her remarks about misdemeanors not landing people in jail are untrue.}:

According to a 2022 report published by the Prison Policy Initiative, "nonviolent" offenders make up a substantial portion of incarcerated Americans – to the tune of hundreds of thousands – regardless of whether they have been convicted or are still awaiting trial.

"It’s true that police, prosecutors, and judges continue to punish people harshly for nothing more than drug possession. Drug offenses still account for the incarceration of almost 400,000 people, and drug convictions remain a defining feature of the federal prison system. Police still make over 1 million drug possession arrests each year, many of which lead to prison sentences. Drug arrests continue to give residents of over-policed communities criminal records, hurting their employment prospects and increasing the likelihood of longer sentences for any future offenses," the analysis explains.

"Nevertheless, 4 out of 5 people in prison or jail are locked up for something other than a drug offense — either a more serious offense or an even less serious one. To end mass incarceration, we will have to change how our society and our criminal legal system responds to crimes more serious than drug possession. We must also stop incarcerating people for behaviors that are even more benign," it states.

Furthermore, PPI adds, "the distinction between 'violent' and 'nonviolent' crime means less than you might think; in fact, these terms are so widely misused that they are generally unhelpful in a policy context. In the public discourse about crime, people typically use 'violent' and 'nonviolent' as substitutes for serious versus nonserious criminal acts. That alone is a fallacy, but worse, these terms are also used as coded (often racialized) language to label individuals as inherently dangerous versus non-dangerous."

The other glaring issue with Gold's defense is that the failed January 6th coup was, in fact, violent.

---

an 7 22

Sarasota, Florida’s Herald-Tribune over the weekend published an op-ed praising the Proud Boys, written by a woman who describes herself as a “God-fearing Christ follower,” a “mother of two beautiful children,” a “patriot,” and the “wife of a man who defends his family and their freedoms.” What the paper and the author neglected to note is she is married to one of the Proud Boys, Mediaite reports.

Based on a quick search of the Herald-Tribune, NCRM was able to identify another opinion piece, published just a few weeks ago, that makes clear the paper should have known the op-ed praising the Proud Boys was written by one of their spouses. It clearly refers to “Proud Boy Nicholas Radovich, and his wife, Melissa Radovich.”

Melissa Radovich is the author of Sunday’s op-ed, which was titled, “Attacking Proud Boys does a disservice to caring school parents.” It also appears in a Google search under the headline, “Don’t vilify Sarasota Proud Boys for caring about their children.”

“When I think about the Proud Boys,” Radovich writes, “I think of fathers, business owners and veterans. These fathers have spoken at many School Board meetings. They are concerned about the direction that their local schools are heading in, and I commend them for coming to School Board meetings.”

The Proud Boys have been designated a terrorist group in at least two other countries – Canada and New Zealand – and have been described by New York lawmakers as a “racist, neo-fascist” group that promotes “white nationalist, neofascist rhetoric,” and “racist, misogynistic, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ bigotry.”

In fact, Radovich not only misses every opportunity to disclose she is married to one of the Proud Boys, she goes out of her way to do so, closing with this:

“I am simply a mom who will do what is best for my kids. If I have to speak at School Board meetings, fine. If I have to deal with smear campaigns, so be it. My passion will not be stifled, and my stance will not waver. I am for God, family and freedom – no matter what.”

Mediaite criticizes the paper’s “poorly-executed attempt to tell both sides of the story,” and notes “the paper failed to disclose the author was married to a Proud Boy herself.”

On Sunday many on social media criticized the op-ed for its content, but a few also noted Radovich’s spousal relationship with one of the Proud Boys.

Joe Jervis adds that the op-ed has since “disappeared” from the Herald-Tribune’s website, but one quick social media user posted screenshots before the piece was pulled.

NCRM was also able to find the full op-ed in syndication at Yahoo, but we will not link to it.

Mediaite on Monday also offered this primer on the Proud Boys:

“To be clear, the Proud Boys have a documented history of criminal activities and violent altercations that dates back several years. Along with the Oath Keepers, multiple members of the group have been charged with serious felonies related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and an FBI informant testified to the House Select Committee that Proud Boys had plans that included occupying various federal buildings and assassinating Vice President Mike Pence during the attack. Members of Proud Boys have caused turmoil in various Republican circles across Florida, including contentious squabbles over leadership of local party organizations and even physical brawls.”

