#capitol insurrection

[justinspoliticalcorner]

S.V. Dáte at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON — A presidential order to the military to conduct a coup to keep him in office “might well be an official act,” Donald Trump’s lawyer told the Supreme Court Thursday on the question of whether Trump’s attempted coup is immune from prosecution. The extraordinary exchange was among several in lengthy oral arguments before the justices, who will now decide whether the former president will stand trial on federal charges based on his actions leading up to the violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has been claiming that all his actions as president were “official acts” and therefore immune from prosecution entirely. While justices seemed skeptical of that assertion, most expressed concern that former presidents could be prosecuted in bad faith and for political reasons in the years to come.

“Reliance on the good faith of the prosecutor may not be enough,” Chief Justice John Roberts told Department of Justice lawyer Michael Dreeben. “I take that concern,” added Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “I think it’s a real thing.” How justices decide to protect future presidents from prosecutions based on their legitimate official actions could decide whether Trump faces a trial at all before the November election on the Jan. 6 indictment. If the court orders trial judge Tanya Chutkan to hold an evidentiary hearing to weed out the “official” components of Trump’s actions versus the ones for his private or political gain, that hearing and potential appeals of her ruling could consume many more months. And if Trump wins back the White House, he could order prosecutors to drop all unresolved federal charges against him.

While Dreeben did not refer to the coming election at all, he repeated his boss special counsel Jack Smith’s request that the case be sent back to Chutkan with instructions that concerns about not punishing “official” acts be dealt with in jury instructions, rather than a separate hearing. “We would like to present that as an integrated picture to the jury so that it sees the sequence and the gravity of the conduct and why each step occurred,” Dreeben said. Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer, meanwhile came in for even more pointed questioning from most of the justices, but none more on point than Elena Kagan’s question about 40 minutes in.

“How about if the president orders the military to stage a coup?” Kagan asked. “That might well be an official act,” Sauer answered. Sauer also claimed that a presidential assassination of a political rival as well as the sale of nuclear secrets to a foreign power could also be defended as official acts immune from prosecution. Trump was not at the Supreme Court during the oral arguments Thursday but rather was in a different courtroom, in lower Manhattan, in the early phase of an unrelated criminal trial.

During the oral arguments for the Trump v. United States presidential immunity case at SCOTUS on Thursday, Trump lawyer John Sauer told the court that even a military coup would be immune from prosecution as an "official act."

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump Lawyer Argues He Could Legally Order Assassination Of Political Rival

#SCOTUS #Trump v. United States #Capitol Insurrection #The Big Lie #John Sauer #Tanya Chutkan #Michael Dreeben

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil defended democracy more effectively than the US

Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro adopted similar strategies, but Brazil offered a stronger and faster response against threats to presidential election results than the United States.

As presidents, both Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro posed a threat to democracy in the US and Brazil respectively. However, analysts agreed that Brazil is far more vulnerable to such a threat than the US. Democratic political institutions of the latter are considered to be more established and stable.

Brazil has experienced several collapses of democratic rule, usually through military intervention. The latest lasted 21 years, from 1964 to 1985, so democracy is still relatively young at 38 years, and political instability was common throughout most of the 20th century.

But after both Trump and Bolsonaro lost their bids for reelection in 2020 and 2022 respectively, Brazil reacted much more quickly and forcefully to Bolsonaro than the US did to Trump.

The two leaders employed similar strategies during their time in office to mobilise their supporters and cast doubt on election results. After they lost elections, both claimed the elections had been rigged.

In the US, a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021, in an attempt to overturn the Electoral College vote, resulting in five casualties and more than a hundred injured people. Meanwhile, Brazil witnessed a similar event on 8 January 2023, when mobs, donned in the country’s colors, launched an attack on the Supreme Court headquarters, the Presidential palace and Congress in Brasília. Their goal was to violently overthrow the democratically elected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had taken office on 1st January. The ensuing chaos resulted in widespread vandalism and the destruction of several historical and artistic works.

