Tag: Trump attempt to steal a second term

St. Cloud ‘Boogaloo Bois’ member charged with planning attack on Minnesota Capitol

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Boogaloo Bois member from St. Cloud is accused of plotting strike in St. Paul. 

Federal agents in Minnesota have arrested a St. Cloud man who claims allegiance to anti-government Boogaloo Bois and plotted a violent attack on the Minnesota State Capitol earlier this year, according to charges unsealed in Minnesota U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

Last December, Michael Paul Dahlager, 27, traveled to a “Stop the Steal” rally at the Capitol in St. Paul to take video of law enforcement numbers, scout tactical positions for the Boogaloo Bois and note which streets were being blocked off, according to the criminal complaint. He told a confidential informant, who recorded the conversation for the FBI, he was conducting reconnaissance for an attack on Jan. 17. Rallies to protest President Joe Biden’s election were planned for that date by a nonviolent group of Donald Trump supporters.

After the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Minnesota erected a fence around the Capitol, and hundreds of state police officers — which Dahlager called an “army” — stood guard on the perimeter in response to threats of more attacks. Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson Goes Full Revisionist On The U.S. Capitol Riot

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The Fox News personality’s reality-denying spin on the deadly insurrection was slammed as “gaslighting garbage.”

Tucker Carlson struck a snide tone on Tuesday night to downplay the U.S. Capitol riot on the three-month anniversary of the deadly insurrection.

The Fox News personality attempted to spin the narrative on the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump — who were incited by the then-president ― as just “a mob of older people from unfashionable zip codes” protesting mass voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Carlson’s characterization of the violence contradicts videos showing the maurading mob. Five people, including a U.S. Capitol police officer, died. Trump supporters were caught on camera screaming, “Hang Mike Pence!” and stalked progressive lawmakers. Continue reading.

Boehner slams Trump: He ‘incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons’

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Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is blaming former President Trumpfor the deadly Jan. 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol, saying he riled the crowd to commit violent acts for “selfish” political reasons. 

“Whatever they end up doing, or not doing, none of it will compare to one of the lowest points of American democracy that we lived through in January 2021,” Boehner wrote in a new book set to be published this month, excerpts of which were obtained by The New York Times. 

The former Speaker also wrote that Trump “incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bullshit he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.” Continue reading.

MAGA Riot Lawsuit Against Trump Keeps Getting Bigger

The NAACP’s expanded suit will include more members of Congress, and the amended complaint adds additional information regarding the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

A federal lawsuit alleging that former President Donald Trump, his lawyer, and far-right extremists at the U.S. Capitol conspired to deprive Americans of their civil rights by disrupting the count of Joe Biden’s electoral college victory with the Jan. 6 riot is expanding this week.

Lawyers for the NAACP, which brought the suit early this year on behalf of Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), are set to file an amended complaint on Wednesday adding 10 new plaintiffs, two people familiar with the matter saie. The new plaintiffs will include other members of Congress, and the amended complaint is said to include additional information about the deadly Jan. 6 riot in Washington, D.C., which then-President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani are accused of inciting, the sources added.

The addition of new plaintiffs was first reported by The New York Times on Tuesday. Continue reading.

Dominion files $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News

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Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit on Friday seeking $1.6 billion in damages against Fox News, arguing that the network knowingly spread misinformation about the company’s role in nonexistent voter fraud.

Why it matters: This is the first time Dominion has sued a media company in its efforts to collect billions in damages from pro-Trump figures who have pushed baseless conspiracy theories about its voting machines.

  • Dominion has previously sued Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, and the pro-Trump MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. All have appeared as guests on Fox News. Continue reading.

Scoop: House chamber hardened with bulletproof doors

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The House chamber is being transformed into a massive safe room for members with the addition of bulletproof doors.

Why it matters: One of the most dramatic images from the Jan. 6 attack was Capitol Police officers inside the chamber holding protesters at bay by pointing their guns at them after they broke windows in the doors. The new doors will provide fresh fortification.

Details: An Axios reporter leaving the Capitol on Wednesday night saw workers removing doors on one of the double-doored entrances to the gallery one level above the floor of the chamber. Some members huddled there on Jan. 6. Continue reading.

Texas AG Ken Paxton refuses to release messages about attendance at pro-Trump rally before Jan. 6 insurrection

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The Texas attorney general’s office is attempting to withhold all messages Ken Paxton sent or received while in Washington for the pro-Donald Trump rally that devolved into a riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Several news organizations in Texas have requested copies of the attorney general’s work-related communications. The Texas Public Information Act guarantees the public’s right to government records — even if those records are stored on personal devices or online accounts of public officials.

After Paxton’s office refused to release copies of his emails and text messages, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica, The Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, and The San Antonio Express-News are working together in an effort to obtain the documents and review Paxton’s open-records practices. Continue reading.

Secret until now, records reveal clash over the Trump DOJ’s demand for NC voter data

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Federal prosecutors have announced an end to a sweeping, four-year-long investigation into voter fraud in North Carolina, peeling back a veil of secrecy from a probe that pitted state and federal officials against each other over a massive demand for data on every one of the state’s registered voters.

The effort initiated by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District resulted in a range of charges related to immigration, registration and election rules against about 70 people — more than 40 of whom were accused of casting ballots illegally. Dates of those charges, which involved activity during the 2016 election and prior, range from July 2018 to mid-February 2021.

Many of the latest indictments were announced for the first time Friday, but the totals fall far short of early suggestions by the federal government of “pervasive” or “systemic” fraud, suspicions the U.S. Attorney’s Office put before a federal judge in an effort to keep details of its inquiry secret for years. Continue reading.

Georgia Prosecutors Eye ‘False Statement’ Charges for Rudy Giuliani and Team Trump

Charging the ex-president’s lawyer with lying to officials would be unusual. But so were Rudy Giuliani’s antics after the election.

Local prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are actively researching whether they can apply “false statement” charges against Rudy Giuliani and other members of Donald Trump’s team for their mendacity-packed attempts to meddle with the state’s 2020 election results, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and a former New York City mayor, twice presented Georgia state legislators withfake evidence and wild allegations of a conspiracy theory to commit widespread election fraud. Separately, on two recorded phone calls to state election officials, then-President Trump made specific false claims that votes for him were discarded and suitcases full of votes for Joe Biden were trucked in.

In a Feb. 10 letter to state officials that was first made public by The New York Times, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did note that her investigation includes—among other crimes—potential violations of Georgia laws prohibiting “the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies.” Continue reading.

The Justice Department Is Investigating Officials Who Talked To The Press About The Capitol Riot Investigation

Michael Sherwin, the former acting US Attorney in DC, had told media “the facts” support charging some Capitol rioters with sedition.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has launched internal probes into a recent spate of apparently unauthorized comments to the media about the status of the Capitol insurrection investigation, a supervisor in the US Attorney’s office in Washington told a judge on Tuesday.

US District Judge Amit Mehta scheduled an emergency hearing to question the government about a March 21 broadcast of 60 Minutes featuring an interview with Michael Sherwin, the former acting US Attorney in Washington, DC, as well as a New York Times article published Monday that quoted anonymous law enforcement sources. Both reports addressed the government’s conspiracy case against 10 people associated with the Oath Keepers militia collective who are charged with participating in the insurrection; Mehta is presiding over that case.

John Crabb, the head of the Criminal Division in the DC US Attorney’s office, told Mehta it appeared that Sherwin had failed to comply with the department’s rules and policies that govern contacts with the press. Crabb said Sherwin had been referred to the Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates misconduct allegations against DOJ lawyers and officials. Continue reading.