US House 15 , CD3 DFL

Wray grilled on FBI’s handling of Jan. 6

FBI Director Christopher Wray was largely on the defensive Thursday as lawmakers and Democrats in particular picked apart the bureau’s actions surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as well as its approach to domestic extremists.

Wray’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee follows a report from senators investigating widespread failures across a number of intelligence and law enforcement agencies ahead of the riot.

“The FBI’s inaction in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 is simply baffling. It is hard to tell whether FBI Headquarters merely missed the evidence — which had been flagged by your field offices and was available online for all the world to see — or whether the bureau saw the intelligence, underestimated the threat and simply failed to act. Neither is acceptable. We need your help to get to the bottom of it,” Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said. Continue reading.

WATCH: Matt Gaetz clashes with Jerry Nadler after getting cut off during FBI oversight hearing

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) briefly clashed with Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) after being cut off at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday.

The Florida Republican questioned FBI director Christopher Wray over claims made by Chinese virologist Li Meng Yan, who has told Fox News she believes that COVID-19 was developed in a laboratory and intentionally released, and Gaetz asked him to confirm whether the bureau was investigating those allegations.

“I’m not sure there is much I can say about specific investigations,” Wray said. “I will say couple of things. One, I have been very vocal and continue to be vocal about the counterintelligence threat that takes forms,- a variety of forms, from the Chinese Communist Party. I think it is one of the most important threats.” Continue reading.

Jim Jordan starts FBI hearing with a frenzied rant about Trump’s social media bans and the raid of Rudy Giuliani’s home

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) loudly pursued MAGA grievances during a House oversight hearing with FBI director Christopher Wray.

The Ohio Republican opened the House Judiciary Committee hearing with an extended rant against coronavirus restrictions, former president Donald Trump’s social media ban, a grassroots campaign to get Fox News removed from cable carriers, and the FBI raid of the ex-president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

“Big tech censoring conservatives, the cancel culture mob attacking anyone who disagrees with them, deplatforming the sitting president of the United States, Democrats writing letters to the network carriers telling them to take certain news organizations off their platform,” Jordan said. “Freedom is under attack and, director, a lot of Americans think you’re part of the problem.” Continue reading.

Don McGahn’s unflattering portrayal of Trump

We had to wait a long time to see testimony from former White House counsel Donald McGahn. And in the end, it was anticlimactic — at least as far as the known facts went.

McGahn fought a congressional subpoena for two years, ultimately reaching a deal under which he would testify behind closed doors — but only about specific events detailed in the Mueller report. McGahn was a key witness in that investigation, having said that President Donald Trump asked him to get special counsel Robert S. Mueller III removed. (McGahn refused both Trump’s request and a later request for McGahn to falsely deny the president made the request.) But the agreement and McGahn’s apparent desire not to make too much news with his testimony conspired to make his testimony far from earth-shattering.

If you read between the lines, though, McGahn’s elaboration on previously known facts doesn’t exactly paint a glowing picture of his former boss. Continue reading.

Capitol rioter had plans to bomb Amazon’s servers and take down the Internet: report

According to a report from the Washington Post, a man taken into custody for attacking the U.S. Capitol as part of the Jan. 6th insurrection has admitted he later planned to wreak havoc on the internet by using bombs to take out Amazon’s servers.

The report notes that 28-year-old Seth Aaron Pendley, who is accused of taking a sawed-off rifle to the Capitol assault, hoped to cripple government operations with his bomb attack

According to WaPo, Pendley was arrested when he met with a seller of C4 explosive devices who was actually an FBI agent. Continue reading.

McGahn Affirmed That Trump Tried to Oust Mueller, Transcript Shows

The former White House counsel testified behind closed doors last week about the former president’s attempts to interfere with the Russia investigation.

WASHINGTON — Donald F. McGahn II, who served as White House counsel to former President Donald J. Trump, has told lawmakers that episodes involving him in the Russia report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, were accurate — including one Mr. Trump has denied in which the president pressed him to get the Justice Department to remove Mr. Mueller.

A 241-page transcript of Mr. McGahn’s closed-door testimony from last week, released on Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee, contained no major revelations. But it opened a window on Mr. McGahn’s struggles to serve as the top lawyer in a chaotic White House, under a president who often pushed the limits of appropriate behavior.

“They don’t teach you this in law school,” Mr. McGahn said of one episode he witnessed in which Mr. Trump was trying to get his attorney general at the time, Jeff Sessions, to resign because he had recused himself from the Russia investigation. Continue reading.

House Judiciary releases McGahn testimony on Trump

Former White House counsel Don McGahn confirmed to congressional investigators a key account in ex-special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that former President Trump directed him to try to get Mueller removed, according to a transcript of his closed-door testimony released Wednesday.

The 241-page transcript follows a long fought-for interview the House Judiciary Committee finally secured with McGahn on Friday after the Trump White House challenged a subpoena seeking his testimony during Trump’s first impeachment investigation. The transcript shows that the interview yielded little new information but confirmed some of the details of Mueller’s lengthy report on his 22-month investigation that concluded in March 2018 and with which McGahn cooperated.

Trump has persistently denied any effort to fire Mueller amid the long inquiry, which probed allegations that members of Trump’s team had colluded with Russian figures during his 2016 presidential campaign. Yet in Friday’s interview, McGahn directly disputed Trump’s claims, repeatedly laying out Trump’s consideration of firing Mueller. Continue reading.

The right wing’s ‘culture war’ is built on a mountain of lies

“The culture war” is so familiar I don’t need to explainwhat it is. It has been part of the Republican Party’s rhetorical repertoire since at least Robert Taft’s time. What most people do not understand, however, is nearly every moment in which “the culture war” flares up—over abortion, guns, sexuality, etc.—is rooted in a lie. If more people understood the centrality of lying to “the culture war,” more might understand the goal of the GOP’s “cultural war” repertoire is making some Americans seem illegitimate.

Consider the case of Mara Gay, a member of the Times‘ editorial board.1 She was on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday. The subject of table discussion was Max Boot’s new op-ed in the Post on how too many people in this country are still underestimating the dire threat posed by the Republican Party to democracy and the American union.

Joe Scarborough, the co-host, said there’s a need to stop being surprised by the GOP’s anti-democratic posturing. Gay agreed. “We need to start taking it seriously,” she said. When it comes to creating an independent bipartisan body to investigate the sacking and looting of the United States Capitol on January 6, she said the Democrats in the United States Congress should stop asking for the GOP’s permission and act alone. Continue reading.

New report reignites push for wealth tax

A blockbuster ProPublica report on the taxes paid by the richest Americans is reigniting a push from progressives for a wealth tax.

The report, based on tax-return data ProPublica received from an anonymous source, details how prominent billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have paid little to no taxes in some recent years, particularly when compared to their wealth gains.

The article comes as President Biden has proposed raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations to pay for his major spending proposals. Democrats have increasingly made raising taxes on the rich a top priority in recent years, and some progressives have called for going even further than Biden’s proposals by establishing a wealth tax that would impose taxes on net worth rather than income. Continue reading.

Biden official shuts down Lauren Boebert: ‘That’s not a question with an assumption I’m going to assume’

Acting White House Budget Director Shalanda Young on Wednesday refused to recognize a question from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) because it assumed that the Biden administration had ceded control of the southern border to Mexican cartels.

Boebert asked the question during a House Budget Committee hearing.

“How long will you be ceding the southern border to the cartels?” she wondered.

Young responded by pointing out that the Trump administration had diverted funds from the U.S. military to use for border control. Continue reading.

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