The similarities between the two events and the strategies used by Trump and Bolsonaro are not coincidental. Bolsonaro has made no attempt to hide the fact that he deliberately copied Trump’s playbook. However, the consequences of their failed challenges to election results were quite different in the US and Brazil.

Continue reading.

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #united states #us politics #democracy #capitol insurrection #january 8 #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[2minfastfacts]

Capitol rioters hope for Trump's return

#usa #joe biden #donald trump #trump 2024 #trump #abortion #history #jan 6th #capitol insurrection #capitol attack #us elections

[beeclops]

#comedy central #south park #season 26 #sp spoilers #rick 💖💖💖 #herb garrison #lgtq #gay #january 6 #capitol insurrection

[suzilight]

Recognizing Trump's Patterns and Rhetorical Tricks

Timothy Snyder, Yale University history professor: I mean the fascists authoritarians, they did not have to personally kill people. They used language. And that specific dehumanizing language - calling people 'beasts' and saying 'my opponents can't be in power because they are the ones who are on the side of the beasts'. That has a very specific history so the words are the actions. The words matter in themselves.

Interviewer: Because the goal is to get people to take on these ideas and deal with them.

Snyder: The goal is to say these 'other people on that side, the ones who help the animals, they are not real Americans'. 'They can't possibly be in power. They can't possibly be legitimate.'

And, so combining it with the notion of elections that are faked and the idea that they are on the side of the 'subhumans' is meant to rally people so that they think violence is acceptable, And we know this can work because his words caused violence on January 6 2021. He [Trump] knows it can work and that's what he is going for.

3/19/24 MSNBC

#trump #stirring anger #authoritarian #elections2024 #january 6 2021 #capitol insurrection #speeches promoting violence #timothy snyder

[liberaleffects]

https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger

#capitol insurrection #donald trump #jan. 6 committee #mike lee

[geezerwench]

Suspect in Cincinnati FBI breach may have posted on Trump's Truth Social during incident

"If you don't hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I.," one post reads.

"I'm having trouble getting information, but Viva Frei said patriots are heading to Palm Beach (where Mar A Lago is). I recommend going, and being Florida, I think the feds won't break it up. IF they do, kill them." (Viva Frei is a right-wing YouTube personality.)

--

trump's beloveds. Trying to kill FBI and other law enforcement officials. This is how MAGA backs the blue?

What happened to Back the Blue? Aren't the Republicans the party of LAW AND ORDER?

#Ricky Shiffer #cinncinati #Cincinnati FBI #maga #back the blue #LAW & ORDER #Republicans #party of law and order #Viva Frei #Truth Social #donald trump #donald trump is guilty #lock him up #jan6 #jan 6 #capitol insurrection

[lamajaoscura]

#jan 6 capitol attack #attempted insurrection #capitol insurrection #trump administration

[dynamicity-keysmash]

Colorado kicking Trump off the 2024 ballot for being an insurrectionist sack of mold is incredible but I'm not gonna celebrate quite yet since I have no faith that our psychotic Christian-Fascist supreme court will allow Trump to face actual consequences for his coup attempt

#politics #us politics #trump #donald trump #fuck trump #Colorado supreme court #Colorado #supreme court #january 6th #capitol insurrection #republicans #conservatives #fascisim #fascists #fuck fascism #2024 elections #joe biden

[simply-starryeyed]

after not keeping up with the january sixth trials like I probably should’ve been, I’m baffled

there’s overwhelming incriminating evidence for trump, including but not limited to inciting the attack on the capital, advocating for violence against someone who opposed him, and when he was told they weren’t going back to the capital, tried to take the wheel of the car and then tried to choke his head of security who was trying to stop him

it’s absurd and it’s even more absurd knowing that there is a very fair chance that nothing is going to come of this, but by God, there’s nothing I’d love more than to see that fucker in prison & ineligible to ever run for president again