---

perry denied, then proved? 3 more denied?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/23/5-takeaways-jan-6-hearing-trumps-doj-plot/

wapo

June 23, 2022

In the Jan. 6 committee hearing on June 23, witnesses described how President Donald Trump pressured the Justice Department to investigate election fraud. (Video: JM Rieger/The Washington Post, Photo: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

The Jan. 6 committee on Thursday held its fifth major hearing, this one focused on President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the Justice Department to help him overturn the election.

The plot was spearheaded within the department by an official named Jeffrey Clark, whose home federal agents searched Wednesday in a significant development that reflects the increasing legal jeopardy faced by Trump’s allies and perhaps Trump himself. Trump at one point considered installing Clark as acting attorney general to further the plot — which prompted mass resignation threats....

The Jan. 6 committee on Thursday held its fifth major hearing, this one focused on President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the Justice Department to help him overturn the election.

Timeline: Trump's pressure on the Justice Department to overturn the election

Below, some takeaways from the hearing.

The pardon picture, filled out

In a video presented on June 23, Trump White House officials said that at least five House Republicans asked President Donald Trump for pardons. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

The committee has repeatedly previewed evidence that certain key players in Trump’s plot sought pardons. Last week, one of them was revealed to be Trump lawyer John Eastman, who asked to be put on “the pardon list.” The implication from that email was that there was indeed a list that seemingly might have other names.

The committee built out its own list Thursday, adding several House Republicans to it. Here are the names and the evidence:

Reps. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — In a Jan. 11 email from Brooks, he said he and Gaetz were suggesting pardons for everyone who objected to the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. White House lawyer Eric Herschmann also said he believed that Gaetz had requested a pardon. White House aide John McEntee said Gaetz told him he asked for one from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Meadows, also testified to the effort by Brooks and Gaetz, saying that Gaetz had been seeking a pardon “since early December” and that he reached out to her personally.

Days after the Capitol attack and the final attempt to overturn the election, Members of Congress requested pardons.

Five days after the attack on the Capitol, Representative Mo Brooks requested pardons for himself, Representative Gaetz, and others. pic.twitter.com/f0xLm5SKtT

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 23, 2022

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — Hutchinson testified that he requested a pardon.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) — Hutchinson testified that he requested a pardon.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — Hutchinson said that she had heard that Greene had asked the White House counsel’s office for a pardon from deputy counsel Pat Philbin but that Greene hadn’t asked her personally.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) — Hutchinson testified that he requested a pardon.

Perry has flatly denied seeking a pardon, calling it “a shameless, soulless lie,” but Hutchinson said he talked to her directly about it.

Hutchinson also said that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whom House Republicans tried to put on the committee before Democrats objected, talked with the White House about congressional pardons but that she was unaware of him asking for one.

What John Eastman and ‘the pardon list’ means

===

jan6 WH call log

david perdue am, wm bennett?!

cleta 2 min 7 pm (bannon hannity 10 pm)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/politics/jan-6-call-logs-white-house/daily-diary-of-president-donald-trump.pdf?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_10

---

https://democraticags.medium.com/republican-attorneys-general-attack-on-democracy-a-timeline-42ac4c3d4e34

NO LNX GFX

Republican Attorneys General Attack on Democracy: A Timeline

Former Republican Attorneys General Association Executive Director Adam Piper says of Republican AGs, “No group of elected officials have been more supportive of President Trump.”

Over the course of 2020 and into 2021, Republican Attorneys General and the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) attacked our democratic institutions and voting rights, and even attempted to overturn the will of the American people in the 2020 Presidential election.

In fact, the more we learn about the deadly attack on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol, the more we learn about the Republican Attorneys General and the Republican Attorneys General Association’s deep ties to the attack and the campaign to undermine our democracy.

The Republican AGs’ bad behavior is not something new, but as they attempt to deny responsibility and distance themselves from one of the most unpatriotic and darkest days in our nation’s history, it’s important to understand just how coordinated and connected the Republican AGs were to the insurrection.

Here’s a quick overview of what’s included in this blog post:

August — October: Republican AGs attack voting rights and refuse to protect democratic norms.

November — December: Republican AGs try to overturn the results of the election multiple times.

January: Republican AGs and RAGA’s connection to the Jan 6th deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol exposed.

February: Republican AGs continue pushing the lie that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Below is a detailed timeline to help illustrate the un-American campaign waged by the Republican Attorneys General and the Republican Attorneys General Association:

AUGUST 2020

Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Harris County (largest county) over their plan to send all voters in the county mail-in ballot applications.

Republican Attorneys General FAIL to take action to protect the U.S. Postal Service after President Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy alter mail delivery — with a goal of negatively impacting vote-by-mail.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Republican Attorneys General and the Republican Attorneys General Association FAIL to combat significant disinformation being put forth by President Trump:

Republican Attorneys General and RAGA do not correct President Trump for telling supporters to “vote twice.”

