tom van flein cos

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 soughtpardons. 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

Asking for a pardon doesn’t equal admitting guilt,[but in applying you must tell what you did? negates exec priv] and Eastman in particular argued that his request was meant as a precaution. But given how far-fetched this plot was and how often those involved were told their plot was illegal, that fact that people were trying to cover their backsides on the way out is important.

And crucially, some of these requests came even before the plot failed on Jan. 6.

an 6 22

after Thursday’s revelation thatGinni Thomas, the spouse of a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and a far right-wing activist in her own right, had been emailing with the author of the Trump “coup memo,” attorney John Eastman, legal experts are weighing in, with some suggesting this latest news changes the legal landscape of the case.

“Forget her marriage,” says former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman, now an LA Times legal affairs columnist.

Litman, who also teaches constitutional law, says the “correspondence between her and John Eastman” makes her look “more and more like a full-fledged potential co-conspirator of her own accord.”

[twt]

Thomas reportedly pressured White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to have the election overturned, pressured 29 GOP state lawmakers to submit pro-Trump electors to Congress to disenfranchise millions of Arizona voters, emailed with John Eastman, attended the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse on January 6 and was reportedly seen at the Willard Hotel on January 6 where the Trump “command center” for the mission to overthrow the election, led by Rudy Giuliani, was headquartered. She is also friends with the chief of staff of GOP Congressman Louie Gohmert, who sued to try to force Pence to throw the election to Trump, and is a member of the private “Thomas Clerk World” email listserv, comprised of past and present law clerks of her husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, and supports the far-right conspiracy theory known as QAnon.

“If there is anything close to equal justice under law, she will not be held immune from the consequences, including prosecution,” says Norman Ornstein, a political scientist, contributing editor for The Atlantic, and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Joyce Vance, also a former U.S. Attorney, now an MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst and law professor notes that John Eastman “clerked for” Justice Clarence Thomas. “It’s always seemed entirely too coincidental that they were both pushing the fake slates of state electors plan.”

Veteran journalist Dan Rather: rotton onion layers

an 6 22

...Thomas reportedly pressured White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to have the election overturned, pressured 29 GOP state lawmakers to submit pro-Trump electors to Congress to disenfranchise millions of Arizona voters, emailed with John Eastman, attended the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse on January 6 and was reportedly seen at the Willard Hotel on January 6 where the Trump “command center” for the mission to overthrow the election, led by Rudy Giuliani, was headquartered. She is also friends with the chief of staff of GOP Congressman Louie Gohmert, who sued to try to force Pence to throw the election to Trump, and is a member of the private “Thomas Clerk World” email listserv, comprised of past and present law clerks of her husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, and supports the far-right conspiracy theory known as QAnon.

Chafian, Alexander, Gibson and Diaz are all on the list of Trump allies, alongside Lewis and Flynn, whose communications members of the January 6th committee want to examine in their effort to understand preparations for the rallies that set the stage for the violence at the Capitol. Others include Trump confidant Roger Stone; InfoWars host Alex Jones; Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio; and Tom Van Flein, chief of staff for Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.). Two individuals on the list — InfoWars host Owen Schroyer and #WalkAway organizer Brandon Straka — face federal charges related to the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol.

https://wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com/2021/09/08/what-ever-happened-to-tom-van-flein/

wC was working through a long New York Times article (paywalled) recently on U.S. House of Representative’s Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bizarre terroristic threat to “get even” with folks who complied with the law. When this jumped out at WC:

[The House panel investigating January 6] demanded records of communications between the White House and Ali Alexander, who publicized the “Stop the Steal” rallies, as well as Tom Van Flein, Mr. Gosar’s chief of staff.

New York Times, “McCarthy Threatens Technology Firms That Comply with Riot Inquiry,” September 1, 2021

Van Flein, as Alaska readers may recall, was an Alaska attorney whose “take no prisoners” style of litigation got him into trouble more than once. But it also brought him to the attention of The Quitter, Alaska’s Sarah Palin and Van Flein became her lawyer. Well, one of her lawyers. That association apparently gave Van Flein a raging case of Potomac Fever. In 2011, he quit – well, for a given definition of “quit” – his private Alaska law practice and relocated to Washington, D.C. Van Flein apparently landed on the staff of Arizona’s far-right Rep. Paul Gosar, a Trumpster and a major proponent of Donald Trump’s Big Lie, a dentist who has decayed into a MAGA extremist.

A right-wing activist and convicted felon, Ali Alexander, told his Twitter followers he was planning something big for Jan. 6. Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — timed to match with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), all hard-line Trump supporters. Biggs and Brooks have denied the association; Gosar has not.

Gosar called Alexander “a true patriot” on Twitter, and on Dec. 19, the two both spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Phoenix.