#us politics #us congress #january 6th #Jan 6 #jan 6 hearings #jan 6 committee #politics #scotus #january 6 #trump #donald trump #fuck trump #mike pence #absolutely wild #capitol insurrection #us capitol

[91toph]

Decided to replace "Washington DC" with "Yharnam" when describing January 6 Capitol Insurrection on Photoleap and this is the result

#ai artwork #january 6 #capitol insurrection #ai art generation #photoleap #bloodborne #yharnam

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Frank Vyan Walton at Dark Skies on the Horizon:

Among the many MAGA myths, this may be one of the most enduring and at the same time the most ridiculous.  Even though they have deliberately chosen not to watch the January 6 hearings, they have plenty of opinions about them.  Antifa implemented the attack, it was part of a false-flag plot by the FBI using informants, it was all Nancy Pelosi’s fault because she didn’t call the National Guard. And the hearings are a “Which Hunt” with a “Narrative.” They have no regrets for the Insurrection, they have no apologies to give. They think that they are the ones who have been wronged, they believe that they were justified. [Even though they totally weren’t.] [...]

There is no way that Trump didn’t know that these people did not “Stay” peaceful, thousands of them weren’t peaceful at all.  This was part of him constructing a narrative, he had said at the ellipse we're going to “peacefully march” but that was bullshit because he already knew there were weapons in the crowd.  He already knew how angry they were. His saying “Stay peaceful” here was part of his plot to blame that violence on Antifa, or whoever — which he did during a phone call with Kevin McCarthy — and pretend that his supporters didn’t enter the Capitol and didn't fight with police. But they did.  Trump supporters were the ones who gave Officer Fanone a concussion, a heart attack and tased him repeatedly.  They were the ones who attacked Sgt Gonell and gave him a permanent shoulder injury. They were the ones who caused Officer Sicknick to have a stroke, and several other officers to commit suicide. They were the ones who injured 150 Officers leading to five of them dying, and also four protestors dying during the attack.

This is the final straw, with this statement he made it clear that he was on the same side as the rioters.  And they were on his side. He initiated the rally.  He instigated the attack.  He picked the time, date and place. He used the people and the MAGA members of Congress as tools in his two-pronged assault on democracy. He didn't care that they were armed and dangerous.  He didn't lift a finger to *stop* the attack while it was in progress until he was satisfied that they had stopped the vote and couldn't accomplish anything more. He said “Peacefully” just to cover his ass and set up the narrative that the violence was from someone else. But then if it really was Antifa, why is it that he’s since offered to pardon and offer a governmental apology to the rioters if he gets re-elected. Why would he do that for the “Violent Leftists?”

And he’s not just offering this pardon to the people who were actually “peaceful” and stood outside the Capitol. [Even though just being past the sidewalk and on the Capitol grounds was a crime, since the facility was closed to the public at that time.]  He wants to pardon the people who are currently in jail for violent acts, who fought with the police, who vandalized the building and smashed their way inside, who were trying to hunt down and kill Nancy Pelosi, who wanted to “Hang Mike Pence.”  This is a reward, and those the people he wants to give it too. He’s on the side of the worst of the crowd, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the III Percenters, the racists and the domestic terrorists. And they’re on his side. This was not a boating accident. None of this happens, not the rally, not the march, not the attack, not the attempt to implement the fake electors, without Trump being behind all of it.  Every step of the way.

Frank Vyan Walton debunks the myths MAGA extremist spew out in regards to the Donald Trump-incited January 6th Insurrection.

#Capitol Insurrection #Donald Trump #Oath Keepers #Proud Boys #Women For America First #The Big Lie #Cassidy Hutchinson #Zachary Rehl #Enrique Tarrio #Amy Kremer #Frank Vyan Walton

[taiwantalk]

This deserves a great deal of attention from all of us. I feel Brazilian twitter is exactly the opposite of American twitter which would be closer to what Elon musk is doing to the American twitter. However, Elon musk is treating the Brazilian twitter the opposite of the way he’s promoting his ideas.