Republican Attorneys General and RAGA do not correct President Trump for attacking the vote-by-mail process.

Republican Attorneys General do not take action to protect voting rights that came under attack in more than 10 states.

Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton files an appeal to block Harris County from sending mail-in ballot applications to voters across the county. Later, indicted Texas AG Ken Paxton asks the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in on the case — hoping they would block millions of people from safely voting during a pandemic.

September 24–25: Republican Attorneys General Association & Rule of Law Defense Fund hold a two day summit in Atlanta to discuss “election integrity.” Now resigned RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper refers to this meetings as “WAR GAMES — 32 AG Staff Members are huddled in Atlanta for a series of conversations planning for what could come if we lose the White House.” This information becomes public as part of a public records request by a Missouri organization [see Page 56]. Read more about this alarming preparation to attack democracy here:

Missouri AG's office had invite to Jan. 5 conference call by group urging Capitol march

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office had an invitation to a conference call the day before the deadly…

www.kansascity.com

OCTOBER 2020

In the lead up to the election, Republican Attorneys General Association Executive Director Adam Piper says of Republican AGs, “No group of elected officials have been more supportive of President Trump.” This comes after Trump repeatedly attacks the U.S. electoral system, refused to denounce white supremacy time and time again, and went through an impeachment trial.

Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tries to block counties from having more than one ballot drop-off location.

:{:{}:

NOVEMBER 2020

Between Election Day and well past November 7 when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are declared the winners of the 2020 Presidential election, Republican Attorneys General — past and present — were sowing doubt in the election:

November 5: Former Florida Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi holds a press conference with Rudy Giuliani and Corey Lewandowski.

November 5: RAGA tweets “Don’t let #LawlessLiberals corrupt the election process.”

November 5: RAGA tweets “.@RepublicanAGs have boots on the ground in PA, NC, NV, AZ, WI, and MI to defend the rule of law. Don’t let #LawlessLiberals corrupt the process!”

November 6: Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes announces he will take time off to travel to Nevada in search of election fraud.

November 8: Former Nevada Republican Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Chairman of the American Conservative Union Matt Schlapp hold a press conference in Las Vegas, NV.

November 8: Former RAGA Chair West Virginia Republican Attorney General Patrick Morriseytweets “Excited to weigh in with my colleagues at the US Supreme Court about the critical role state legislatures play in setting time, place, and manner restrictions on voting and why the PA Supreme Court cannot usurp that role. The Trump campaign is correct to fight to get this right!”

November 9: Utah Attorney GeneralSean Reyes, after spending a weekend in Nevada, says “voting problems occurred there.”

November 9: RAGA, along with 10 Republican Attorneys General, file an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to throw out legally cast mail-in votes in Pennsylvania.

November 17: Former Nevada Republican Attorney General Adam Laxalt says 15,000 people voted in multiple states.

DECEMBER 2020

More than a month after Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’ decisive victory in the 2020 election, Republican Attorneys General continued to take frivolous and unfounded action to sow doubt in the results.

December 8: Former RAGA Chair, indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, files a lawsuit against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin seeking to overturn the results and throw out the votes of hard working Americans in these battleground states.

December 9: RAGA Vice Chair Missouri Attorney GeneralEric Schmitt leads 16 other Republican Attorneys General in supporting indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s absurd lawsuit. This includes Florida AG Ashley Moody, Kansas AG Derek Schmidt, and South Carolina AG Alan Wilson.

December 9: Republican Attorneys General meet with President Trump at the White House.Attendees include: Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Former RAGA Chair Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, Former RAGA Chair Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, RAGA Vice Chair Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Chair of RAGA’s Policy Arm — the Rule of Law Defense Fund — Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Chair of RAGA’s Policy Arm — the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF) — meeting with President Donald Trump shortly after Republican Attorneys General file lawsuit to overturn the 2020 election in four battleground states.

:{:{}:

December 11: Alaska’s acting Attorney General Ed Sniffen (who has since resigned due to sexual misconduct allegations) announces his support of indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s frivolous lawsuit — bringing the total number of Republican Attorneys General attempting to overturn a free and fair election to 19. Later that day, the U.S. Supreme Court declines indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

JANUARY 2021

With President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration days away, indicted Texas Attorney General and former RAGA Chair Ken Paxton continues to sow doubt around the 2020 election:

:{:{}:

January 3: Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton confirms he will be attending the January 6th event in Washington, D.C. saying, “All Patriots need to be present to stand with President Trump.”

