Tag: Trump insurrection

Legal expert ‘totally convinced’ investigators will uncover if Republicans worked with militias on Jan. 6

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Speaking to MSNBC’s Ari Melber, Ackerman explained that he is “totally convinced” that if House members coordinated with the Three Percenters or Proud Boys online or on their phones that it will be found out and they will be prosecuted. 

Indeed, those alleged terrorists who have not been convinced and haven’t made a deal with prosecutors would have an opportunity to give up the Republican officials to save themselves. The only person that Republicans could “give up” for a deal would likely be Donald Trump. 

Both Melber and Ackerman supported the Justice Department’s decision not to defend Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) for his involvement in the January 6th rally that led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tuesday, the House of Representatives counsel also said that they wouldn’t defend Brooks with taxpayer dollars. Continue reading.

Turns Out Mo Brooks Was Wearing Body Armor to Trump’s Very Peaceful Jan. 6 Rally

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Rep. Mo Brooks may be done with Jan. 6, but Jan. 6 isn’t done with him.

The Alabama representative, notorious for his speaking role at the Jan. 6 rally leading up to the invasion of the Capitol, did not watch Tuesday’s first hearing of the House select committee investigating said invasion.

“I was in the House Armed Services Committee, Science, Space, Technology Committee, and had at least one Zoom meeting, and all sorts of other things,” he told me Wednesday when I encountered him outside the House chamber. “Busy day.” Not that a clear schedule would have made a difference. Continue reading.

The false GOP claim that Pelosi turned down National Guard before Jan. 6 attack

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“There’s questions into the leadership within, the structure of the speaker’s office, where they denied the ability to bring the National Guard here. … We start with a committee chair who will tell you, ‘Everything’s on the table except the speaker’s office.’ How can you ever get to the bottom of the questions? How can you ever get to the solutions to make sure the Capitol is never put in this position again?”

— House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), at a news conference, July 27, 2021

“It is a fact that … in December of 2020, Nancy Pelosi was made aware of potential security threats to the Capitol and she failed to act. It is a fact that the U.S. Capitol Police raised concerns and rather than providing them with the support and resources they needed and they deserved, she prioritized her partisan political optics over their safety.”

— House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), at the news conference, July 27, 2021

Republicans accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of failing to protect the U.S. Capitol from the attack on Jan. 6, claiming she ignored warnings about potential threats and denied a request to bring in reinforcements from the National Guard.

Many fact-checkers have rated these claims false. In March, we gave Four Pinocchios to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a close ally of former president Donald Trump, for leveling the same accusation at Pelosi without proof.

Five months later, it’s not just Jordan anymore. In a news conference held moments before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack held its first hearing, McCarthy and Stefanik, two top Republican leaders, said Pelosi failed to act on warning signs leading up to the riot. Continue reading.

Jan. 6 select committee to push forward with subpoenas

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Officers testifying ask for answers on which public officials were involved

After hearing hours of gripping testimony from four police officers who endured grave physical and emotional wounds during the Capitol attack, the Jan. 6 select committee members will have time to digest those accounts before the next hearing, which could happen at some point in August.

“It sets the right tone for the work of this committee,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said of the four officers’ stories. “But it also says that there is significant work that we have to do over the next few months.”

It’s unclear what the exact focus of the panel will be in the second hearing, but when Thompson asked the officers what they need to see from this inquiry, they relayed that they wanted to know what role elected officials had in it. Continue reading.

Justice Dept: Republican Rep. Mo Brooks may be sued over Jan. 6 speech to Trump supporters

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A Republican congressman’s Jan. 6 speech at a rally ahead of the riot at the U.S. Capitol is not covered by protections for members of Congress and federal employees, the Justice Department said in a court filing Tuesday — drawing a legal line over attempts to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) had argued that he is effectively immune from a lawsuit filed by his colleague Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) that accused Brooks, then-President Donald Trump, and others of fomenting the failed attack on Congress.

Past court opinions and Justice Department legal interpretations have given broad safeguards to protect elected officials who are sued over their public statements. But in the case of Brooks, the Justice Department decided he went too far. Continue reading.

‘A hit man sent them.’ Police at the Capitol recount the horrors of Jan. 6 as the inquiry begins.

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WASHINGTON — One officer described how rioters attempted to gouge out his eye and called him a traitor as they sought to invade the Capitol.

Another told of being smashed in a doorway and nearly crushed amid a “medieval” battle with a pro-Trump mob as he heard guttural screams of pain from fellow officers.

A third said he was beaten unconscious and stunned repeatedly with a Taser as he pleaded with his assailants, “I have kids.”

A fourth relayed how he was called a racist slur over and over again by intruders wearing “Make America Great Again” garb. Continue reading.

DOJ rejects Mo Brooks defense, says his Jan. 6 speech not part of duties

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The U.S. Department of Justice, in a court filing Tuesday, rejected Mo Brooks’ defense that his fiery speech at the pro-Trump rally hours before the former president’s supporters stormed the Capitol was part of his duties as a congressman.

The DOJ agreed with an opinion from the House Administration Committee that House rules said such actions were not within the scope of his office, as Brooks had argued in a court affidavit last month.

In that affidavit, Brooks asserted the Westfall Act as protection for his actions at the rally – which protects federal employees from legal action when acting within the scope of their office. The DOJ filing concludes with, “The United States respectfully requests that Brooks’ petition for a Westfall Act certification be denied.” Continue reading.

Officers detail violence they faced on Jan. 6

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During hearing, Justice Department announces another arrest

Officers who fought to defend the Capitol from insurrectionists on Jan. 6 recounted in vivid and disturbing detail how close they came to death, what lasting effects they live with and the pain it causes them when the very members of Congress they fought to protect dismiss what happened that day. 

The first public hearing on Tuesday of the select committee to investigate the attack put on display the terrifying brutality they were subject to. Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., commended the four officers who testified. “You held the line that day. I can’t overstate what was on the line: our democracy,” Thompson said. “You held the line.”

Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who served in the Army in Iraq, said at one point during the fighting in the lower west terrace, he could feel himself “losing oxygen” and recalled thinking, “This is how I’m going to die — defending this entrance.” Continue reading.

New Lincoln Project ad blasts corporate donors who bankrolled ‘murderous violence on Jan. 6’

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As a House select committee begins its investigation into the Capitol insurrection, a new ad from the conservative Lincoln Project targets corporations and CEOs who allegedly “helped financed the very structure that led to the murderous violence on Jan. 6.”

“Who funds the politicians trying to cover up the assault on America’s Capitol?” the ad’s narrator asks, following a clip of former president Donald Trump falsely claiming that insurrectionists were “hugging and kissing the police.” 

The answer, according to the ad, includes “leaders of the most respected and successful companies in America,” such as Koch Industries, Cigna, AT&T, and R.J. Reynolds. Continue reading.

A group of Republican lawmakers now want to openly defend the Capitol rioters

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The U.S. Dept. of Justice arrested and charged over 500 people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, many in a coordinated effort to overturn a free and fair election. DOJ expects to charge about 100 others as well.

“The investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Attack will likely be one of the largest in American history, both in terms of the number of defendants prosecuted and the nature and volume of the evidence,” the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. wrote in March, when the list of people to be charged was estimated at about 400, The Washington Post reported at the time.

On Tuesday, as the newly-minted U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack launches, holding its first day of events, four far right wing House Republicans – some of whom has been linked to white nationalists – will be holding a different type of event. Continue reading.