#elon musk #Brazilian twitter #Brazil #exile #yanukovych #euromaidan #capitol insurrection

[yemme]

I vowed to protect this land from foreign and domestic terrorists.  The Republicans in office on that list, Military and Law enforcement step down now.  You cannot serve the U.S. government while affiliated with a militia to sabotage our government.  Homeland Security, handle it.  Treason.

#anti-government #capitol insurrection #january 6 #law enforcement #oath keepers #Treason #Department of Homeland Security #homeland security

[lejacquelope]

Two years ago insurrectionist traitor Ashli Babbitt was shot dead by a Capitol Hill police officer.

1/6 shall henceforth be known as Fuck Around and Find Out Day. As white supremacists tell black people

OBEY THE LAW AND YOU WON'T BE SHOT!!!

Got a problem with that, subhuman MAGA trash? Off is the direction in which you must immediately fuck. Your arguments will be disregarded and blocked.

Zero tolerance, zero room for discussion. I take pleasure in your pain as you cry about Babbitt.

This is payback for Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and all the other unarmed black people who died at the hands of cops.

#ashli babbitt #obey the law #traitor #insurrectionist #maga #fuck maga #maga kiss my ass you subhuman trash #white supremacism #capitol insurrection #insurrection #treason #tre45on

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 21, 2022

Heather Cox Richardson

Tonight’s public hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol laid responsibility for the crisis at the Capitol on former president Trump.

The committee’s chair, Bennie Thompson (D-MS), is isolating with Covid, so Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) presided over the hearing. She began with a tribute to Representative Thompson. Scott Simon, the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, noted that “the Democratic chair of the committee just gracefully, and with full confidence, turned over the running of tonight’s hearing to the vice-chair, who happens to be of another party, and they spoke with mutual trust and respect. That’s how it’s supposed to go.”

The representatives running the hearing were also from different parties, and they referred to each other during the evening not just as colleagues but as friends. With the focus tonight on Trump’s dereliction of duty and violation of his oath of office, two representatives who are also veterans ran tonight’s hearing. Representative Elaine Luria (D-VA) spent 20 years as an officer of the U.S. Navy; Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) joined the U.S. Air Force in 2003 and continues to serve in the Air National Guard.

The committee focused on the 187 minutes—over three hours—between the end of Trump’s speech at the Ellipse in which he urged “an angry armed mob” to march on the Capitol, at a time when it was already under siege, to the moment when he finally told the mob to go home. Within 15 minutes of his speech, Trump had been informed that the Capitol was under attack, and the White House knew some of the rioters were armed. (This keeps tripping me up. If Secret Service agents knew there were weapons near the president, why on earth didn’t they lock the place down rather than let the president just go back to the residence?)

For the next 2.5 hours, Luria pointed out, Trump “did not call Vice President Pence, senior law enforcement officials, military leaders, or DC government officials.”

Instead, as the crisis unfolded, Trump watched coverage of the Capitol riot on the Fox News Channel in the White House dining room. The committee noted that there are no official records from that time. The call logs are blank. The presidential daily diary is blank. The White House photographer was told she couldn’t take pictures. Witnesses, though, have established that advisors, members of Congress, media personalities, and family members all begged him to call off the violent mob he had sent to the Capitol, but he refused. Trump’s White House counsel Pat Cipollone told the committee that none of the White House staff wanted the riot to continue, wording that statement in such a way that he left the impression that the president himself did want it to.

Trump did not fail to act to end the siege, the committee said; he chose not to act. He let the violence continue because the armed mob was giving him what he wanted: the delaying of the electoral count. While he did not call law enforcement officers or other officials to restore order during those 187 minutes, he did talk to lawyer and loyalist Rudy Giuliani, and to senators to get them to slow down the counting of the electoral votes.