January 4: Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton continues to promote the “Stop The Steal” rally in Washington, D.C. saying, “Join us in D.C. make this the largest MAGA rally ever.”

January 5: Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton promotes “Stop The Steal” rally in Washington, D.C. saying, “Looking forward to standing with @realDonaldTrump tomorrow. It’s gonna be HUGE!”

January 5: Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton retweets an account saying, “Someday they will say that on Jan 6, 2021 “some people did a thing”…those people were Patriots and what they did was save a nation.”

January 5: Reporting by the ALReporter uncovers a meeting at Trump Hotel between RAGA’s Executive Director, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, members of Trump’s family, and close campaign advisers. PIPER AG MARSHALL?

:{:{}:

January 5: Reporting by Documented later uncovers arobocall paid for by RAGA’s policy arm — the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF) — promoting the “Stop The Steal” rally occurs on this day. The robocall says, “At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight.” The same reporting uncovers that RAGA (later changed to RLDF) was listed as a sponsor on the march’s official website.

January 6: Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at the “Stop The Steal” rally in Washington, D.C. telling attendees, “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength … we will not quit fighting. We’re not quitting.”

January 6: Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweets, “Americans are here in Washington to stand up and support the President. A lot of voters, as well as myself, believe something went wrong in this election. I’m here to support @realDonaldTrump #MarchToSaveAmerica”

After the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building, indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton falsely tweets, “These are not Trump supporters” and spreads disinformation that “Antifa” was actually the cause for the violence.

January 7: RAGA and Republican Attorneys General attempt to distance themselves from the robocall that promoted the January 6 insurrection saying, “The Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization of yesterday’s rally,” which is quickly dismissed.

January 8: RLDF Chair Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall indicates he will lead an internal review of how RAGA/RLDF became affiliated with the Jan 6 insurrection. More than one month later, they remain silent.

January 11: RAGA’s Executive Director [REYES?] resigns from the Republican Attorneys General Association without taking responsibility and refuses to address their support of the rally turned deadly insurrection. This includes RLDF Chair Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall saying, “Every decision Adam made on behalf of RLDF was with the best of intentions and with the organization’s best interests in mind.”

:{:{}:

January 21: The New York Times reports that a RAGA/RLDF “donor had demanded [the robocall] and made a contribution contingent upon its release.”

January 31: The New York Times reports that Trump’s legal team drafted the lawsuit indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton would eventually bring against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in an attempt to overturn their results and thus give the election to President Trump.

FEBRUARY 2021

More than 40 days after the deadly attack at the U.S. Capitol, and more than three months since the 2020 Presidential election results were known, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita continues to spread disinformation around the results of the election.

:{:{}:

Republican Attorney General and RAGA behavior during the 2020 election was par for the course for a group of election officials who jumped off the deep end following the 2018 Midterms elections. From flirting with QAnon, to promoting COVID-19 scams, to attempting to overturn a free and fair election, the top legal officers and law enforcement officials of the so-called party of “law and order” are now legally and morally bankrupt.

RAGA Chair (and former Vice Chair) Chris Carr refuses to take responsibility and refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing by the organization he leads — and has been a leader of for years.

In 2022, there are more than 30 state AG seats on the map including many of the same Republican AGs who drove distrust in our democracy and supported the events on January 6, 2021 that led to a deadly attack.

More from Democratic Attorneys General Association

DAGA elects and supports Democratic Attorneys General. We fight for them, so they can fight for you.

Jan 22, 2021

Republican Attorneys General Under Pressure to Address Ties to January 6 Attack on the Capitol

In case you missed it, the policy arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) — known as the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF) —

---

JAN 6 TWO

Related coverage

Fox News star Tucker Carlson ramps up Jan. 6 lies with footage provided by House Republicans

In this article:

Far-Right Extremists Move From ‘Stop the Steal’ to Stop the Vaccine

QAnon: How the Anti-Vaxxers Got Red-Pilled - Rolling Stone

Endangering Mike Pence

QAnon

Analysis

January 6 participants are touring right-wing media and calling for retribution following Trump’s pardon

Defending the Proud Boys’ innocence, undermining the charges, and calling the trial a “set-up”

Suggesting that the Proud Boys’ conviction opens the door for the same charges to be brought against Trump

RELATED

‘Baked Alaska’ Sentenced to 2 Months After Livestreaming Himself Rioting on Jan. 6

Twitter Reinstates QAnon Kingpin Ron Watkins

‘Stop the Steal’ Scoundrel Ali Alexander Reinstated to Twitter Day After Praising Brazilian Riot

---

ALEX JONES

ALI ALEXANDER

===