Tag: Trump attempt to steal a second term

Trump insiders turn on each other over ‘Dominion dossier’ as defamation lawsuits loom

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Someone on former President Donald Trump’s legal team created a “dossier” filled with false allegations leveled at Dominion Voting Systems, and now former Trump officials are pointing fingers at one another to avoid culpability as the company shells out defamation lawsuits against them.

The Daily Beast reports that the dossier was handed out to state legislators last December to give them talking points about how Dominion supposedly stole the election on behalf of President Joe Biden.

Although the dossier’s author is listed on its cover sheet as Trump campaign legal volunteer Katherine Friess, she’s now insisting she had nothing to do with it, and she’s pinning the blame on former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro for distributing the report. Continue reading.

Army initially pushed to deny District’s request for National Guard before Jan. 6

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The Army initially pushed to reject the D.C. government’s request for a modest National Guard presence ahead of the Jan. 6 rally that led to the Capitol riot, underscoring the deep reluctance of some higher-ups at the Pentagon to involve the military in security arrangements that day.

In an internal draft memo obtained by The Washington Post, the Army said the U.S. military shouldn’t be needed to help police with traffic and crowd management, as city officials had requested, unless more than 100,000 demonstrators were expected.

The draft memo also said the request should be denied because a federal agency hadn’t been identified to run the preparations and on-the-day operations; the resources of other federal agencies hadn’t been exhausted; and law enforcement was “far better suited” for the task. Continue reading.

Proud Boys leader reveals feds met with him before violent rallies and provided him with tips: report

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In a deep dive by the New York Times into the now-changing relationship between law enforcement officials and the extreme right-wing Proud Boys, one of the leaders of the group admitted that he exchanged information with federal authorities before their rallies that often turned violent.

According to the report, law enforcement officials for years have ignored the growing violence at Proud Boy rallies — choosing instead to arrest their antagonists — but things have changed since the Jan 6th riot when supporters of Donald Trump overran the Capitol and sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives.

As the Times’ David Kirkpatrick and Alan Feuer wrote of the Proud Boys, “The group’s propensity for violence and extremism was no secret. But the F.B.I. and other agencies had often seen the Proud Boys as they chose to portray themselves, according to more than a half-dozen current and former federal officials: as mere street brawlers who lacked the organization or ambition of typical bureau targets like neo-Nazis, international terrorists and Mexican drug cartels.” Continue reading.

Trump’s own Defense Secretary just threw him under the bus for inciting the insurrection

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The former Acting Secretary of Defense under the Trump administration, Chris Miller, spoke to VICE on Showtime recently, and said that he thinks then-President Trump’s speech on the morning of Jan. 6 helped spark the attack on the U.S. Capitol building later that day.

“…would anybody have marched on the Capitol, and tried to overrun the Capitol, without the President’s speech?” Miller asked, adding that he thinks it’s “pretty much definitive” that the violence wouldn’t have taken place if Trump hadn’t spoke.

“It seems cause and effect,” Miller said. “The question is, did he know he was enraging people to do that? I don’t know.” Continue reading.

MAGA rioter demands Texas trial because DC jurors would be too eager to ‘cancel’ her for ‘white supremacy’

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MAGA rioter Jenny Cudd, who infamously boasted on video about breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, is now demanding that her trial be held in her home state of Texas due to concerns about bias of jurors in Washington D.C.

Reuters legal reporter Jan Wolfe flags a new filing made by Cudd’s attorneys that claims D.C. jurors would be far more likely to unjustly “cancel” Cudd because they’d believe that she’s a racist.

“There is a social expectation of punishment for anyone accused of being a ‘white supremacist,'” the filing states. “In Washington, D.C., people have been readily ‘canceled’ for being politically conservative and for their public support of Donald Trump.” Continue reading.

Supreme Court rejects final Trump bid to nullify 2020 election results

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The Supreme Court on Monday denied a bid by former President Trump to nullify his electoral loss in Wisconsin, rejecting the former president’s final pending appeal over the results of the 2020 election. 

In an unsigned order without noted dissent, the justices declined to take up Trump’s lawsuit alleging Wisconsin election officials violated the Constitution by expanding absentee voting amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

The justices’ move brought an end to Trump’s scattershot and ineffective legal campaign to overturn President Biden’s victory and added to the abysmal post-election court record of Trump and his allies, which included more than 60 losses and just one narrow win. Continue reading.

Congresswoman drops social media report on Republicans who tried to overturn the election for Trump

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A Democratic congresswoman has just released a massive report detailing the social media posts of her Republican colleagues who tried to overturn the U.S. presidential election results.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who represents California, posted the nearly 2,000 page Social Media Review report on her government website on Friday. The report is broken down by state and includes archived social media posts from “Members of the U.S. House of Representatives who were sworn-in to office in January 2021 and who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”

According to Rep. Lofgren, following the events of Jan. 6, when thousands of Trump supporters  stormed the U.S. Capitol, she instructed her staff to put together a review of public social media posts from members of Congress who voted to overturn the election results. The report also includes social media posts that correlate with the actions of that day, as well as any postings that claimed the 2020 presidential election results were illegitimate. Continue reading.

Trump appointee arrested in connection with Capitol riot

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Federico Klein, a former State Department aide, was picked up Thursday on charges stemming from the Jan. 6 takeover of Congress.

The FBI on Thursday arrested Federico Klein, a former State Department aide, on charges related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, marking the first known instance of an appointee of President Donald Trump facing criminal prosecution in connection with the attempt to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.

Klein, 42, was taken into custody in Virginia, said Samantha Shero, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

An FBI lookout bulletin issued two weeks after the Capitol assault included a photo of Klein, prompting two tipsters to contact the FBI and finger him as the man in that picture, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Washington.

D.C. Guard chief says ‘unusual’ restrictions slowed deployment of backup during Capitol riot

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The commanding general of the D.C. National Guard told lawmakers Wednesday that restrictions the Pentagon placed on him in the run-up to the Capitol riot and lag time in decision-making by his chain of command prevented him from more quickly sending forces to help quell the violence.

Maj. Gen. William J. Walker said his hands were tied by the Pentagon for more than three hours after he received a call from the Capitol Police chief saying a request for backup was imminent, delaying the arrival of military forces at the premises as lawmakers evacuated or barricaded themselves in offices during one of the biggest national security failures since the 9/11 attacks.

Walker described how he had troops ready and waiting to be sent to the Capitol but did not have sign-off from the Pentagon, which in directives ahead of the events had restricted his leeway to respond to contingencies. Continue reading.

Wray: FBI deemed Jan. 6 attack domestic terrorism

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FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that officials have classified the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by former President Trump‘s supporters as domestic terrorism.

“That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism,” Wray told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Wray said the FBI has received more than 270,000 tips from Americans that have helped the bureau identify the numerous people who allegedly participated in the attack. Continue reading.