Not only did Trump not stop the violence, he tweeted out a link to his Ellipse speech at 1:49, just as police were declaring a riot at the Capitol. Then he “poured gasoline on the fire,” witnesses said, with his 2:24 tweet accusing Pence of cowardice, putting a target on his own vice president’s back, as the committee put it. That tweet led to an immediate escalation in the violence, and at 2:26, Pence had to be evacuated to an even more secure location. He came within forty feet of the rioters, and the situation was so dangerous that Secret Service agents were calling their families to say goodbye.

At 2:38, Trump responded to his advisors’ urging to call off his supporters by tweeting: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” Rioters noted that he told them only to respect the police, not lawmakers, and that he did not tell them to go home. At that point, lawmakers were hiding in the House chamber with gas masks.

The hard fighting continued until 4:17, when Trump finally released the video telling the mob, “Go home, we love you, you’re very special.” The committee established that he released the video only after law enforcement was deployed and was gaining control of the Capitol, making it clear the violent insurrection would not succeed. And, as aides had been saying all day, as soon as Trump told the crowd to go home, it began to disperse. “That’s an order,” one rioter said, although fighting did continue for a while. At 6:01, Trump tweeted that the attackers were “great patriots.”

It was not until January 7, with talk of removing him from offices swirling around the White House, that Trump issued a three-minute video saying that he was “outraged by the violence” and that anyone who had broken a law the day before would be prosecuted. He reassured the country that there would be an orderly transition of power. But outtakes from that taping show Ivanka coaching him and Trump saying he was still unwilling to give up the Big Lie. “I don’t want to say the election is over,” he said. “I just want to say Congress has certified the results.”  

And, of course, Trump has never stopped insisting that he won the election and thus continues to threaten our democracy. As Kinzinger said, “The forces Donald Trump ignited that day have not gone away. The militant, intolerant ideologies. The militias, the alienation and the disaffection. The weird fantasies and disinformation. They're all still out there. Ready to go."

In addition to bringing the story of Trump’s attempt to steal the election to its finale, the hearing seemed designed to loosen the loyalty of Trump supporters to the man who had, as Cheney said, taken advantage of their love of country to use them to overturn our democracy.

The committee contrasted Trump’s behavior with that of then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and then–Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who were determined to resume the joint session and count the electoral votes. They also held up then–Vice President Pence as a model, showing him working to get the crisis under control even while being held in a secret location that looked much like a parking garage to stay out of the hands of the people calling for his death. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark A. Milley told the committee that Pence was issuing orders to the acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller. (Why were people following Pence’s orders?)  

The committee’s witnesses tonight, former deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger and former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, were staunch Trump supporters who found the 2:24 tweet so offensive they resigned that night. The committee has heard almost exclusively from loyal Republicans, a strategy designed to undercut Trump’s cries that it is being run by Democrats. It also played several clips of McConnell and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) blaming Trump for the insurrection (there is a barb for McCarthy because he has switched back to Trump’s support and turned against Cheney over it).

Outtakes of the January 7 video recording tonight punctured Trump’s image as a strong leader: he repeatedly mangles simple language and takes out the word “yesterday” because it is a “hard word for me.” He repeatedly hits the podium in frustration. CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins tweeted that multiple sources said it took Trump about an hour to record the three-minute video. His obstinacy made him look isolated and unreasonable; the outtakes made him seem pathetic and childish.

For all that, Trump fared better than Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), the first senator to say he would empower the House Trump loyalists by contesting some of the state votes, who famously raised a fist in solidarity with the protestors on the morning of January 6. The committee showed the image of Hawley raising his fist…and then showed footage of him running at top speed through the Capitol when the rioters broke in. Across the internet, users have been poking fun at Hawley, who has recently been on a crusade to launch what he calls an imperative “revival of strong and healthy manhood in America” and “traditional masculine virtues.” They have been posting pictures of the video to the theme from the running movie Chariots of Fire, for example, and pictures of running chickens. As journalist Adam Serwer tweeted, “Hawley riling up the mob and then fleeing in terror is an incredible political metaphor.”

