January 6th Congressional Hearings
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jack
The Legendary Troll Kingdom
Congress' U.S. Capitol riot committee promises hearings on Trump and the 'Big Lie'
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold hearings throughout June that will drill into the details of what it says was a widespread plot led by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The House of Representatives committee investigating the riot by Trump supporters laid the groundwork on Thursday night for at least five upcoming hearings that will focus on the groups and people it says were involved in plotting and staging the riot. Testimony also will focus on Trump's activities before and during the attack.
Starting at 10 a.m. ET/1400 GMT Monday, the committee will focus on Trump's contention that his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden was due to unfounded allegations of election fraud, the so-called "Big Lie."
The third hearing on June 15 will focus on Trump's efforts to replace the U.S. attorney general in order to assemble a team at the Department of Justice to promote his false election claims. Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general at the time, is among those scheduled to testify, according to a person familiar with the matter.
On his Truth Social Internet platform, Trump on Friday called former Attorney General William Barr "weak and frightened." Barr resigned in December 2021 and testified to the committee that he had not seen evidence of significant election fraud.
The third hearing on June 15 will focus on Trump's efforts to replace the U.S. attorney general in order to assemble a team at the Department of Justice to promote his false election claims. Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general at the time, is among those scheduled to testify, according to a person familiar with the matter.
On his Truth Social Internet platform, Trump on Friday called former Attorney General William Barr "weak and frightened." Barr resigned in December 2021 and testified to the committee that he had not seen evidence of significant election fraud.
Trump also denied causing the storming of the Capitol or endorsing the crowd's chants to "hang" his vice president, Mike Pence, for carrying out the ceremonial role of formally certifying the election result.
The fourth hearing, set for June 16, will focus on Pence, while the last two will focus on "how President Trump summoned a violent mob and directed them, illegally, to march on the U.S. Capitol," Cheney said.
The attack on the Capitol by thousands of people - many waving Trump flags and wearing his signature "Make America Great Again" gear - delayed certification of the election for hours, injured more than 140 police officers and led to several deaths.
The onslaught marked the only time in U.S. history that power was not passed peacefully from one president to another.
The committee has not yet named additional witnesses, but Cheney said upcoming hearings will include testimony from senior Justice Department and White House officials who threatened to resign over Trump's actions.
Cheney also implicated Republican Representative Scott Perry, saying he sought from Trump a presidential pardon for his role in trying to overturn the election. Cheney also said "multiple" other Republican congressmen also sought pardons, although she did not name names.
Perry strongly denied the allegation in a statement on Twitter. "The notion that I ever sought a Presidential pardon for myself or other Members of Congress is an absolutely, shameless, and soulless lie," he said.
Spokespeople for the Select Committee declined comment on the pardons issue.
Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democratic committee member, said such requests were an "explicit statement of consciousness of guilt."
"Are we going to have political elites unleashing mobs in order to try to attack the results of the election and seize the presidency?" he asked.
jack
The Legendary Troll Kingdom
I think it's fair to recognize that there's a battle on currently. I think we need to acknowledge what actually happened, which was Trump tried to foment a coup and failed. This spectacle raises the specter of a repeat in 2024 depending on what occurs in November.
I'm still not convinced Trump is re-electable after what he demonstrated the first time he got power.
I'm still not convinced Trump is re-electable after what he demonstrated the first time he got power.
jack
The Legendary Troll Kingdom
The fun part is coming. Cheney baited the hook Thursday, suggesting many GOP congresspeople asked for pre-emptive pardons.
The proof will be revealed in the next episode. I have a feeling things aren't going to go as smoothly for that side when all is said and done.
The proof will be revealed in the next episode. I have a feeling things aren't going to go as smoothly for that side when all is said and done.
jack
The Legendary Troll Kingdom
Former federal Judge Luttig has stark message for Jan. 6 committee
Retired federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, a staunch conservative long admired by many Republicans, will testify before the House's Jan. 6 committee on Thursday with an urgent and stark message for the panel about former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election: "America's democracy was almost stolen from her."Luttig will also likely state that the Republican National Committee is wrong to have referred to some of the events of Jan. 6, 2021 as "legitimate political discourse" and warn fellow conservatives to not ignore the gravity of what Trump did as he scrambled to hold onto the presidency that day.