[[twt pix 1 6]

salon reports,

Gosar skipped Friday’s vote on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package approved by the House to, which was organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who**mused about killing members of Congress**days before the riot. Gosar later condemned “white racism” during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference ahead of former President Donald Trump’s speech over the weekend — and then met with Fuentes again after the event.

Salon, March 3, 2021

Let’s be clear about this: instead of attending a vote on emergency relief for the worst pandemic to hit the U.S. since 1918, Gosar chose to speak at a a white supremacist rally organized by an avowed white nationalist.

So that’s Van Flein’s boss. That’s the Congressman for whom Van Flein has chosen to work.

Apparently Van Flein’s employment did not go well at first. In 2011, disaffected Gosar staffers quit. One former staffer described Van Flein as disengaged and preoccupied with his former client, Sarah Palin and her legal issues. In a Politico article, the former staffer says, “[Tom] is never at his desk, doesn’t do anything for the office, is very disrespectful of every other staffer in the office, is late for work, is gone all day and leaves early,” [she] wrote. “And that is just the beginning.” Add to the mix that a rookie Congressman hired as his Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff (a) guys with no, absolutely zero, legislative experience, and (b) from Alaska, not Arizona.

But despite all that, Van Flein was later promoted by Gosar to Chief of Staff and Legislative Counsel, where now his communications records are part of the investigation by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

WC likes Van Flein as a person. He’s been generous to charities WC supports, and we worked as co-counsel in a case with pretty good success. Van Flein’s penchant for leveraging embarrassing details of a case in at the public forum to obtain negotiating advantage is ethically sketchy and morally troubling, but overall he was effective and reasonable. So WC offers his former colleague some free and unsolicited advice: the MAGA crowd will, without hesitation, throw you under the bus if it suits their interests. We’ve seen Donald Trump do it repeatedly; there’s every reason to think that if things start to get hot for the 11 unscrupulous House members who backed the effort to disrupt the count of the electoral votes, they will sacrifice anyone and everyone, with care or hesitation, to avoid the consequences of their actions.

WC also offers the same reminder provided to Lisa Murkowski: if you stand too close to a skunk, you’re gonna get sprayed. And it never washes off.

Just saying.

Ex-Palin Attorney at Center of Insurrection Revelations

A bombshell article from Rolling Stone yesterday alleges that multiple sitting Republican members of Congress and members of their staffs coordinated and worked closely with the planners and organizers of the January 6th rally preceding the attack on the Capitol, and the attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from the Trump to the Biden administration.

Trump headlined that event, urging the crowd to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol. His personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, supported “trial by combat.”

The article reveals that organizers of the protest worked directly with White House staffers, a number of Republican members of Congress and their high-level staff. One of the most shocking allegations – that Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar told January 6 organizers that President Trump was prepared to issue “blanket pardons” for what he obviously perceived to be the illegal activities that were yet to come.

Here’s where it gets interesting. At least from an Alaska perspective.

“The House select committee investigating the attack also has interest in Gosar’s office. Gosar’s chief of staff, Thomas Van Flein, was among the people who were named in the committee’s “sweeping” requests to executive-branch agencies seeking documents and communications from within the Trump administration. Both sources claim Van Flein was personally involved in the conversations about the “blanket pardon” and other discussions about pro-Trump efforts to dispute the election. Van Flein did not respond to a request for comment.”

For those not old enough to remember all the way back to the time that Sarah Palin held high office in the state of Alaska, the name Thomas van Flein may not be familiar. The rest of us did a double take. As Rudy Giuliani was to Donald Trump, so Thomas Van Flein was to Governor Palin – her personal lawyer. In his capacity Van Flein tried to mop up the multiple ethics reports filed against the former half-term governor, and oversaw her legal defense fund which turned out not to be … legal.Go figure.

After raking in the Benjamins in Alaska, Van Flein flew the coop and took a job with a brand-new Sherrif Joe Arpaio-endorsed Congressman from Arizona whose primary campaign issue was “build that wall!” “I look forward to working with [Van Flein] in Washington and ensuring that we listen to the American people and work to uphold the principles that make this country great,” Republican Congressman Paul Gosar said of Van Flein.

Since his original migration, Van Flein climbed the internal office ladder and is now Chief of Staff to Congressman Gosar and finds himself right in the thick of a very thick place indeed.

We had no idea back then that the “principles that make this country great” would turn out to be organizing a rally that would lead to a coup attempt, and an offer of “blanket immunity” to the perpetrators. I suppose if you’re going to be negotiating preemptive immunity for traitorous felons, it helps to have a lawyer in the mix.

As events unfold and the January 6th Commission moves forward, it may pay to remember that not so long ago, Congressman Gosar was pointing a finger and yelling “Treason!” at other people. Back in February of 2018, Gosar urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to seek “criminal prosecution against these traitors to our nation” referring to James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates and Rod Rosenstein. If you want to time travel back to the Mueller investigation you can read all about it HERE.