At the end of the hearing, Cheney praised the witnesses, especially the women. She offered special thanks to Cassidy Hutchinson, who “knew all along that she would be attacked by President Trump, and by the 50-, 60-, and 70-year-old men who hide behind executive privilege,” but had courage to testify nonetheless. Cheney mentioned the female witnesses by name, saying they were “an inspiration to American women and to American girls.”

Cheney then spoke to Trump supporters, reminding them that the testimony had come from Republicans who supported Trump. She played the recently discovered audio clip of Trump confidant Stephen K. Bannon on October 31, 2020, four days before the election, explaining with laughter that Trump would simply declare victory even if he lost. Cheney explained to supporters that they had been set up.

Flattering them, she said Trump knew he could convince his supporters that the election was stolen because he knew they loved their country and that they would put their lives at stake for it, “preying on their patriotism…on their sense of justice.” “On January 6th, Donald Trump turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our Constitution.”

Speaking especially to the American women whose votes will be key to the upcoming election, she noted that the room in which they were meeting was where the committee on women’s suffrage met in 1918. We… “have a solemn obligation not to idly squander what so many Americans have fought and died for.”

Cheney noted that the hearings have brought new information. “Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued, and the dam has begun to break,” she said. The committee will hold more public hearings in September.

—

Notes:

Adam Serwer 🍝 @AdamSerwerHawley riling up the mob and then fleeing in terror is an incredible political metaphor Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) — who raised his fist in support of the Capitol insurrectionists earlier in the day — runs for his life from the rioters inside the building in never-before-seen video. https://t.co/GU1L8ttN8u

The Recount @therecount

1,202 Retweets6,025 Likes

July 22nd 2022

Norah O'Donnell 🇺🇸 @NorahODonnellThe committee reveals the outtakes from the Trump's address to the nation on January 7th in never-before-seen raw footage. "I can't say that..." "I don't want to say the election's over..." #January6thCommitteeHearing

363 Retweets1,041 Likes

July 22nd 2022

ABC News @ABCRep. Kinzinger: “The forces Donald Trump ignited that day have not gone away. The militant, intolerant ideologies. The militias, the alienation and the disaffection. The weird fantasies and disinformation. They're all still out there. Ready to go."

abcn.ws/3PKnOFh

148 Retweets479 Likes

July 22nd 2022

John Harwood @JohnJHarwoodso the two allegedly itching to publicly contradict Cassidy Hutchinson have lawyered up Asked by @AnnieGrayerCNN whether Tony Oranto and Robert Engel are the secret service officials who retained private counsel, Rep. Lofgren says “yes, and the driver”

Nicholas Wu @nicholaswu12

326 Retweets1,379 Likes

July 22nd 2022

Scott Simon @nprscottsimonI just want to note the Democratic chair of the committee just gracefully, and with full confidence, turned over the running of tonight’s hearing to the vice-chair, who happens to be of another party, and they spoke with mutual trust and respect. That’s how it’s supposed to go.

4,634 Retweets37,443 Likes

July 22nd 2022

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/11/1054615028/is-masculinity-under-attack-sen-hawley-wants-to-defend-the-men-of-america

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[from comments]

Steve Branz

Two big "aha" moments for me: (1) "...The committee established that he released the video only after law enforcement was deployed and was gaining control of the Capitol, making it clear the violent insurrection would not succeed." I am now convinced that if law enforcement had not gotten the upper hand, Trump's video would not have been released when it was; and (2) the "Outtakes of the January 7 video recording" showed that on top of his sheer evil nature, Trump is at his core a pathetic excuse for a human being, let alone the Leader of the Free World.

+

Steve Yarbrough

I’m especially glad that Hawley was shown to be an absolutely venal, craven opportunist. I hope the history books juxtapose the raised fist photo beside the still of him running for his life. That’s how he should be remembered.

#Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From An American #January 6 2021 #January 6 Commission #Corrupt GOP #Criminal GOP #history #Capitol Insurrection