The retired judge's planned remarks were confirmed to CBS News by two people familiar with his expected testimony who were not authorized to discuss details of the hearing.
He will also reveal how he advised then-Vice President Mike Pence to resist Trump's pleas for Pence to block the congressional certification of Joe Biden's election victory.
One person familiar with Luttig's planned testimony said he sees his appearance before the committee as a serious and sobering moment similar to an appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Pence's lawyers and aides reached out to Luttig ahead of the congressional certification, seeking his guidance and a conservative imprimatur on Pence's decision. Luttig ended up briefly serving as an informal, outside adviser to the vice president's team.
jack
The Legendary Troll Kingdom
Jan. 6 witnesses push Trump stalwarts back to rabbit hole
One by one, several of Donald Trump's former top advisers have told a special House committee investigating his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection that they didn't believe his lies about the 2020 election, and that the former president knew he lost to Joe Biden.
But instead of convincing Trump's most stalwart supporters, testimony from former attorney general Bill Barr and Trump's daughter Ivanka about the election and the attack on the U.S. Capitol is prompting many of them to simply reassert their views that the former president was correct in his false claim of victory.
Barr's testimony that Trump was repeatedly told there was no election fraud? He was paid off by a voting machine company, according to one false claim that went viral this week. Ivanka Trump saying she didn't believe Trump either? It's all part of Trump's grand plan to confuse his enemies and save America.
The claims again demonstrate how deeply rooted Trump's false narrative about the election has become.
“It's cognitive dissonance,” said Jennifer Stromer-Galley, a Syracuse University professor who has studied how Trump used social media and advertising to mobilize his base. “If you believe what Trump says, and now Bill Barr and Trump's own daughter are saying these other things, it creates a crack, and people have to fill it."
The lawmakers leading the hearings into the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol said one of their goals is to show how Trump repeatedly lied to his supporters in an effort to hold onto power and subvert American democracy.
“President Trump invested millions of dollars of campaign funds purposely spreading false information, running ads he knew were false, and convincing millions of Americans that the election was corrupt and he was the true president,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel's vice chair. “As you will see, this misinformation campaign provoked the violence on January 6th.”
For those who accept Trump’s baseless claims, Barr’s testimony was especially jarring. In his interview with investigators, he detailed Trump’s many absurd allegations about the election 2020, calling them “bogus” and “idiotic.”
Barr told the committee when he talked with Trump, “there was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.”
“He’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” Barr said.
Following his testimony, many Trump supporters using sites like Reddit, GETTR and Telegram blasted Barr as a turncoat and noted that he’s disputed Trump's election claims before.
But many others began grasping for alternative explanations for this testimony.
“I’m still hoping Barr is playing a role,” one poster said on a Telegram channel popular with Trump supporters.
One post that spread widely this week suggested Barr was paid by Dominion Voting Systems, a company targeted by Trump and his supporters with baseless claims of vote rigging. “From 2009 to 2018, DOMINION PAID BARR $1.2 million in cash and granted him another $1.1 million in stock awards, according to SEC filings. (No wonder Barr can’t find any voter fraud!),” the post read.
Wrong Dominion. Barr was paid by Dominion Energy, a publicly traded company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, that provides power and heat to customers in several mid-Atlantic states.
Unlike Barr, Ivanka Trump has remained intensely popular with many Trump supporters and is seen by many as her father's potential successor. That may be why so many had to find an an alternative explanation for why she told Congress she didn't accept her father's claims.
Jordan Sather, a leading proponent of the QAnon theory, claims both Barr and Ivanka Trump lied during their testimony on Trump’s orders, part of an elaborate scheme to defeat Trump’s enemies by confusing Congress and the American public.
“I can just imagine Donald Trump telling Ivanka: ’Hey, go to this hearing, say these things. Screw with their heads,'” Sather said last week on his online show.
Some Trump supporters dismissed Ivanka Trump's testimony entirely by questioning whether any of it was real. That's another common refrain seen on far-right message boards. Many posters say they don't even believe the hearings are happening, but are a Hollywood production starring stand-ins for the former president's daughter and others.
“She looks different in a big way," one poster asked on Telegram. "CGI?”
